A Hollywood insider has written her first novel — and Darren Star is adapting it

Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas has been an agency executive, studio partner and producer for top stars including Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez over the course of her lengthy career. Now she’s about to become a first-time novelist — with “Sex and the City” and “Emily in Paris” creator Darren Star lined up to adapt her book into a series for Universal Television.

“Climbing in Heels,” due April 29 from St. Martin’s Press, centers on three secretaries at a talent agency in 1980s Hollywood. Big-haired, short-skirted and glamorous women in sky-high stilettos, they have sky-high dreams in an industry capped by a nearly unbreakable glass ceiling. The adaptation will be Star’s first project under the multiyear deal he signed with Universal TV in March.

“Climbing in Heels: A Novel” by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas

(St. Martin’s Press )

“I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember,” says Goldsmith-Thomas, who began working on the novel at the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period when so much of Hollywood’s normal business activities paused. “But I sort of kept it quiet. When I was an agent, my clients didn’t want to think their agent was a writer, and when I ran a studio, I was so busy hiring, right? This is my way of saying, ‘This is who I am.’”

Goldsmith-Thomas says finishing “Climbing in Heels” and signing a deal for its adaptation came together more quickly than she expected — even after her extensive experience in Hollywood.

“I guess I went into it a little bit blind and a little naive, as you have to,” says Goldsmith-Thomas, whose résumé includes high-powered roles at William Morris Agency, ICM and Revolution Studios in addition to producing. “There isn’t one part of my career I ever planned; it all just sort of happened. I suppose it’s about how well you pivot, right?”

After completing the book, “I gave it to a few people. I was a little nervous because I really went for it. Most of it is made up, but it’s informed by things I saw, and then I just sent it to a few people who I respect and I just thought, ‘Well, let’s see what they think.’ And one of them was Darren Star, who I’ve known since the ’80s when he was an assistant at a publicity firm, and I was a secretary calling myself an assistant. We both had aspirations to do more but really cloudy vision as to where we were going or how we would get there.”

She says Star “inhaled it, he loved it. He called me and said he wanted to option it.”

At the same time, several agents representing her at CAA had read her manuscript and shopped it around to producers.

Goldsmith-Thomas recalls, “I was like, ‘Wait, it’s not coming out till next April.’ I wish I could tell you that this was brilliantly orchestrated, but it wasn’t. Like my career, it was just action and reaction, and so I entertained these offers from these other very big showrunners who had read it and really loved it, and I opted to go with Darren because I just think he is perfect for this.”

When the deal was revealed late last year, Star called the novel a “ballsy and bawdy love child of ‘Mad Men’ and ‘Sex and the City.’”

“I don’t know if being a producer helped me get this deal,” Goldsmith-Thomas says. “I think everybody knew who I was, but then it just happened so quickly. Darren wanted it, he spoke to Universal, they read it, they preemptively made a big offer and took it off the table. Now, we still have to pitch it to streamers, and we’re going to be doing that at the end of February.”

Goldsmith-Thomas has one previous writing credit: co-scripting “Second Act,” a 2018 film starring Jennifer Lopez. In addition to book promotion duties, Goldsmith-Thomas will be juggling roles as a producer of “Office Romance,” the third Lopez feature film for Netflix, along with other Nuyorican Productions projects in her role as president of Lopez’s banner.

Among them: the streamer’s series adaptation of Emily Henry’s “Happy Place,” which Goldsmith-Thomas will co-produce with Lopez and Benny Medina; “Bridgerton” co-executive producer Leila Cohan is on board as showrunner. Henry is a bestselling author whose earlier novels “Book Lovers,” “Beach Read” and “People We Meet on Vacation” are all being adapted into movies.

Given the author-producer’s ties to Lopez, it’s tempting to look for the obvious part for the actor in “Climbing in Heels,” which seems absent in the book. Goldsmith-Thomas laughs at this. “I was getting razzed about this the other day. Jennifer has said, ‘Elaine didn’t put me in it!’”

But the producer of films such as “Mona Lisa Smile” and “Hustlers” says there is no shortage of stars who are queued up for a part.

“We have gotten a lot of calls from actors and directors, and we have some ideas for casting the characters. We have an idea for some of the women but nothing locked in yet,” Goldsmith-Thomas says. “We’re not going to a streamer with a full cast. And we haven’t written the pilot — we have to take our time. Everything else has been very fast, but we’re slowing down at this point.”