‘Push Girls’: Centerfolds for adversity

Four gorgeous girlfriends are wheelchair-bound.

— Four gorgeous LOS ANGELES women click cocktail glasses on a patio bar as one flirty blonde with a Valley Girl-endorsed name (Tiphany) disses her soon-to-be ex boyfriend for wanting to sleep with others. It’s an all-too familiar conversation on reality TV, one that would be drowned out by Kardashian gossip and “Real Housewives” catcalling, if it wasn’t for this quartet’s unique bond: None of them can get up from the table.

“Push Girls,” which premieres Monday on Sundance Channel, could have easily been a woeis-me series about how any of these wheelchairbound friends could have been the next J. Lo if it wasn’t for the tragic circumstances that robbed them of the ability to walk. In fact, the first episode opens with each woman sharing how car accidents and a ruptured blood vessel led to their condition.

But these women are too feisty to throw themselves a pity party. They want to drive the same hot cars, party in the same hot clubs, date the same hot guys, and wear the same hot dresses as every other wannabe in Tinseltown.

“Basically, we’re four queens sitting on our thrones,” said Auti Angel, a former hip-hop dancer for N.W.A. Not that the show’s stars can simply roll with it. In one scene, Tiphany Adams has trouble negotiating a set of stairs leading to a nightclub. Mia Schaikewitz, a one-time competitive swimmer, faces the perils of returning to the pool for the first time since her paralysis. And Angela Rockwood Nguyen, a former lingerie model, has to deal with a stack of bills, a separation from her husband and the reluctance of the modeling industry to bring her back into the fold.

But the women agree that the biggest challenge they’ve faced since being confined to a wheelchair is making sure their selfconfidence didn’t become as dead as their legs.

“One thing I learned is that a lot of people lose themselves,” Nguyen said. “I think the common denominator with us is, yeah, our wheelchairs, but also our spirit and how we just live life to the fullest.