The 'Real Housewives of New York City' (l.-r.): Ramona Singer, Jill Zarin, Luann de Lesseps, Bethenny Frankel, Alex McCord.
Get ready, New York, because our own home-town "Desperate Housewives" are about to hit the air. On March 4, Bravo will premiere "Real Housewives of New York City," the buzz-generating spinoff of its "Real Housewives of Orange County" reality series.
Five New York women will get their time in the spotlight: Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps, Ramona Singer and Jill Zarin of the upper East Side and Alex McCord of Cobble Hill, the sole non- Manhattan show subject and the youngest of the New York "housewives" at 34.
Filming of the series began last summer with cameras spending one to five days a week following the moms. All of whom were aware that they might follow in the footsteps of Bravo's West Coast version of "Real Housewives," which serves up a smorgasbord of domestic squabbles, shameless materialism and cringe-worthy, age-inappropriate misbehavior.
"I would not want to be portrayed as the women on 'The Real Housewives of Orange County,' to be perfectly honest," says Frankel, "so that was a little scary. But who knows, maybe people in Orange County are saying that about me."
"We are pretty different people," says McCord. "We are not in a gated community. We are in the thick of things, doing our activities and coexisting with 8 million other people."
Locations aside, one of the distinct differences between the two shows is the hectic pace of New York life. For moms in the city that never sleeps, work more often than not takes precedence over play. Frankel, a health food chef, has gained renown as her recipes catch on with celebrities like Denis Leary and Susan Sarandon.
Connecticut-born de Lesseps nabbed her fancy surname in a marriage to a French aristocrat, and her newfound royalty only added cachet to the TV career she began in Europe after a stint as a model in Milan.
McCord works in visual merchandising for a major retailer.
Singer sets her own hours, buying leftover retail inventory to sell to discount chains and boutiques while Zarin embraces her own brand of bargains, at her Zarin Fabrics and Home Furnishings on the lower East Side.
In fact, some of the New York "housewives" were almost too busy for the show - or at least showed polite reluctance.
Frankel refused Zarin's urging before the divan doyenne's audacious personality won her over.
Zarin, one of the first Manhattan women approached by the producers, had a heavy hand in finding her fellow subjects.
"I like to call myself a connector," she says. "And not just in the show. I get a personal satisfaction introducing people to other people."
"She was asking me to meet the people from the show and literally begging me to be on the show," says Frankel, "and I was like, 'I'm not a mom. Nor am I a wife. Nor do I live in a house.' ... but I just had a weird gut [feeling] that I should do it."
Though she might be the only non-mom on the show, Frankel had just started dating a man with three children of his own in the months before filming. The kicker: He wanted to be on TV.
Producers used to the ample free time of their Orange County subjects may not have bargained for the complicated schedules and skill for micromanagement their New York cast brought to the table. "I'm actually such a businesswoman, I kept a log of when they filmed me and how much," says Singer of the shooting schedule.
"I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I'm a concierge, I'm a travel agent, I'm a nurse, I'm a hostess," laughs de Lesseps. "You know, jack of all trades."
And after all, the essential selling points of the show were easy ones: rich moms, big city - and the chance to make a better impression than their gated-community counterparts.
The cameras are there through the women's charity functions and school meetings, their intimate daily lives with family.
Despite the busier schedules of the East Coast mavens, the audience draw will remain the same, the "wives" assure. "We all go out and have fun," says McCord. "We work hard and then we party hard."
"Everybody likes to compare themselves to other people," says Zarin. "Are we better mothers? Are we not better mothers? I'm scared to death. I'm scared to death because I have no control over the editing process. Though I trust them, you never really know if what you were thinking at the time is coming across to the viewer the way you want it to."
At the very least, however, Zarin and her cohorts can count on some extra recognition - she has already made a note to get her phone number unlisted.
"Ask me how my life is three months from now," says Zarin.
MEET THE HOUSEWIVES:
ALEX McCORD
Born: Washington, D.C. Lives: Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.
Married: Yes; husband works in boutique hotel management.
Kids: Two sons, ages 2 and 4.
Job: Works in visual merchandising for a major retailer.
BETHENNY FRANKEL
Born: New York. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: No. "I was engaged a few times," says Frankel, "and I was kind of like the runaway bride."
Kids: None, but her boyfriend of 10 months has three, ages 4, 7 and 9.
Job: Frankel's health food company, bethennybakes, creates wheat-, egg- and dairy-free baked goods as well as tailored, healthy menus for clients.
LUANN DE LESSEPS
Born: Connecticut. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, to Count Alexandre de Lesseps, a French aristocrat she met in the Swiss Alps.
Kids: 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter.
Job: Hosts "The Countess Report," her own cable show based in the Hamptons.
RAMONA SINGER
Born: Rhinebeck, N.Y. "Beautiful," she says of her hometown. "Boring, but beautiful." Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, and co-creating a jewelry line with her husband.
Kids: 12-year-old daughter.
Job: Buys and resells excess fashion inventory to discount boutiques and chains. Also developing her own skin-care products.
JILL ZARIN
Born: Woodmere, L.I. Lives: Upper East Side.
Married: Yes, to second husband.
Kids: 15-year-old daughter; husband has three kids of his own, ages 25, 28 and 31.
Job: Owns Zarin Fabrics & Home Furnishings on the lower East Side.
"Real Housewives of New York City" premieres March 4 at 11 p.m. on Bravo, then moves to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays.
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