Updated

Writer Candace Bushnell of "Sex and the City" fame is developing an hourlong series for NBC about the familiar topic of women in New York, the network said Tuesday.

Based on Bushnell's novel "Lipstick Jungle," the series is part of the network's development slate for the 2006 fall season, an NBC spokesman said.

The novel is "so strong .... It's a really fun character piece," NBC Universal Television executive Katherine Pope told trade paper Daily Variety.

HBO's watercooler hit "Sex and the City" was drawn from Bushnell's newspaper column about New York singles life. Bushnell and Robin Schiff ("Miss Match," "Party of Five") are executive producers for the NBC project about women scheming to hold onto their power and money.