FORMER FAIR CITY actress Claudia Carroll has denied heavily plagiarising lines from Sex and the City and other well-known US sitcoms for one of her bestselling novels.

Carroll, who played Nicola Prendergast in the RTÉ soap, has written seven books – including ‘Personally, I Blame My Fairy Godmother’, published last year by Avon.

That book was picked up by a London-based blogger Charlee Iddon, who spotted major similarities between some of the lines in Carroll’s book and the well-known HBO series inspired by Candice Bushnell’s books.

The blogger wrote a posted outlining some of the similarities, including Carroll’s line:

I panic dated… then I panic married now I’ve met the one

That line bears similarities to a line from Sex And The City:

I panic dated, now I’ve panic married just before I met the one

Carroll:

He’s like a cute little seal pup… which you want to club

SATC:

He’s like a sweet little seal pup. Which you sometimes wanna club

Carroll:

My top tip is to destroy all photos of you as a couple, where he looks hot and you look happy. It could set the whole recovery process back months if you happen to stumble across it at a weak moment

SATC:

My top break up rule – destroy all pictures where he looks sexy and you look happy. If you happen to stumble across it in a weak moment, it could set the recovery process back by months

Other works with which Iddon noticed similarities were US sitcoms Friends and Will and Grace, and Bridget Jones’ Diary.

While Iddon accused Carroll of stealing the lines outright, Carroll denied the claims through a statement issued by her publicist.

“I wasn’t lifting expressions from TV shows,” her statement to yesterday’s Metro Herald stated. “I haven’t even seen Sex And The City, not since the series finished” in early 2004.

However, we all live in a pop culture and these type [sic] of expressions  have filtered down into our daily conversations. From my own dating experiences, these type [sic] of expressions come up all the time… who knows what is original anymore??