THE “Sex and the City” group is doing seven weeks in Morocco. Kristin Davis and Kim Cattrall are at the Amanjena Hotel, Sarah Jessica‘s at the newly redone Mamounia, where the lobby’s so dark you can’t recognize anyone unless you came in with them, Cynthia Nixon‘s at the Es Saadi. Their time spent together is strictly in front of the cameras. No socializing off camera. Even when Kristin and Kim booked dinner reservations at their same hotel same hour, it was different tables.
The Marrakesh souk is filled with movie equipment — gantries, lights, dressing rooms. Since the script deals with Samantha meeting a guy from Dubai who’s loaded and takes them all there, they also co-opted the as yet unopened Mandarin Oriental to make it into a hotel in Dubai. Interior scenes were filmed last month here in Williamsburg in a Moroccan-type club setting.
A FAVORITE Thanksgiving memory. Traditionally the Macy’s Parade launches from 79th and CPW, gateway to our Natural History Museum. One time, as floats gathered, balloon runners lined up and clowns were getting in place, a forest of “dancing Christmas trees” — with several hours of marching ahead — needed to go. Not go on the parade route. Go. Plain go. Use the john. Ten tap-dancing “Christmas trees,” lower branches all sparkly and widely extended, bulbs lit up, couldn’t get into the porta-potties. And, if they could have fitted through, they’d maybe electrocute themselves. But they desperately needed to go.
Museum boardmember Robert Zimmerman to the rescue. He led them inside through a private door and into the Gents and Ladies . . . thus saving the tap-dancing Christmas trees from being tapped out even before Santa and Snoopy sailed forth.
THANKSGIVING. Not exactly the sea son to start a lawsuit, but a personal trainer named Ronald Joseph is. Suing the separated wife of Lyor Cohen, who was Russell Simmons‘ partner at Def Jam records and is now vice chairman with Edgar Bronfman at Warner Music. Former employee Mr. Joseph claims Mrs. Cohen owes him back pay. His attorney Tom Ricotta confirms papers have been filed. Mrs. Amy Cohen‘s attorney Kenneth Margolis‘ sole statement to me? “I prefer not to discuss it.” Both Mr. Cohen’s p.r. man Matthew Traub and lawyer Neil Goldstein say Mr. Cohen is no party to this action. Seriously unhappy Mr. Joseph, however, alleges some highly unpleasant personal allegations and is “also in the process of working with a ghostwriter to get the whole story out.”
Oy. And a happy holiday to you, too.
ONE P. Diddy 40th birthday gift was Gund’s Hip Hop Randy Birthday Bear. The thing sings the birthday song, sways with the music and comes dressed in hip-hop gear with gold-plated necklace chain and medal . . . Glad Jordan’s Princess Firyal won her Pierre Hotel duplex with the Fifth Avenue windows and hand-carved banister she was to share with her late multimillionaire Lionel Pincus, whose family fought to keep it from her. I viewed it recently. Glorious . . . Christmas gifts: The French Les Garconnes collection, solid perfumes to carry in your purse, inspired by scents of the roaring ’20s . . . Olivia Wilde took her last name from Oscar Wilde. “I was in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the time, and he, having taken on social abuse with an air of humor and grace, inspired me to forge my own path.” . . . Reminder, go see Cirque du Soleil at the Wamu Theater, Madison Square Garden. Treat yourselves.
MICHAEL Tucker, from TV’s long- running “LA Law,” is out with a cookbook memoir. “Family Meals: Coming Together To Care for an Aging Parent.” It begins when he and actress wife Jill Eikenberry are in early retirement in their 350-year-old Umbria, Italy, farmhouse. Comes next a family member’s death, then Jill’s mom slides into dementia, then moving back, then nursing homes. Gentle, sweet, it’s perfect for the holidays.
MORE books. Academy Award and Emmy nominee Shohreh Aghdash loo, who played Saddam’s wife in one TV movie and whose films are barred from her native Iran because she speaks out against the regime and who says her home villagers, when allowed to see government-permitted films, can only view them on a handheld bedsheet, is doing an autobio. Four chapters finished so far. Title: “Iran to the Oscars.”
THANKSGIVING. In those days in Eng land when our forefathers and fore mothers left to come to the New World, there existed a law that a man might hit his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence the phrase “rule of thumb.” No wonder they set sail to come here, right?
A RESTAURANT delivery man walked into a 55th and First hair salon offer ing a buy on pork chops. Fifteen for 20 bucks. Such a good deal, Bonnie Lee Sanders bought them and took them home. They were so stuck together that they had to be separated with a hammer. The top ones were top quality. After that, downhill. Probably rejects, she says. Moral of the story? Don’t buy pork chops in a hair salon.
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
TAKING the holiday off . . . see you again Tuesday . . .