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Candace Bushnell

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Candace Bushnell
Bushnell speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2011
Bushnell speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2011
Born (1958-12-01) December 1, 1958 (age 66)
Glastonbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation
  • Author
  • journalist
  • television producer
Alma materRice University
New York University
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2002; div. 2012)​
Website
candacebushnell.com

Candace Bushnell (born December 1, 1958)[1] is an American author, journalist, and television producer. She wrote a column for The New York Observer (1994–96) that was adapted into the bestselling Sex and the City anthology. The book was the basis for the HBO hit series Sex and the City (1998–2004) and two subsequent movies.

Bushnell followed this with the international bestselling novels 4 Blondes (2001), Trading Up (2003), Lipstick Jungle (2005), One Fifth Avenue (2008), The Carrie Diaries (2010) and Summer and the City (2011). Two of her novels have been adapted for television: Lipstick Jungle (2008–09) on NBC, and The Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) on The CW. One Fifth Avenue has been optioned by the Mark Gordon Company and ABC for another television show.

Early life

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Bushnell was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Calvin L. Bushnell and Camille Salonia.[2] Her father was one of the inventors of the air cooled hydrogen fuel cell that was used in the Apollo space missions in the 1960s. Her Bushnell ancestors in the United States can be traced back to Francis Bushnell, one of the signatories of the Guilford Covenant, who emigrated from Thatcham, Berkshire, England in 1639. Her mother was of Italian descent.[3]

While attending Glastonbury High School, Candace was accompanied to her senior prom by Mike O'Meara, later a nationally syndicated radio host, who also dated Candace's sister, "Lolly." She attended Rice University and New York University. She moved to New York in the late 1970s and often frequented Studio 54. In 1995, she met publishing executive Ron Galotti, who became the inspiration for Sex and the City's Mr. Big.[4]

Career

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At the age of 19, Bushnell moved to New York City and sold a children's story (which was never published) to Simon & Schuster. She continued writing and worked as a freelance journalist for various publications, struggling to make ends meet for many years.[5] Bushnell began writing for The New York Observer in 1993. She created a humorous column for the paper (1994–1996) called "Sex and the City". The column was based on her own personal dating experiences and those of her friends. In 1997, Bushnell's columns were published in an anthology, also called Sex and the City, and soon after became the basis for the popular HBO television series sharing the same name. The series aired from 1998 through 2004, and starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, a socially active New York City sex and lifestyles columnist, a character whom Bushnell has stated was her alter ego. The series entered syndication and was also made into two films: Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010). A third film was announced in December 2016, but was ultimately cancelled and replaced by the sequel miniseries, And Just Like That…, on HBO Max. Bushnell went on to publish several international and The New York Times bestselling novels including Four Blondes, Trading Up, Lipstick Jungle and One Fifth Avenue.

In 2005, Bushnell served as one of three judges for the reality television show Wickedly Perfect on CBS. Bushnell began hosting a live weekly talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2007.[6] The show, called "Sex, Success and Sensibility," was canceled in late 2008 after the merger of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio, when Bushnell was asked to continue the show with a 50% pay cut and refused.[7] She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Award for books, and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. In 2009 she wrote a web series, The Broadroom, a comedic series about women over 40 dealing with workplace issues, starring Jennie Garth which was created in partnership with the magazine publisher Meredith Corporation's Meredith 360 division.[8][9]

Bushnell's 2005 novel, Lipstick Jungle, was adapted for television and aired on NBC in 2008. The series Lipstick Jungle starred Brooke Shields in the leading role, and ran for 20 episodes. In 2009, she wrote articles for Meredith's More magazine.

Bushnell was contracted by HarperCollins in 2008 to write a series of two books for young adults, about the high school years of Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw. The first of these, The Carrie Diaries, was published in April 2010.[10] The other, Summer and the City (Carrie Diaries Series #2), was published in April 2011. The Carrie Diaries was a number one New York Times Bestseller.

In 2012, Bushnell was sued in federal court by her former friend and manager Clifford Streit (who served as the inspiration for Sex and the City character, Stanford Blatch) who claimed that Bushnell reneged on a prior settlement in which she agreed to pay him 7.5 percent of anything she earned from the Sex and the City TV series and the two Sex and the City movies,[11] an amount Streit estimated at least $150,000.

Personal life

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From 2002 to 2012, Bushnell was married to Charles Askegard, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who was ten years her junior, and whom she had met eight weeks before.[12][13][14] They divorced in 2011.[15] She found the experience disorienting, telling The Guardian, "When I got divorced, I couldn’t get a mortgage; I didn’t fit into a computer model. All of a sudden, I was invited to no more couple things. Being single is hard and there’s something a bit heroic about it."[16]

She owned a co-op in Greenwich Village until 2015. From 2005 to 2016 she owned a historic Victorian farmhouse in Roxbury, Connecticut. In 2016, she bought a co-op on East 74th Street in Manhattan.[17]

Bibliography

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  • (1996) Sex and the City, ISBN 9053339876
  • (2000) 4 Blondes, ISBN 9041760261 nur 302
  • (2003) Trading Up
  • (2005) Lipstick Jungle, ISBN 9789044610482
  • (2008) One Fifth Avenue
  • (2010) The Carrie Diaries
  • (2011) Summer and the City
  • (2015) Killing Monica
  • (2019) Is There Still Sex in the City?, ISBN 9780802147264

References

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  1. ^ "Candace Bushnell: Success and the city - CNN.com". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
  2. ^ "Bushnell, Camille (salonia)". The Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on May 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Jillian Goodman (April 29, 2011). "Author Candace Bushnell Prefers Bloody Marys to Cosmos and Buys Her Butter at the Greenmarket". Grub Street. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  4. ^ McInerney, Jay (May 2004). "Goodbye, Mr. Big". New York Magazine. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  5. ^ Armstrong, Stephen (August 10, 2008). "Candace Bushnell on her new TV series Lipstick Jungle". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008.
  6. ^ "Candace Bushnell on Sirius: Sex, Success And Sensibility". Sassy Bean. November 5, 2007. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008.
  7. ^ Bercovici, Jeff (November 14, 2008). "Sirius XM Drops Candace Bushnell, 'Maxim' Radio". Portfolio.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012.
  8. ^ Moses, Lucia (July 24, 2009). "Candace Bushnell web series in the works". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  9. ^ "After 'Sex' and 'Lipstick,' Bushnell Looks to the Web". TheWrap. August 12, 2009. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  10. ^ Thielman, Sam (September 17, 2008). "'Sex and the City' gets teen spin". Variety. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  11. ^ Golding, Bruce (February 16, 2012). "Candace Bushnell's ex-manager suing her for cut of 'Sex and the City' TV and movie profits". New York Post. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  12. ^ WEDDINGS: VOWS; Candace Bushnell, Charles Askegard. Archived January 28, 2018, at the Wayback Machine By Bob Morris, The New York Times, July 7, 2002.
  13. ^ Don't mention Sex and the City Archived December 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. By Carl Quinn, www.theage.com, September 28, 2003.
  14. ^ Zimmerman, Edith (January 18, 2013). "Candace Bushnell's Fantasy World, Starring Candace Bushnell". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 19, 2013.
  15. ^ "Candace Bushnell, 'Sex And The City' Author, Talks Divorce, Single Life". Huffington Post. March 27, 2013. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  16. ^ Rachel Cooke. "Candace Bushnell: 'It's fascinating to me, this insistence that a character is always based on an author's life.'". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on September 25, 2016. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
  17. ^ Dodge, Annie. "'Sex and the City' Writer Candace Bushnell lists Victorian farmhouse in Connecticut for $1.4M". 6sqft. CityRealty. Archived from the original on January 23, 2022. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
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