Elizabeth Wellington: Save for Lucy Liu's decadent green and blue floral dress in about the fifth scene, ABC's new chick show, Cashmere Mafia, disappointed me. This show is luxury on crack! (How can a nanny demand $900 a week?) It has no heart. (How does one get over an engagment that fast?) And my biggest peeve: Why wasn't there a black woman in this crew? (I'm not counting the possible lesbian chick because she's going to be a sidekick. We don't always have to be sidekicks!) Where is the chick that represents me and my friends? Nia? Sanaa? Gabrielle? Anybody? Black women adore nice clothes, good looking men and expensive bottles of wine. And we black professionals have white professional friends too. You'd think networks would have learned by leaving black people out of the core group in Sex and the City. What gives?
Karen Heller: Elizabeth, you are so right. I want to add the lack of professionalism exercised by these top professional women in their work attire and behavior. A bit too much skin is being shown. Their arms are always bare, perhaps to show off intense gym workouts (when? when?) but wouldn't they be too cold in the office? I thought Liu's Ungaro-type tight silk dress better suited for a cocktail party. The clothes are too tight and a lot of camera shots oggling the stars' rears, mirroring what men may be doing. The power women are given to huge chandelier-type earrings, the type usually seen at the Oscars, which are distracting and downlight painful. Liu may wear less than her hardware. And note the advance in investment accessories? Sex and the City was about shoes, making Manolo Blahnik a household name, while Cashmere is about the Buick-sized Gucci handbag.
Liu holds hands and smooches in the office with her soon-to-be ex-fiance. Frances O'Connor pleads with a nanny during a board meeting. They're always blowing off meetings to have lunch! OK, I'm jealous. Not of the earrings, but of the free time and huge salaries, handbags, wardrobes and residences. It's a show so ludicrous I may have to keep watching, another guilty pleasure along with Gossip Girl and Dirty Sexy Money.
