ChickFlicks, the production company formed last year byformer New Line Cinema production president Sara Risher, has optioned the filmrights to Elaine Dundy's cult 1958 bestseller The Dud Avocado. Risher will produce the film alongside her Englishpartner Leslie Tobin Bacon of Bacon & Eggs Productions.

The story of an Americangirl's rite of passage while living in Paris, The Dud Avocado was written by Dundy, a New Yorker who relocated toParis and then London where she married critic Kenneth Tynan. Friends to thelikes of Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway and Gore Vidal, Dundy also wrotebiographies of Peter Finch (Finch, Bloody Finch) and Elvis Presley (Elvis And Gladys) as well as her soon-to-be-published autobiography LifeItself.

ChickFlicks is innegotiation with writer Aleksandra Crapanzano, who recently penned OldMistress for Fine Line Features, toadapt the novel. Chickflicks has a first look deal at New Line for boththeatrical and TV projects.