Oh Candace!

Lipstick Jungle (Living TV) is truly horrendous - yet compulsively so. From the talented pen of Candace Bushnell, it makes Sex & The City look like Ibsen. I remember reading the book and it was not as tacky as the TV show.

The main problem is with the cast. Apart from Brooke Shields, they are all variously frozen and wooden, or laugh outloud frozen and wooden.

Brooke is the only one who has created a genuine character with flaws and warmth. Nico (Kim Raver) is supposed to be a high-flying magazine editor, but we see very little of that. Instead she's creating zero chemistry with her toy boy lover Kirby, and reacting to crises, good news, bad news, with the same slightly bemused expression.

Poor Raver is so frozen by Botox she would pull the same expression if she had won the lottery or if she was being consumed by the fires of hell.

Equally implausible is the "top fashion designer" Victory Ford (Lindsay Price), who looks as if she shops at Hennes. In an early episode she designed a red carpet dress for a young starlet, and I have never seen anything to horrific. She has a very short boyfriend who's supposed to be a wealthy mogul, but comes across as a short man who might work for the local bank.

There are a couple of Brit males - Wendy's husband and her boss - and boy are they frightful.

The main problem with Lipstick Jungle, apart from the cast, is that it doesn't look luxe. The women are supposed to be high fliers but their clothes don't look designer. There's no aspiration. In SATC, the restaurants, the shoes, even the men, looked cool. In LJ, they've either been shopping at Hennes (Victory) or Marks & Spencer (the rest). I wonder what Candace thinks.....or maybe she is laughing all the way to the bank?