GIRLS’ POKER NIGHT

Five-time Emmy-nominated screenwriter (Late Night with David Letterman, etc.) debuts with a lackluster Sex and the City clone.

Ruby Capote is a Boston columnist whose beat is the woe of single women. She oughta know: Her silly boyfriend Doug collects the little plastic thingies from bread bags and calls his purple Porsche “The Grape.” Hoping to move on, Ruby sends tear sheets and a six-pack to the editor of the New York News, handsome Michael Hobbs, who eventually assigns her to the men-are-scum beat. He oughta know: he’s quasi-engaged to a beauty, but obviously eager to hook up with Ruby, whose new circle of friends offers plenty of material. Amoral and gorgeous model Skorka prefers married men—they don’t get attached and never leave their socks lying around. Jenn is an overworked factotum for a manically demanding media personality. Lily’s never had much luck with men—is she a lesbian? Divorced Danielle just dumped her 23-year-old swain after discovering he’s the son of a previous lover. And so on, through mildly comedic matters that include a vagina visualization workshop á la Eve Ensler—but Ruby has other things on her mind and can’t imagine what her vagina would say or wear (if it could). Doug’s been offered a job in New York, but that relationship is totally over, even though the clueless chump doesn’t think so. A hallway flirtation and subsequent fling with a sexy neighbor, TV exec Tom, goes nowhere, which leaves only Michael, but he’s her boss. Obligatory forays are taken into Ruby’s past: the car crash that killed her alcoholic father; the adolescent crush she had on her shrink. These alone may not explain why her relationships with men are difficult, but when she finds out Michael’s dark secret, she’s ready to believe that men really are scum. The girlfriends concur, though Ruby makes up her own mind in the end.

Some laughs, but very much the same old.