Women Behaving Boldly: Is "Sex and the City" the modern-day "Little Women"?

Sarah Liss writes:
"Sex and the City made its TV debut when I was a teenager. I was hooked from the beginning, though I didn’t immediately figure out why... I could understand why it spoke to me on a camp level — Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte spoke with the snappy patter of sassy queens and sported over-the-top ensembles that verged on drag... But as I got to know the show’s characters, their individual quirks started to feel familiar... These archetypes existed long before the advent of Sex and the City. For anti-Sex stalwarts who remain perplexed by the popularity of the randy HBO series, I would argue that its appeal has a lot to do with the enduring legacy of Little Women ... " READ MORE

Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte give Indiana Jones a good whipping at the box office!

Associated Press reports:
Sarah Jessica Parker and her gal pals have not lost their sex appeal. The big-screen Sex and the City - reuniting Parker and TV co-stars Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon - strutted to a $55.7 million opening weekend, far exceeding Hollywood's box office expectations. That was nearly twice the forecast by distributor Warner Bros., whose head of distribution, Dan Fellman, said he had hoped the movie might deliver a $30 million debut. "Women power," Fellman said. "It was outstanding this weekend."

Sex and the City put up numbers never before seen for a movie aimed mainly at women, who do not tend to rush out in huge numbers for opening weekends the way males do. "This is a blockbuster for women. This was to women what Indiana Jones and Star Wars, let's say, are to men," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers. The film is on its way to becoming a $100 million hit that could spawn more sequels.

Sex and the City Quick Facts:

Had the best debut ever for an R-rated comedy (topping the $45.1 million opening of American Pie 2).

No. 5 on the all-time list among R-rated films (behind The Matrix Reloaded, $91.8 million; The Passion of the Christ, $83.8 million; 300, $70.9 million; and Hannibal, $58 million).

Box Office Results
The weekend's other new wide release, Universal's fright flick The Strangers, debuted solidly at No. 3 with $20.7 million. It stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple terrorized by masked invaders at their vacation home.

1. "Sex and the City," $55.7 million.
2. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $46 million.
3. "The Strangers," $20.7 million.
4. "Iron Man," $14 million.
5. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," $13 million.
6. "What Happens in Vegas," $6.9 million.
7. "Baby Mama," $2.2 million.
8. "Speed Racer," $2.1 million.
9. "Made of Honor," $2 million.
10. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," $1 million.

Rating the men of "Sex and the City"

As Sex and the City: The Movie heats up the big screen, EW looks back at the lovers who made us swoon -- like a pair of Manolos -- and those who made us run away screaming (think ratty sneakers).

Read more of: 'Sex and the City': The Suitors We Loved and Hated

Test your knowledge of Sex (and the City)

Sean Monkman writes:
Sex and the City debuted on cable TV in 1998 and became an instant hit. The series revolved around sex-and-relationships columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her three best friends – Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha – as they navigated life, love and fashion in New York. The series completed its six-season run in 2004, but the beloved quartet has reunited for the Sex and the City movie. Test your knowledge of Sex and the City with this fun quiz.

Film Review: Sex and the City

Matt Stevens writes:
The cultural phenom that had us all slurping Cosmos and sporting tutus and Jimmy Choos (okay, not all of us) finally sashays into theaters after a four-year wait. This stylish NYC romance delivers, especially for voracious Sex addicts—but isn't a 142-minute running-time overcompensating? Want the whole review? Read on...

Related
Entertainment Weekly's film review of Sex and the City

"Sex and the City" Director Michael Patrick King Debunks 'Just Gay Boys Talking' Myth

Jim Slotek writes:
(New York City, NY) It's always been said of Sex and the City. "You know the secret of that show," actress Parker Posey once remarked to me during Sex and the City's heyday in the early '00s. "It's just gay boys talking, not women." And they're still saying it. On the very day a few weeks ago when I spoke with the director and entire cast of the Sex and the City movie, the New York Times ran a summer film roundup feature in which critic Manohla Dargis wrote that the show's "four bosomy buddies are really gay men in drag."

Sex and the City director Michael Patrick King (pictured), who shepherded the show for six years as exec producer and who, like its creator Darren Star, is openly gay -- demurs good-naturedly. No, he doesn't do drag. "I've never had Manolo (Blahniks) on, I've never been in high heels. I really have seen enough shoes (working on the show). It's like a gynecologist that goes home and says, 'Honey please, I've seen enough of those today.' And here's another thing, I rarely say the word 'Fabulous!' because I've typed it a million times."

There's no doubt there is an urban-gay element to the story of columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her friends Samantha (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). But the show, based on the quasi-autobiographical book by Candace Bushnell was a complex soup of sexual input. The 10 story consultants were seven straight women, two gay men and one straight man. "Why do people always talk about how gay men are writing the women and they never talk about how straight women are writing the men?" King goes on. "It's interesting, Mr. Big (Carrie's boyfriend -- played by Chris Noth -- who is at the centre of the movie's will-they-or-won't-they-get-married plot) is written by women and they wrote him well and understand him. I'm not a doctor, but if I had to write ER I'd know to use the words 'rib-splitter' or 'STAT!' Here it's words like Manolo or Prada." READ MORE

Related
Kim Cattrall's NEW Interview in The Advocate
"Sex and the City" Hunk Jason Lewis Interview

Jason Lewis Interview

Sex and the City's Jason Lewis recently did an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Here's an excerpt:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What it was like to go back into the world of Sex and the City after four years?

JASON LEWIS: It was nice. It was really — it was actually kind of phenomenal, because it was nice to get to work with those people again, first off. They used most of the same crew from the top to the bottom of pretty much everyone that was on the TV show. So it was like a little reunion. And in terms of doing the work, I think they did a — that's kind of a hard road to hoe. They've got a lot of audience expectations, time's moved forward, and I think they did a good job of delivering what that reality would be. So it was fun to work on.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was the dynamic among the four ladies, etc.? There's been so many rumors and gossip about them not getting along.

JASON LEWIS: I think that's what it is — rumors and gossip. People love rumors and gossip. Honestly, most of my stuff was with Kim alone. But the few scenes when we were all together, everyone was completely fine with each other, as they always were. I never really experienced the animosity you guys seem to experience solely in the press.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What has been your weirdest fan encounter?

JASON LEWIS: Weirdest fan encounter from the show? I once had a woman lift my shirt up and rub my belly while her husband was taking a picture of us. But then everyone asked me about that after I mentioned it and I felt terrible for the woman, so I stopped saying it.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did she just run up to you, lift up your shirt, and rub your stomach?

JASON LEWIS: No, I was doing a charity thing. I was en route. I was in Kentucky and I hadn't eaten all day, so I stopped by a bar to get a burger and a beer and they were there. And she asked if she could take a picture and I said sure. We were standing next to each other and she just lifted up my shirt and started rubbing my belly and her husband was like, ''Honey, what are you doing?'' And she said, ''It's OK. I've seen him naked on TV.'' And he says, ''No! No, honey. I don't think it is.'' I didn't have to say anything. I'm sitting there just going, What are you doing, lady?

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What is it like being a part of this phenomenon?

JASON LEWIS: I feel pretty lucky. It definitely helps you in terms of getting other work and whatnot, but this is some of the really special TV that's been in the world and I got to be on it and I certainly had not much more to do than say the wonderful lines that were written for me. So I feel blessed.

She's Bringing Sexy Back : Gay Icon Kim Cattrall's NEW Interview in The Advocate

Will Doig writes:
In this summer’s Sex and the City, Kim Cattrall is back for more. But the woman who symbolizes sex with no strings isn’t anything like her screen persona—except of course when she is.

“Oh, my God, look at these prices!” gasps Kim Cattrall, her eyes bugging in horror at the Four Seasons’ continental breakfast menu. And she’s right -- $30 for lox on a bagel is insane. But still: Samantha Jones? Wringing her hands over menu prices? Shouldn’t she be ordering mimosas with impunity and fearlessly flirting with our waiter, a Hugo Boss model with Crest Whitestrips teeth?

Actors encounter this delusion all the time: the expectation that they are the character they’re known for -- in Cattrall’s case, a brazen practitioner of sexual immoderation. It’s a common enough problem that using it to open a magazine profile feels a little clichéd. But for Cattrall, who for six seasons played a role that is now inked indelibly on the American consciousness, it’s a bigger issue than for most. Even I’m a little shocked when our server turns out not to be a statuesque Hugo Boss model but a small Asian woman who cries out, “Anything for you!” when Cattrall asks for some salt. “Some people have that lifestyle,” she says of Samantha’s “appetite,” as she calls it. “I don’t. I never have.” She’ll reassert this fact several times during our chat -- you get the sense it’s the one point she really wants to make sure ends up in the article.

For our interview, she’s not even wearing much makeup, and her shoes look suspiciously comfortable. Her carefully chosen words are spoken almost sotto voce, nothing like Samantha’s voice, so sassy-kitten it’s almost vaudevillian. “People book me on jobs and expect Samantha to show up,” which can be exasperating. Why me? Cattrall must think. No one expects Kristin Davis to arrive at an event as a relentlessly sunny type-A husband hunter. For some reason, Samantha’s personality stubbornly adheres to its vessel, possibly because it represents an ideal, the kind of person we like to imagine there’d be more of, if the world were a different place.

It’s such a powerful persona that Cattrall refers to Samantha in the third person without even seeming to notice she’s doing so. “She has a tremendous fan base,” she says of her character, as if talking up a colleague. By “fan base,” of course, one can deduce to whom she’s referring. Could Samantha Jones be any gayer? Saucy, witty, usually single, sexually unabashed, and on the far side of 40, she’s also the oldest of the four Sex and the City women by nearly 10 years. “And definitely the most theatrical,” Cattrall says. “I think [the producers] wanted her a little bit older because when she speaks there’s a life experience there that weighs in.”

In other words, she’s the very definition of a diva... MORE

QueerTwoCents.com

SPOILER ALERT: "Sex and The City" Movie Plot Revealed?

New York Magazine writes:
This past Tuesday night, Cynthia Nixon let slip to an interviewer that in the upcoming Sex and the City movie, one of the characters dies. She refused to say which one, but we think we might know... MORE.

QueerTwoCents.com

"Sex and the City" Gals Reunite; Cynthia Nixon Honored with a Point Courage Award

People reports:
The stars of Sex and the City: The Movie squealed happily as they reunited on the red carpet Monday night at a Point Foundation benefit in New York City. Getting all four actresses in one place is "very rare," Sarah Jessica Parker, wearing a silvery dress and shoes by Yves St. Laurent, told PEOPLE. "On the set, we eventually got used to seeing each other, so we didn't scream as much." Meanwhile the reunion was going straight to Kim Cattrall's head. "It's like champagne," she said of seeing all her fellow costars. "It's intoxicating. My heart flutters a little bit." So what brought them all out? Parker, Cattrall and Kristin Davis were there to cheer on Cynthia Nixon, who was being honored with a Point Courage Award. (The organization offers scholarships to gay, lesbian and transgender youths.) MORE

QueerTwoCents.com

Sex and the City Fashion Faux Pas?

Here's the lovely Sarah Jessica Parker in one of the many outfits her character Carrie Bradshaw wears in the upcoming Sex and the City feature film. Now, I'm not a fashion expert and have never cared about what the girls wore on the show BUT this outfit looks like a deflated beach ball has attacked her! Maybe it's just too avant-garde for the likes of me to appreciate.

- QTC

Sex and the City: Behind the Scenes Expose

PinkNews writes:
For some gay men, it was among the best television ever made. For others it was, in the words of the talking dog in Family Guy, a show about three hookers and their mother. In any case one gay man has lots of happy memories of Sex and the City - and he is willing to share them. For money. Clifford Streit, the former manager of Candace Bushnell, is reportedly working on "Unbecoming Stanford," a behind the scenes expose. Bushnell's sex column in the New York Observer was the inspiration for the show. SATC's gay best friend character (cliche? noooooo!) Stanford was apparently a charicature of Clifford Streit. Anyway, among the revelations, as told to the New York Daily News: Gay producer Darren Star turned Ashton Kutcher down for a part in the show because he was unconvinced he would go anywhere. Kim Cattrall caused tensions on set by stealing all the limelight. Two on-screen lovers were doing it in real life too. There must be more dirt than that - get publishing Clifford!