“Sometimes there is nothing harder in life than being happy for somebody else.” Carrie Bradshaw offered many pithy truisms, but none more apt for the real-life drama behind the scenes, concerning Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City’s creator, and Darren Star, the show’s producer.

The pair are reportedly no longer quite so cheek-to-cheek after Bushnell’s post-SATC project, Lipstick Jungle – a portrait of three Manhattan businesswomen – beat Star’s Cashmere Mafia – an exploration of the lives of four female powerhouses – in the ratings.

The duo originally planned to work together after SATC, with Bushnell writing Lipstick Jungle so that Star could turn it into a show for NBC. His subsequent refusal to be involved is the subject of much dispute.

According to New York gossip columns, they fell out because Star offered Bushnell too little money to work on Lipstick Jungle alongside him – already a sore point, after the producer’s millions from SATC had dwarfed her earnings. So she decided to go solo to NBC. Further eyebrows were raised when Star set up Cashmere Mafia with the rival network ABC, a show that bore remarkable similarities to Lipstick Jungle.

Sadly, the real loser is the viewer. Both new projects are poor imitations of SATC, and Cashmere Mafia is widely rumoured to be facing the axe. Handbags at the premiere?

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