Lisa Edelstein and Janeane Garofalo to star in Bravo's first explicitly scripted series

By Gwen Ihnat | February 20, 2014 | 9:11pm

Aux Features TV

Tiring of hurling nothing but reality shows like Shahs Of Sunset, Blood Sweat & Heels, and the entire Real Housewives franchise at poor, defenseless viewers, Bravo is now officially venturing into scripted series. Following scrapped attempts at series based on movies like Heathers, Death Becomes Her, and The Joneses, the cable network’s first effort will instead be The Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce, an adaptation of the popular Girlfriends’ Guide series. House’s Lisa Edelstein will star as Abby, a self-help author who hides the fact that her marriage is falling apart. To aid her through this crisis she turns to her girlfriends, such as entertainment lawyer Lyla, (Janeane Garafalo, who joined last fall) and former model Phoebe (Beau Garrett). Marti Noxon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Mad Men) has written the pilot, with TV Line reporting that Bravo has already ordered 13 episodes of the series.

Although scripted, the show stems from the true story of Vicki Iovine, the author of the Girlfriends’ Guide series that began with The Girlfriends’ Guide To Pregnancy and continued through six subsequent books about marriage and parenthood. Iovine based her books on her own experiences raising her four children with her husband, Interscope music mogul Jimmy Iovine, before the couple divorced in 2009. Iovine herself is a former Playboy model as well as a lawyer, suggesting the friends on the show are portraying different aspects of her personality. Whatever the case, it will be nice to see some functional female friendships on Bravo for once, even in fictional form.