NOTE: Pictures indicate series currently covered at Comedy Centric

It’s highly possible that Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill, and Ally McBeal star Lucy Liu won’t return to television on ABC’s underwhelming rich-chicks-with-problems series Cashmere Mafia, which many people, including me, believe will/should be canceled.

Fortunately, the beautiful actress has other things to keep her busy, though. As a Global Ambassador for UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), Liu was all over ABC Wednesday morning, appearing on both The Martha Stewart Show and The View.

The main focus of her visits was to help promote her latest humanitarian efforts regarding today’s World Water Day 2008. The annual one-day initiative, first observed in 1993, emerged from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, and this year’s theme is sanitation.

I learned a while ago that Martha Stewart’s show isn’t a good source of brief video clips since the household wiz has guests tackling all sorts of homemaking activities that take forever to finish. Consequently, the interview excerpted after the jump comes from The View, where Liu explains how participating restaurants will play a crucial role in today’s objectives.

Instead of automatically offering water free of charge with meals, some eating establishments will ask diners to donate $1. According to Liu, that tiny amount is enough to provide forty children in Africa and other deprived regions with clean water for an entire day. So, if you eat out today, remember to determine if your chosen eatery is involved with this very worthy cause.

Now on to the clip and Liu…

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Well, this is it, Cashmere Mafia lovers. ABC has finally reached the end of the road with its Sex and the City wannabe, meaning the last episode of Mafia that was produced before the writers strike started (seven were finished for an original order of thirteen).

I’m no fan of Cashmere, but you don’t have to be to realize that the series’ future looks grim. Of course, if it’s renewed, that wouldn’t be the first time a mediocre show made it through the network cracks. Just look at October Road, also on ABC, if you need a current example.

On the February 20th first-season and/or series finale “Dog Eat Dog,” Caitlin suffers Fashion Week anxiety when her boss slathers the pressure on extra thick, Juliet must contend with yet another man who has ulterior motives that aren’t in her best interest, Mia goes ga-ga over a pooch, and Zoe continues her quest for perfection (Good luck with that, hon).

Cashmere Mafia airs Wednesdays on ABC at 10pm EST.

Original Air Date: February 13, 2008

As MIA arrives at work, she fields phone calls from all of her fellow mafiettes, who repeatedly ask if she’s okay. Her assistant even gives her a muffin to make her feel better, before her boss CLIVE comes in and tosses the most recent edition of the newspaper on her desk. The huge headline across the front page notes that JACK has just been named publisher at rival company Fairgate Communications.

It looks like the former couple is now back in professional competition. To rub salt in the wound, later that night while she’s hanging out with CAITLIN — who’s still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her girlfriend ALICIA is pregnant — and watching TV, Mia recognizes Jack’s new girlfriend LIZ wearing her Alexander McQueen scarf during a newscast. Mia vows to get it back.

Things aren’t going much better for JULIET, whose hopes that her divorce from DAVIS might be simple and fair are quickly dashed. During their mediation, his lawyer makes it clear that not only does Davis expect “man-imony” — monthly support from Juliet since he backtracked his career and earning potential to fast-track hers — but all legal fees and anything else he wants from their former joint household. Juliet — who wants an even split of their money, custody of their daughter, and their apartment — arrives home that night to find Davis taking anything and everything he wants, including the Aston Martin he gave her as a gift.

Trouble is on the table for ZOE, as well, who learns at work from her boss HENRY GORHAM that she and her colleague CLAYTON must woo billionaire MAXWELL TATE, who’s doing a humanitarian Bill Gates thing at the moment by establishing a $500 million foundation to charter schools. The plan is to lure him away from his current investment company, Manhattan Trust, and gain dibs on his future investment business.

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“Can another show Carrie on?”

That’s the question Entertainment Weekly asks in the title of a recent article, referring, of course, to the still ultra popular HBO comedy series Sex and the City.

Judging by the mediocre and mostly uninteresting results of television’s two latest attempts — ABC’s Cashmere Mafia and NBC’s Lipstick Jungle — the answer is an emphatic “Not at the moment.”

If you’re a fan of the chick-TV comedy genre, check out the article The Next “Sex and the City”? to learn more than you ever thought you would about the arrival and rise of Sex and the City, and why the influential relationship show’s legacy still has such a stranglehold on the development fantasies of clueless TV network executives — most of whom are male, I might add, not that that’s an acceptable excuse.

Okay, maybe nobody said that in so many words, but a few numbers make the sentiment clear.

When I received my latest issue of TV Guide in the mail on Tuesday, I immediately checked out the Cheers & Jeers section as usual. The magazine conducted a poll to see if TV watchers agreed with columnist Bruce Fretts’ assertion last week that Cashmere Mafia star Bonnie Somerville is the weakest link on the show.

The results indicate that 31 percent agree with Fretts, while a whopping 68 percent don’t. The remaining percentage point is made up of people who think Fretts, Somerville, or Cashmere Mafia has jumped the shark—the magazine doesn’t make it clear which one, so I don’t know either.

Thank you, smart television viewers. Bland bombshell?! Comparisons to Godfather mega wimp Fredo Corleone?! I still can’t get over that…

After receiving the January 28–February 3 issue of TV Guide in the mail today, I immediately cracked open the cover to visit my favorite section of all time, the endlessly entertaining and ruthlessly snark-filled Cheers & Jeers. To my sorta surprise, the current crop of love 'em-hate 'em assessments includes a particularly negative jab at Cashmere Mafia star Bonnie Somerville.

Dubbing the Kitchen Confidential and NYPD Blue alum a “bland bombshell,” columnist Bruce Fretts observes/whines:

Jeers to Bonnie Somerville for being the weak link on ABC’s new Cashmere Mafia. Lucy Liu’s got star power, and foreign imports Miranda Otto and Frances O’Connor can actually, you know, act. Bland bombshell Somerville’s flat line reading and lack of charisma make her the Fredo of this Mafia.

Now, in case you’re not hip to the cinematic reference, Fredo is the middle Corleone brother in the classic Mafia film franchise and Mario Puzo novel The Godfather. He eventually ends up whacked at the hands of his own sibling due to his weak character and inability to grow appropriately sized balls.

Back to the Jeer: Bland bombshell! What?! Lighten up already. Apparently that recent woman-on-woman super smooch between Somerville and her character’s girl friend Alicia (Lourdes Benedicto) wasn’t hot enough for Bruce, but it should have warmed him up to Somerville’s presence for at least a couple more episodes.

Somerville is a born and bred Brooklyn girl, having grown up just a few communities away from me in Flatbush. That’s why I must stand up for her. I got your back, Bonnie. Ignore Bruce … this week.

On January 23rd’s episode of Cashmere Mafia, Caitlin will step out with her girl Alicia, Juliet will stumble upon yet more trouble concerning her husband Davis, Mia will go on a most interesting blind date, and Zoe will become a savior.

Learn more details about the forthcoming episode at the Cashmere Mafia Episode Guide.

Cashmere Mafia airs Wednesdays on ABC at 10pm EST.

The big guest star for tonight’s episode of Cashmere Mafia is Tony-winning actress Christine Ebersole, who plays Caitlin Dowd’s (Bonnie Somerville) makeup mogul boss Lily Parrish. Now this should be good.