A Doll’s Life

Next Pussycat Dolls: purr-fectly cast.

Photo courtesy of Musashi Ono

Robin Antin is at it again. A new Pussycat Dolls recording group is on the way. And these sexy singers have some big stilettos to fill. The girls are replacing the five original members, who had hits with songs such as “Don’t Cha,” “Buttons,” “Stickwitu” and “When I Grow Up,” but have all left the group over the past few years.

Antin, who founded the Pussycat Dolls as a burlesque troupe in 1995, understands their departure. “It’s a platform,” Antin says. “As much as the other girls, especially [former lead singer] Nicole [Scherzinger], were the face of the Pussycat Dolls, I have to let them go and live their dreams so they can find what their destiny is. Now it’s time to do it again.”

So meet the new Dolls. Antin recruited Lauren Bennett from Paradiso Girls, who will share vocals with Girlicious’ Chrystina Sayers. Rounding out the group is former Los Angeles Lakers Girl Vanessa Curry, Paula Van Oppen from So You Think You Can Dance and ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Erica Jenkins.

Antin calls the two-year selection process “Pussycat Dolls boot camp” and adds, “I have five very special, incredibly beautiful and talented girls.”

Bennett, who was featured on LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and Cee Lo Green’s “Love Gun” track, has a voice that, Antin says, is a “cross between Aretha Franklin and Adele”— plus, “she can dance. She has such swagger.” Meanwhile, Antin compares Sayers’ “big, belty, pop sound” to that of Rihanna, and says Van Oppen will likely rap on the album, which she expects will be released by the end of the year.

As for the Dolls’ new sound, “My motto is, don’t fix what isn’t broken. The Pussycat Dolls are sexy and gorgeous, and the music is fun and has an urban pop vibe. It’s going to fit the same mold.”

And as if that’s not enough, Antin is teaming up with Nigel Lythgoe and Kim Kardashian, who will work as an executive producer, on a reality show that will follow the launch of the band.

But will a Pussycat Dolls reincarnation work? “When people see the girls in action and hear our music, everyone is going to fall in love with them. People will be blown away. It’s the exact right recipe for the new Pussycat Dolls.”