Gigi Levangie Grazer is giving hope to all of us who believe, maybe, if things get bad, we can just marry for money and go from there. The wife--currently in the process of divorce, however-- of major Hollywood executive producer Brian Grazer (he’s had his finger in just about everything Ron Howard’s done), Gigi Grazer has one feature screenwriting credit to her name-- 1998’s Stepmom. She’s spent the rest of her time as part of Hollywood’s elite writing chick lit novels, including The Starter Wife and Maneater.
This summer, The Starter Wife became a USA miniseries starring Debra Messing and despite gaining general critical indifference it earned itself a big audience and a whopping 10 Emmy nominations. Now Grazer’s Maneater will receive the same treatment, as The Hollywood Reporter tells us, having been optioned as a four-hour miniseries for the Lifetime network. Grazer, who executive produced ‘Starter Wife’ along with her manager Stephanie Davis, will do the same for this one.
Maneater, much like Starter Wife , is a satirical novel set in Hollywood and starring one of the town’s elite. Clarissa Alpert is a 31-year old It Girl in town, who sets her sights on one of Hollywood’s hottest producer in order to finally settle down. In picking Aaron Mason, it seems, she may have in fact gotten more than she bargained for.
With the ‘Sex and the City’ movie on its way into theaters, as well as ‘The Nanny Diaries’ coming up in September, it looks like there will be no end of chick-lit movie adaptations. And, well, why not? The characters in these books may be neurotic, overly-obsessd with appearance and somewhat stupid, but they’re a far cry from the plot devices and hot-girlfriend roles many actresses are relegated to in scripts written by men. ‘Maneater’ may be on the Lifetime network, and it may be, well, called ‘Maneater,’ but it may well turn out to be a step in the right direction for female roles on television. Or, at the very least, some more good ratings numbers for these cable channels.
The Starter Wife is a mini-series starring Debra Messing, produced by the USA Network.
