Cougar Town - Coming in September

Can a woman of a certain age be a mom, a successful career woman and be brave enough to date younger guys.  Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox) is about to give it a try.  Here a sneek peak at ABC's Cougar Town - take a look.

In a small Florida town, the center of high society is the Cougars high school football team. Jules desperately doesn't want to be thought of as a cougar, but with an ugly divorce behind her and 40 staring right back at her, she's longing for a little more action in her life.

The available men her own age, like her silver fox of a neighbor, Grayson Ellis, only seem interested in dating barely legal hotties -- which is awkward considering he's also her teenage son Tad's therapist. Egged on by her very married and very irreverent best friend Elle and her determined assistant Laurie, Jules reluctantly dips her toe back into the dating pool. To her surprise, she hits it off with a nice young guy named Bobby -- emphasis on the young -- and discovers she still has what it takes.

The creators of Cougar Town call it a single-camera comedy that dares to tell the truth about dating after divorce.  We'll see.

Housewives of New Jersey - Ordinary Women Behaving Badly

There appears to be nothing more deliciously entertaining than a group of women engaging in conspicuous consumption and petty squabbles that might unkindly be referred to as catfights. 

"The Real Housewives of Orange County" came first with its cast of California women with money, big houses and plenty of free time. It was followed by spinoffs focusing on housewives in New York and Atlanta. The New York crew was presented as party-hopping socialites. The Atlanta ladies were mostly the nouveau riche wives of athletes.

Now "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" premieres May 12, but the Bravo network broadcast a 30-minute teaser last week. And if the preview is an accurate indication of what is to come, the show will revel in stereotypes about tough-talking Jersey girls, desperate cougars and Italian Americans. The preview was a bit like "The Sopranos" on estrogen.

There is no defending "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." In fact, there's no excuse for any of the shows.

One might assume all that promiscuous spending at a time like this would stir outrage or jealousy. But if the housewives offer any lesson, it is that all the money in their lives does not succeed in making their lives enviable. It only seems to make their homes more crowded with stuff and their behavior that much more appalling.

The most valuable lesson to be learned from "The Real Housewives" may be that we still have the capacity to even be appalled. With "The Real Housewives" we are reminded that we can still be astonished by rudeness and incivility.  They are ordinary women behaving badly.

In Treatment - Better Than Ever

HBO has me  back on the couch for a second season of its series In Treatment. Gabriel Byrne returns as psychotherapist Dr. Paul West and, as before, the show focuses on a different patient's session (including West's own with his therapist) for each of its half-hour installments.

Viewers who were psyched to see the good doctor hang out his shingle the first time will welcome the show's return with its formula - strengths, but also weaknesses - basically intact.

Aside from Byrne and returning cast member Dianne Wiest (as fellow shrink Dr. Gina Toll), season two offers a quartet of new patients: Mia (Hope Davis), a once-and-future patient who's also defending West in a malpractice suit; April (Alison Pill), a college student diagnosed with cancer; Oliver (Aaron Shaw), an 11-year-old coping with his parents' impending divorce; and Walter (John Mahoney), an insomniac CEO prone to anxiety attacks.

As we learn in the exposition-crammed opener, the recently divorced West has relocated from Maryland to New York. (The fact that he's new to the neighborhood is evident in the fact that West will open his front door in the middle of the night to anyone claiming to have a delivery.)

Gabriel Byrne is fabulous in this role.  I watched the opening episodes both Sunday and Monday and I'm hooked for another season.

Cramer vs Stewart - Worth Watching

Jim Cramer's Thursday appearance on Jon Stewart's Comedy Central program has gotten a lot of buzz.  Stewart asked a lot of tough questions and took Cramer to task for trying to turn financial reporting into a game.  

There were laughs, but in the larger sense there was nothing funny about CNBC stock picker Jim Cramer's widely anticipated appearance. In response to aggressive questioning by Stewart, Cramer said that he was "chastised" and wished that the financial news network had done more to expose Wall Street corruption.

Here's the video if you want to see it. Cramer vs. Stewart

Stewart repeatedly blasted the channel for cheerleading Wall Street in the run-up to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He questioned whether it was "selling snake oil as vitamin tonic" in a way that was "disingenuous at best and criminal at worse."

"Absolutely, we could do better," Cramer said. "There are shenanigans, and we should call them out. Everyone should. I should do a better job at it. I'm trying."

Stewart concluded by urging CNBC to cut its ad slogan "In Cramer We Trust" and "get back to fundamentals on the reporting.

Any of you Real Cougars watch Cramer?  I must admit I do on occasion - but I'm a Wall Street junkie.  Guess you can't take Wall Street out of the girl.  After spending over 20 years on a trading desk it's in my blood.

 

Melrose Place Back on TV

Yes, it's true - 4616 Melrose Place will once again be renting new apartments.  The CW has officially ordered a pilot for the reboot of Fox's greatest guilty pleasure. Having done well with a remake of "Beverly Hills 90210" this season, the CW network is doing a remake of that show's spinoff, "Melrose Place."

"Melrose" aired on Fox from 1992 to 1999, a prime-time soap about a mythical Los Angeles locale. Heather Loclear, Andrew Shue, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Marcia Cross were among its stars. The creator was Darren Star.

I must admit I watched "Melrose" back in the day.  It was a great way for me to unwind after a crazy day on Wall Street.  I loved Grant Snow.  Did you just see him playing Archer on ABC's Priviate Practice?  Yep, I watch that one too.  I confess I am a prime-time soap junkie.

So far there is no mention if any of the original cast will be back. 

Cougar Looking for Love

I know you have all been breathless waiting for the identity of the newest cougar on the block.  Well here she is - Stacey Anderson.  Stacey is the star of the new TV Land series, The Cougar. 

Stacey, 40, is a mother of four and a successful commercial realtor in Scottsdale, Arizona  She is looking for love, and doesn't mind expanding her base to guys born in the eighties. 

On the series, 20 twenysomething men will compete in a series of age-defying challenges, but only one will win over Stacey's young-at-heart.   

Look for The Cougar to be prowling beginning April 15th on TV Land.  To catch a sneak preview click here.

Real Cougar Wanted For Sixty Minutes

Sometimes I feel like an agent for all you Real Cougars.  I have another great opportunity for you to share your relationship story on television.

Sixty Minutes Australia (which is very similiar to the U.S. show) is working on an upcoming segment and asked me to help find them a couple.   Here is what they are looking for.  A professional woman who is 50+ in a relationship with a man 15 to 20 years younger.  

If you fit these qualifications, please send me an email linda@therealcougarwoman.com.  Write a couple of paragraphs about your relationship (how long you have been together, the best part of being together etc) and attach a photo of the both of you.  I will forward your information to the show's producer.  The deadline is February 20th,

Thanks.

Nicollette Sheridan - Real Cougar Leaving Wisteria Lane

Nicollette Sheridan last will be leaving Desperate Housewives in April.  Yes, I admit I watch the show.  It's part of my Sunday night ritual of relaxation - Housewives followed by Brothers and Sisters.

Sheridan's character, Edie Britt, was a cougar before the word gained currency.  But she was also vulnerable and lonely, drawn to the wrong men (her current marriage to psychopath Dave Williams should be ending — badly — very soon).

It was probably inevitable that a central cast member would eventually be dropped, sent away or killed off. Creator Marc Cherry is always willing to gamble with the show’s formula, and he tends to rub out characters with gusto. They get shot by crazed women at the supermarket, or carried off by tornadoes. When Edie appeared to commit suicide at the end of season 3, I thought that very well might have been her end. She survived, of course. She’s Edie. Let’s hope Cherry has something suitably over-the-top planned for Ms. Britt.

Sheridan says, "she had a great time on the show and is looking forward to her next project,”  

George Clooney's Return to ER

Former ER lovers George Clooney and Julianna Margulies are reunited for the final season. 

"It's been nine years and it was like we'd never been apart," Margulies told eyebrow guru Ramy Gafni, who recently tended to her famous brows at his RamySpa in Manhattan.

In the final season, viewers will finally find out what became of Ross and his onscreen flame, who never married in the earlier episodes.

Who else is going to appear on these final weeks of the show?  Susan Sarandon. Sarandon's last NBC guest spot was in 2001 on Friends.

I haven't watched ER in years but maybe I'll tune in for the grand finale which will air on April 2nd.

Ellen Barkin Real Cougar With A Bite

Ellen Barkin continues to bite back at former husband Ronald Perelman.

Ellen's spokesman confirmed that she has signed on to do an HBO pilot about a woman who struggles to find her bearings after a high-profile divorce from a wealthy businessman. Obviously, the material’s right up Barkin’s alley — Perelman famously tossed her from their luxury apartment after handing her divorce papers in 2006. Barkin ended up getting $60 million from the billionaire, and raked in about another $20 million when she auctioned off jewels given to her by the mogul.

One evening when Barkin accidently bumped into Perelman with Anna Chapman, his new girlfriend, at a New York restaurant, she threw a glass of water in his face and hissed at Chapman:  "I feel sorry for you having to (bleep) him tonight." 

Shauna Cross, the woman who's writing the pilot script, describes her vision:  "You  have this character in her early 50s whose life explodes suddenly. Her nerve and life experience allows her to tell the world to go screw itself, and they love her for it." 

Welcome to the world of Real Cougars over 40!