Travails of E.V. women spotlighted in new series

Wisteria Lane met Scottsdale Road when seven local socialites revealed the drama and excitement of their Scottsdale lives on reality television.

The CBS prime-time show “Tuesday Night Book Club” was shot in Scottsdale this spring and premiered Tuesday. Following seven affluent women who gather weekly to dissect their tangled romantic lives, the show has created a local buzz and put Scottsdale in the national spotlight. It has been called the reality version of “Desperate Housewives,” a popular ABC show about four neighboring housewives on the fictional Wisteria Lane.

“It’s unquestionably helpful for advancing the emerging reputation as not just a good place to visit but a very cool place to visit,” said Jason Rose, a Scottsdale-based public relations executive who is not affiliated with the show. “It advances the stereotype of Scottsdale women being hot, plastic and educated.”

Bill Whitmore, owner of the Cave Creek Road House frequented by Jenn, characterized as the show’s “trophy wife” and her husband, said the television sets on the bar’s bigscreen TV’s will be tuned in Tuesdays to watch the drama unfold.

“Everybody’s real excited about it,” Whitmore said. “I think it’s important to

look at the impact of something like this because it involves local women.”

“Book Club” is the talk of Tuscany Hair and Nail Salon in Scottsdale, where Tina Placourakis — dubbed the “divorced mom” on the show — gets her hair done, said Kathy Marcellus, salon manager. The hairdressers and manicurists at the salon have been anxiously awaiting the premiere.

For years, the Valley has taken a seat on the television show casting couch with reality shows, including “The Apprentice,” “The Real World,” and “The Bachelor.”

But a network show about Scottsdale people living the Scottsdale lifestyle is a first.

Experts said it’s a sign that the television industry is starting to take notice of Scottsdale’s appeal.

“It’s always been my theory that network TV follows reality instead of creates it,” said Rick Kidder of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. “Scottsdale is on the map, that’s why they are doing it.”

The show’s stars said they were concerned about how they’d be depicted, but hoped sharing their lives will help women in similar situations.

“My first year of marriage has been tough,” said Lynn Carahayl, 28, a speech pathologist who’s been married to her firefighter-husband for only six months. “I got approached to do the show and I thought it would be a good opportunity to share that crappy first year with the rest of these newlyweds that are thinking ‘I’m the only one who’s going through this.’ ”

“It was really a bonding experience for us,” said Jenn Keaton. She said the trophy wife moniker was embellished by CBS.

Keaton, her husband, Jim, and four of the other women gathered at the Painted Horse Café in north Scottsdale on Tuesday to sip wine and celebrate the show’s premiere.

“People keep asking: Why would you want to be on a reality show?” Jim Keaton said. “Why not? It’s a once-ina-lifetime experience.”

Placourakis, 46, said it was not easy to decide to expose her personal life on national television. But after meeting with the show’s producers, she was put at ease about how she would be portrayed.

“I don’t think that there’s anything I regret,” she said. “I’m not too sure if anything is going to show my vulnerability.”

Most of the season the women get along, but expect to see some cattiness between Placourakis and Jamie, “the conflicted wife,” who has been cheating on her husband throughout her six-year marriage and is considering leaving him.

“One of the clips shows me pushing Jamie in the pool,” said Placourakis, a mother of three who owns her own marketing business. “I wasn’t real pleased about her actions that led up to that particular event. I expressed myself, and lost my cool a little bit but was honest about it.”

The cast of characters also includes: Kirin, “the doctor’s wife,” who has a husband who’s not in tune with her emotions; Sara, “the party girl,” who is single; and Cris, “the loyal wife,” whose husband is a recovering alcoholic.

“Because of the different personalities and the different stages of all of these women’s lives, I really feel that they’re going to be able to relate to a lot of different women for a lot of different reasons,” Placourakis said. “And in return, it might help me.”