Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell
By Amy Sohn
4/5
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About this ebook
Sex and The City: Kiss and Tell is the ultimate fan bible, offering a comprehensive behind the scenes guide to NYC and its most fabulous foursome -- the friends and boyfriends, the bar rooms and bedrooms, the infatuations and fashions. Packed with information and photos not available anywhere else, it will fascinate and delight its readers with wholly original material from the show's stars, producers, writers, costume designers, and more.
It includes all-access passes to the sets, production offices, and wardrobe closets at the Silvercup studios; an insider's tour of the sets; and a detailed map of the bistros and boutiques where Carrie and friends sip, shop, and seduce. Each of the show's major players are interviewed, offering revealing, intimate biographies and sharing the true life stories that inspire every episode. An elegant, beautiful edition with an exclusive introduction from Sarah Jessica Parker herself, this book is every bit as intoxicating as the pink Cosmopolitans sipped by Carrie and friends at Manhattan's chichest hot spots.
Amy Sohn
Amy Sohn is the author of several novels, including Prospect Park West and Motherland. A former columnist at New York magazine, she has also written for Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, The Nation, and The New York Times. She has been a writing fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts, Art Omi, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. A native New Yorker, she lives in Brooklyn with her daughter.
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Reviews for Sex and the City
5 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you love Sex and the City the show,you will love this book. It is a fabulous memento of the entire 6 seasons of the show. Great coffee table book!
The book is a photo journal as well as a complete history of the show.Photos and descriptions of the ladies apartments,wardrobes,jewelry,the men,settings etc.Interviews with the actors and complete story of how each character was planned out from apartments to clothing! There is even a quiz to test your knowledge.Love it!
Book preview
Sex and the City - Amy Sohn
Introduction
On Friday, March 27, 1997, I met a man named Darren Star who asked me to play the lead in the new HBO television series, Sex and the City. On Monday, June 2, only two and a half months later, I began filming the first day of what would become one of the great, if not greatest, professional experiences of my three decades as a working actor.
Some of the original elements of the show that first attracted me were the fresh voice of a very specific single woman in a very specific city; the candid, forthright, and intimate friendships of four women; the uniqueness and importance of these friendships; the heartbreaks, hopes, loneliness, and triumphs of being single; and the way in which we illustrate our love for our home, New York City. We have tried to remain true to these elements while continuing to grow and challenge ourselves to reflect the passing of years and the changes in our city.
Today, in late spring 2002, my feelings of affection, admiration, love, and respect for Sex and the City—the show, the extraordinarily talented writers, cast, and crew, the company I work for—only deepen, which seems impossible when my heart has been so full for so long.
But perhaps nobody has been more important than our viewers, whom we cherish and honor, those who were with us early on, as well as our most recent audience. We hope people will be able to read or look through this book and have a more full understanding of what the Sex and the City experience has been like for me and the whole Sex and the City crew. As I looked through pictures from seasons past and remembered stories from the set, I felt unbelievably proud to be a part of this show. But the thing I am most proud of is that you have been there with us. Because you are indeed truly a part of the Sex and the City family.
This book is for you.
IN THE BEGINNING
Once upon a time on a small island not too far away, there lived four smart, beautiful women who were all very good friends.
Carrie Bradshaw was a journalist who chronicled the battle of the sexes in her popular New York Star column, Sex and the City.
Charlotte York was an art dealer who felt the best way to get a man was to play by the rules, Samantha Jones was a public relations executive who believed women could have sex like men, and Miranda Hobbes was a corporate lawyer frustrated by the indignities of dating but reluctant to settle for less than she deserved. Two of the women were blondes, one was a brunette, and one was a fiery redhead. But all four had one thing in common: none of them had found Mr. Right.
These women liked to eat, drink, date, and shop (one liked buying shoes so much she almost wound up penniless), but mainly they liked to talk. When it came to their love lives, it seemed they could never agree on anything. They debated a wide variety of hot topics: marriage, divorce, pregnancy, honesty, fidelity, compatibility, and commitment. They discussed favorite positions, strange new predilections, and the ever-popular location, location, location.
They yelled and even got into fights, but when push came to shove, they were always there for one another.
Sometimes it was hard to believe four such very different women could wind up friends in the first place. But they lived on the one shimmering island in this world where the strangest sorts of people have a way of coming together. Where people get around in small yellow buggies, go to delis at four in the morning, drink big, pink cocktails, and run into exes when they least want to see them. A city of towering heels and nerves of steel, so bold and alive that no matter what day of the week it is, there’s always a party somewhere. An island with so many single guys that you can find a man
right inside its name. The island was called … Manhattan.
the pilot
Sex and the City began as a glint in the eye of Darren Star. In 1995 the prolific and savvy television producer, best known for creating Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210, was making a new show for CBS, Central Park West, and living in New York City. He became a fan of a column called Sex and the City,
written by a Manhattan gal-about-town, Candace Bushnell, and published in the snarky pink weekly, the New York Observer.
The column chronicled the dating exploits of models, modelizers, bicycle boys, psychomoms, and toxic bachelors—mocking them for their narcissism in a smart, laconic style. Carrie Bradshaw was Bushnell’s alter ego, and it was said that Carrie’s on-again off-again boyfriend, Mr. Big, was modeled on then-Vogue publisher Ron Galotti.
After Bushnell interviewed Star for a magazine article in conjunction with the launch of Central Park West, the two became friends, and he began thinking about creating a television show based on Sex and the City.
What really got him, Star says, was the idea of a single woman in her thirties writing about relationships and using that column as a tool of self-discovery about her own life, sometimes even unbeknownst to herself.
Having cut his teeth on drama, Star wanted to try his hand at a comedy, a comedy about sex from a female point of view, which was a totally uncharted arena on TV. He had some early discussions with ABC, but felt that the network couldn’t fulfill what he had in mind. "They weren’t even sure they could call it Sex and the City," he recalls. In addition, he didn’t like the way networks tended to handle adult sexuality: in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge style, euphemistic and adolescent. Instead he wanted to create a true adult comedy in which the sex could be handled in an up-front and honest way.
He didn’t want it to be shot in the traditional sitcom format, with a live audience, a set, and four cameras. The show would be single-camera (like a film), similar to Melrose Place, with no audience and no laugh track. He knew that style would work well on HBO because it would be easily compatible with movies. I wanted people to be able to watch the show and not feel like they were suddenly watching television,
says Star. I wanted it to bridge the gap between a television series and a movie.
In the summer of 1996 he approached HBO with the idea. They embraced the concept immediately and gave him a deal to write and produce a pilot.
When Bushnell’s column was published in book format in 1996, Star found his core characters: Miranda Hobbes, Samantha Jones, and Charlotte Ross (whose last name was changed to York for the show), all of whom were featured in the book. At one point I was thinking it would be an anthology series,
he says, "just Carrie and a different story every week. But when Sex and the City became a book, I decided to give her these friends and have her explore the issues with them."
He finished the pilot in January 1997 and hired Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan) to direct. As for casting, the only actress he wanted to play Carrie was Sarah Jessica Parker, of whom he was a huge fan. If you have an emotional character who has sex freely, is independent, and talks about sex, you have to find an actress who can make that character sympathetic,
says Star. I felt Sarah Jessica would bring a sense of romanticism and humanity to the character. I needed the combination of her and the role.
When Parker heard about the project, she was reluctant to sign on. I hadn’t done a television show in ten years,
she says, and was content doing movies and theater. My agent said,
Normally I would discourage you from doing something like this, but there’s something about this part. Read the pilot script and we’ll talk about it afterwards.’"
She did and, intrigued by the final scene between Carrie and Big, agreed to have lunch with Darren Star, who offered to make her a producer if she signed on. She’s the kind of actress where as a writer you would feel really comfortable with her throwing in her two cents,
Star says. I felt it was important for her to be more than just the actor.
He was very persuasive,
Parker remembers. He’s a dog with a bone, which is why he’s achieved so much.
She showed the script to her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, and her brother, writer and director Pippin Parker, and asked for feedback. They told her she’d be foolish not to do it, so she signed on.
With Parker on board, Star and renowned New York casting directors Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, and Kerry Barden and L.A. casting director Ellie Kanner assembled the rest of the cast. They cast Kristin Davis, with whom Star had worked on Melrose Place, as Charlotte; veteran New York theater and film actress Cynthia Nixon as Miranda; Willie Garson as Carrie’s gay pal Stanford Blatch; Chris Noth as Mr. Big; and, finally, femme fatale Kim Cattrall as Samantha.
The pilot was shot in June, over ten days. The personalities of the four women were all visible-Samantha had an uninhibited, free-spirited approach to sex, Charlotte was a rosy-eyed idealist, Miranda was pithy and deadpan, and Carrie was inquisitive, smart, and yearning. The eyebrows were a little less tweezed, the lighting wasn’t wonderful, and Carrie was a brunette, but the roots of the show were all there: the city, the dialogue, the sex, the friendship, and, most importantly, the chemistry.
What you can see from the pilot,
says Star, "and what Sarah Jessica brought, is the idea that here’s a character who still hasn’t given up on the idea of love. That romanticism is very much alive in this character. And the chemistry between Chris and Sarah was electric, which is why casting is so important. I could see the series in the pilot. That’s when I thought, We have a show here."
Star wanted to create a true adult comedy where the sex could be handled in an up-front, honest way.
I’m missing the bride gene. I should be put in a test tube and studied.
—CARRIE BRADSHAW
CARRIE BRADSHAW
PLAYED BY SARAH JESSICA PARKER
Writing Carrie is about opening up your heart and your head at the same time,
says writer and executive producer Michael Patrick King. Carrie Bradshaw, gal-about-town and New York Star columnist, is the show’s heart, head, and, quite literally, its voice. With her intelligence, loyalty, mind-boggling fashion sensibility, and open heart, she is the best friend every girl wants and the girlfriend every guy dreams of.
While audiences watch the show for everything from the heels to the comebacks to the come-ons, Carrie’s search for a man while she struggles to maintain her independence has always been the show’s central emotional story line. Unlike other television heroines, Carrie does not see marriage as the be-all and end-all of life. This tension—a longing for connection coupled with an innate instinct to stay her own course—is what makes her so intriguing to watch and her stories so intriguing to follow.
Carrie is on a journey,
says Sarah Jessica Parker, whether she wants to admit it or not. She is looking for contentment. Whether that means she is alone in the end or with somebody or with a roommate, I don’t know. But it is a recognizable journey.
Carrie has an uncompromising generosity of spirit. She dated a man who wanted to pee on her, yet gave the decision some serious thought. She went out with a bisexual guy and, instead of judging him, accompanied him to a party at which she was the only hetero. And in the most quintessential Carrie moment, she got into a cab with Natasha, the bleeding wife of the man she was having an affair with, to ensure she arrived safely at the hospital.
Much of Carrie’s growth has come from her two serious relationships—with Big and with Aidan Shaw. With Big, Carrie was at her most extreme—belligerent, pained, sexy, naive, protective, worshipful, posturing, and real. When they said goodbye at the end of Season Four, after a carriage ride through Central Park, it was hard to imagine how she, or we, could ever live a Big-free life.
Aidan appealed to Carrie’s more self-assertive instincts. A stable, down-home good guy, he forced her to examine her own commitmentphobia, her own Big-esque qualities. Aidan’s patience and adoration seemed to soothe her restless spirit and enable her to grow with him. Yet after two attempts at a relationship—one that led to an affair and one that led to an engagement—Carrie remained conflicted, and Aidan left her. After four years, our heroine was once again alone.
While Carrie’s relationships with men may e charged and difficult, her relationships with Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha are always strong and vibrant. Though she gets into fights with them—over having an extramarital affair, her pattern with Big, even her choice to get engaged—each of the three women feels Carrie is her best friend. She is supportive, a good listener, and seldom judgmental, which enables them to confide in her in ways they might not confide in one another.
Carrie is a blithe spirit, smart, questioning, striving. She is always on the go, ever vital, and ever dynamic; and because she is so complex, not just any man will do. And so we root for her to find one who is just as special as she, a soul mate for the woman who is the soul of the show.
BIO: Parker has been working in film, television, and theater for nearly thirty years. Her film work includes State