Candace Bushnell | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bushnell speaking at theJaipur Literature Festival in 2011 | |
| Born | (1958-12-01)December 1, 1958 (age 66) Glastonbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Alma mater | Rice University New York University |
| Spouse | |
| Website | |
| candacebushnell | |
Candace Bushnell (born December 1, 1958)[1] is an American author, journalist, and television producer. She wrote a column forThe New York Observer (1994–96) that was adapted into the bestsellingSex and the Cityanthology. The book was the basis for theHBO hit seriesSex and the City (1998–2004) and two subsequent movies.
Bushnell followed this with the international bestselling novels4 Blondes (2001),Trading Up (2003),Lipstick Jungle (2005),One Fifth Avenue (2008),The Carrie Diaries (2010) andSummer and the City (2011). Two of her novels have been adapted for television:Lipstick Jungle (2008–09) on NBC, andThe Carrie Diaries (2013–2014) onThe CW.One Fifth Avenue has been optioned by theMark Gordon Company andABC for another television show.
Bushnell was born inGlastonbury, Connecticut. She is the daughter of Calvin L. Bushnell and Camille Salonia.[2] Her father was one of the inventors of the air-cooledhydrogen fuel cell used in theApollo space missions in the 1960s. Her Bushnell ancestors in the U.S. can be traced to Francis Bushnell, a signatory of theGuilford Covenant, who emigrated fromThatcham,Berkshire, England, in 1639. Her mother was of Italian descent.[3]
While attendingGlastonbury High School, Candace was accompanied to her senior prom byMike O'Meara, later a nationally syndicated radio host, who also dated Candace's sister, Lolly. She attendedRice University andNew York University. She moved to New York in the late 1970s and frequentedStudio 54. In 1995, she met publishing executiveRon Galotti, who became the inspiration forSex and the City'sMr. Big.[4]
At age 19, Bushnell moved to New York City and sold a children's story (which was never published) toSimon & 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 forThe New York Observer in 1993. She created a humorous column for the paper (1994–1996) called "Sex and the City", based on her dating experiences and those of her friends. In 1997, Bushnell's columns were published in an anthology, also calledSex and the City, and soon became the basis for the popularHBO televisionseries of the same name. The series aired from 1998 to 2004, and starredSarah Jessica Parker asCarrie Bradshaw, a socially active New York City sex and lifestyles columnist, a character whom Bushnell has said was heralter ego. The series enteredsyndication and was also made into two films:Sex and the City (2008) andSex and the City 2 (2010). A third film was announced in December 2016, but was canceled and replaced by the sequel miniseriesAnd Just Like That…, onHBO Max. Bushnell went on to publish several international andThe New York Times bestselling novels includingFour Blondes,Trading Up,Lipstick Jungle andOne Fifth Avenue.
In 2005, Bushnell served as one of three judges for the reality television showWickedly Perfect onCBS. She began hosting a live weekly talk show onSirius Satellite Radio in 2007.[6] The show, called "Sex, Success and Sensibility," was canceled in late 2008 after the merger of Sirius andXM Satellite Radio, when Bushnell was asked to continue the show with a 50% pay cut and refused.[7] Bushnell won the 2006Matrix Award for books, and the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. In 2009 she wrote a comedic web series, The Broadroom, about women over 40 dealing with workplace issues. It starredJennie Garth and was created in partnership with the magazine publisherMeredith Corporation'sMeredith 360 division.[8][9]
Bushnell's 2005 novelLipstick Jungle was adapted for television and aired onNBC in 2008. The seriesLipstick Jungle starredBrooke Shields and ran for 20 episodes. In 2009, Bushnell wrote articles for Meredith'sMore magazine.
In 2008,HarperCollins contracted Bushnell to write two books for young adults about Carrie Bradshaw's high school years. The first of these,The Carrie Diaries, was published in 2010.[10] The other,Summer and the City (Carrie Diaries Series #2), was published in 2011.The Carrie Diaries was a number oneNew York Times Bestseller.
In 2012, Bushnell was sued in federal court by her former friend and manager Clifford Streit (who inspired theSex and the City characterStanford Blatch), who claimed that Bushnell reneged on a settlement in which she agreed to pay him 7.5% of anything she earned from theSex and the City TV series and the twoSex and the City movies,[11] an amount Streit estimated was at least $150,000.
From 2002 to 2012, Bushnell was married toCharles Askegard, a principal dancer with theNew 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, tellingThe 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 aco-op inGreenwich Village until 2015. From 2005 to 2016 she owned a historic Victorian farmhouse inRoxbury, Connecticut. In 2016, she bought a co-op onEast 74th Street inManhattan.[17]
