Former Bravo star Jill Kargman has long skewered the gilded bubble of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and despite growing up there, she’s very privileged, and she fully understands that people are forever fascinated by centers of wealth.
“It’s like a particularly rarefied world,” she told Page Six. “Now you can walk down Park Avenue looking at the tulips. There’s an aspirational feel to it. But there’s also a trainwreck aspect to it.”
Even as an insider, she understands that “people like to look through the keyhole and see how the rich can end up in dire situations, and I think that’s always been the theme of my work.”
She says she’s never worried about alienating the modern-day Ladies Who Ranch crowd.
“I don’t give anything away,” she said. “My statements have always offended some people. I don’t care, I’m not running for office. I don’t need a majority vote.”
Kargman once again takes a sharp look at her neighborhood in her new film, Influenced. She co-wrote the film and stars as an influencer named Zaniel. Zaniel is trying to reach 1 million followers on Instagram while overcoming “black card-wielding, Ozempic-obsessed, workout-obsessed Upper East Siders.”
The 51-year-old former Mrs. Hedge Fund novelist honestly knows a thing or two about the 1 percent.
Her late father, Allie L. Kopelman, was the former president of Chanel. Her mother Coco is a socialite, American, and director of the School of American Ballet. Karl Lagerfeld himself sketched the design of the wedding dress. She attended the Spence School, whose alumni include Georgina Bloomberg and Kargman’s good friend Gwyneth Paltrow, who had a cameo in “Influenced.”
Kargman’s husband, Harry, is the CEO of Cargo Global, an advertising company, and their three children, Sadie, Ivy, and Fletch, all attended private schools.
She admits she barely got to hang out with Harry. “Because on our second date,[he]said, ‘I don’t know if I can raise a child in New York.’ So I was just like, “Check it out.” This date is over, because I’ll never leave, because I’ll wither and die on the vine. ”Because I don’t know how to drive and I wouldn’t live anywhere else.
“It’s better to die of stress than to die of boredom.”
Kargman still lives in the UES, but after growing up there and seeing the impact it had on people — which she lampooned in the 2015-2017 Bravo comedy “Odd Moms Out,” an echo chamber complete with a fake fundraiser for NACHO (New Yorker Campaign Against Childhood Obesity) — she was determined that her children would learn there was life beyond the East River.
On the one hand, it means, “We do a lot of volunteer work as a family at food pantries in Queens, and we’re passionate about raising kids with values.”
But it also meant explaining to her younger brothers why she didn’t wear red-soled shoes (a subtle perk of expensive Louboutins) like the other mothers at school, and why her family wasn’t “lame” just because they didn’t have a home in the Hamptons. (Mom doesn’t drive a car and doesn’t like the countryside.)
And she didn’t give them a credit card even though it could have been more convenient.
“They have a friend who can literally swipe their black card and do whatever they want,” Kargman said. “But (the kids) know that’s not the way we do it. We just have to keep teaching it. It’s like a never-ending lesson.”
Andy Cohen, a mother of three, is grateful to have made the leap to the big screen.
NBCUniversal had plans for her 2007 novel Momzillas, but the novel lay dormant until a mutual friend introduced her to the Bravo head honcho. Cohen quickly understood the premise.
“Like the Larry David of the Upper East Side?” Mr. Cohen asked, to which Mr. Kargman replied, “Exactly!”
Indeed, there are scenes in “Influenced” that feel like a spiritual cousin of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The film premiered at the Miami Jewish Film Festival before arriving in theaters, and Kargman highlights her Judaism in the film, as she has done in all of her work. It shows her twin characters preparing for their bar and bat mitzvah.
In real life, she is also outspoken about her concerns about the city’s Jews.
After Zoran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, Kargman posted on social media: “Last night’s election results in New York City feel like a spiritual Kristallnacht. They prove that we are okay with hating Jews.”
She told the Post: “Since October 7th, it’s been very heavy for all of us, and the hate has really made me feel dark.”
But she said of her film, “It’s good to have Jewish joy, to be light, to have something light… It’s bubblegum. It’s meant to be light and fun, and we deserve that.”
In it, Kargman sports a thick Long Island accent, as well as thick blonde hair and voluptuous cleavage, which led to the actress being called a cat — something she says she’s never experienced as a dark brunette.
Usually, “no one attacks me. I’m like a middle-aged vampire,” Kargman said. “I dress like George Washington. My mother says I dress like a Sicilian widow. I always wear an Edwardian collar.”
Her wig was created and styled by veterans of “Saturday Night”‘s makeup and hair department, and Kargman said it was so incredibly realistic that she didn’t recognize her when her friend of 40 years ran into her on the street.
Although she didn’t attend this year’s Met Gala, she wore an upcycled Chanel wedding dress for the event in 2024. And despite her high-fashion upbringing and life as a regular at social events, Kargman claims that, unlike her character, she has never cared about how she looks.
“I also feel lucky to be from here, so I don’t feel any pressure, so New York doesn’t scare me. Whereas if you’re from a red state that’s a rectangle in the middle, you might have this notion of Carrie Bradshaw walking down the street looking perfect, but I’ve never felt like I have to.”
Nor is her best friend and former sister-in-law, Drew Barrymore, who was married to Kargman’s brother, art consultant Will Kopleman, from 2012 to 2016.
Barrymore, like Paltrow, appears in “Influenced” along with real-life Kargman friends Jenny Molen, Jason Biggs, Matt Damon, and other famous names.
Kargman admits that while she sees many “transactional” friendships at UES, “my five best friends are my five bridesmaids from my wedding 24 years ago.”
The “Odd Mama Out” alum says there’s one big difference between the Upper East Side of yesteryear and now. And that can be attributed to social media, which is exactly what she skewers in this film.
She “grew up with girls like Gordon Gekko and other Wall Street titans. They took me to school in a stretch limousine, but I was always dropped off two blocks away because I was embarrassed to park.”
Now, “quite the opposite is true. People are taking pictures of private jets’ distinctive oval windows and posting them…[Decades ago]there was an embarrassment and a sensitivity to wealth, but now it feels like everyone is trying to be great.”
“And the influx of social media just makes it even more awesome.”
She doesn’t want that, thank you very much.
“Relationships are all that matters to me,” she continued. “We’re all going to die eventually. You’d better feel connected to people on a real level. If you’re trying to pass around social plates and airs and kiss everyone and make it seem like your life is perfect, you can’t do that, because that’s just bullshit.”
