CHUPACK, Cindy 1973(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1973, in Tulsa, OK; married (divorced). Education: Graduated from Northwestern University (journalism).

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA. Agent—c/o Home Box Office, 1100 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER:

Writer. Coach, television series producer, 1989; A Whole New Ballgame, television series script-writer, 1995; Everybody Loves Raymond, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (CBS), television series scriptwriter, 1996-98; Sex and the City, Home Box Office (HBO), scriptwriter and executive producer, 1998-2004; Madigan Men, television series executive producer, 2000.

AWARDS, HONORS:

WGA and Emmy Award nominations for Sex and the City episodes, including "Evolution," "Attack of the Five-Foot Ten-Inch Woman," "Just Say Yes," "Plus One Is the Loneliest Number," and "I Love a Charade."

WRITINGS:

The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including New York Woman, Allure, Slate, Harper's Bazaar, and Glamour. Author of "Dating Dictionary," a monthly column in Glamour. Also scriptwriter for series pilot of Madigan Men, 2000.

SIDELIGHTS:

For writer Cindy Chupack, best known for her scriptwriting credits for HBO's hit series Sex and the City, there is "no such thing as a bad date, only good material," as she told Cynthia Littleton of Hollywood Reporter. The Oklahoma native left her home state for journalism school at Northwestern University, then departed for New York City to try her hand at advertising. However, a piece she wrote for a magazine caught the attention of a television producer, and soon she was penning episodes for television series such as A Whole New Ballgame and Everybody Loves Raymond. She joined the Sex and the City team in its second season and wrote over a dozen scripts for the series, in addition to acting as an executive producer. "From the moment I pitched my first free-lance [Sex and the City] episode, I loved the process—the way they work at HBO and the way they were dealing with women in a more honest and complicated way than I'd ever seen before," Chupack further related to Littleton. Chupack explained her writing process for Sex and the City on the HBO Web site: "nothing really comes together for me until I figure out the question [in the main character's, Carrie's, newspaper column], because that basically becomes the theme of the episode, and that's the filter through which we try to see each character's story." Chupack further observed, "I know I'm on track when the question is something I truly want the answer to."

Chupack branched out into book publishing with The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, which deals with territory Chupack has mined for her television writing: single women, dating, relations between the sexes, and splitting up. The collection of humorous dating and relationships essays, which had previously appeared in magazines during the 1990s and early 2000s, was praised by a critic for Kirkus Reviews, who called it "a wry, upbeat tour of the dating scene for women currently considering reentry." Themes and chapters vary from "The Breakup" and "The Year Ahead" to "Your New Boyfriend." Rachel Collins, writing in Library Journal, observed that Chupack "gives the gals without guys advice from the front lines of the dating scene."

Caitlin Flanagan, on the other hand, reviewing Chupack's book in Atlantic Monthly, found it "slight, glib, clever to a point, and exceedingly pleased with itself." Entertainment Weekly's Clarissa Cruz was more positive, however, commenting that Chupack's "breezy observations … are as hilarious as they are true." Andrea Sachs, writing in Time, also had praise for this "witty" debut book, which "captures the sometimes angst-ridden world of single women," while People's Michelle Tauber commended Chupack's "stiletto wit."

Writing on her author Web site, Chupack observed, "I'd like to think the reason I've been successful writing about relationships (if not in actual relationships) is that I still believe in love, and I believe deep down all of us do."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, December, 2003, Caitlin Flanagan, review of The Between Boyfriends Book: A Collection of Cautiously Hopeful Essays, p. 133.

Entertainment Weekly, August 15, 2003, Clarissa Cruz, review of The Between Boyfriends Book, p. 80.

Glamour, June, 2002, Leslie Robarge, "What's Next on Sex and the City ?," p. 178.

Hollywood Reporter, December 10, 2002, Cynthia Littleton, "Writer Chupack Gets 'Sex,' More in New HBO Deal," pp. 1-2.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2003, review of The Between Boyfriends Book, p. 787.

Library Journal, May 1, 2003, Rachel Collins, review of The Between Boyfriends Book, p. 139.

People, September 8, 2003, Michelle Tauber, review of The Between Boyfriends Book, p. 47.

Time, August 11, 2003, Andrea Sachs, review of The Between Boyfriends Book, p. 65.

ONLINE

Boston Herald Online,http://www.theedge.bostonherald.com/ (August 28, 2003), Raakhee P. Mirchandani, "The Breaking Point: 'The Between Boyfriends Book' Dumps on How Men End Relationships."

Cindy Chupack Home Page,http://www.betweenboyfriends.com/ (June 25, 2004).

HBO Web site,http://www.hbo.com/ (June 18, 2004), "Cindy Chupack."*