Sarah Jessica Parker

There was a clear division over the weekend between the haves and the have nots—as in those movies that had an audience and those that did not. Each of the top four movies in Manhattan averaged near or over $20,000, while every other movie in the top ten, except for The Visitor (no. 7)—which averaged $23,500 at two theaters—averaged below $6,000.  read more »

Manhattan has gotten too expensive even for Carrie Bradshaw. Sarah Jessica Parker tells The Daily News that the outer boroughs is where it's at now for young things trying to imitate the idealized lifestyle her character once advertised. [NY Daily News]  read more »

THE PERFECT SCENT: A YEAR INSIDE THE PERFUME INDUSTRY IN PARIS AND NEW YORK
By Chandler Burr
Henry Holt, 306 pages, $25

“The idea that you like something can lead to the idea that you know something about it,” Sarah Jessica Parker told Chandler Burr, author of The Perfect Scent. “Which is, of course, not necessarily the case.” Luckily for Ms. Parker, a crack team at Coty, the $3 billion perfume conglomerate, helped her create Lovely, the Sex and the City star’s first signature fragrance.

Mr. Burr, the scent critic for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, juxtaposes the development and launch of Lovely with the restructuring and marketing efforts of the perfume division of the luxury brand Hermès. Written mostly for beauty industry insiders who’ll easily recognize the cast of characters, Mr. Burr’s book showcases his brilliance as a writer, though his voice is often buried by a too-generous supply of detail.  read more »

A Project Runway-like show that replaces designers with aspiring artists and sewing machines with palettes and sculpting knives?  read more »

Sex and the City’s Mr. Big just welcomed his own Mr. Little. Actor Chris Noth and longtime girlfriend Tara Wilson, who named their 7-pound, 10-counce son Orion Christopher, have already received well-wishes from S.A.T.C. co-star Sarah Jessica Parker.

“I'm thrilled for him because I think first of all he's going to make a wonderful, wonderful father,” the 42-year-old actress told an ET reporter at the Sundance Film Festival, where Ms. Parker is promoting her new film Smart People—a romantic comedy co-staring Dennis Quaid and Thomas Haden Church. “He found a lovely lady to have a child with. It's the perfect time for him and I think he's very ready,” she added.  read more »

The proprietors of the Old Town Bar & Restaurant are usually pretty accurate when it comes to advertising.

So the bar's brand-new 2008 calendar magnets gave us pause:

Did Carrie really meet Mr. Big at the Old Town?

Let's go to the tape--er, complete DVD set:  read more »

Sex and the City addicts will want to grab an ice pack out of the freezer, because the ultimate cheap tease can now get into your home. Yup, that’s right. After taking the city hostage for months—clogging Midtown arteries and shuttering SoHo eateries—the SATC feature film is finally in post-production. And that means the hype is just getting started, beginning with what’s sure to be a barrage of playful ads on television, enticing spreads in fashion glossies and, at least in this town, the odd 50-foot-tall Sarah Jessica Parker on the side of a building.

The trailer offers few surprises. It starts with the first line of the classic, upbeat jingle Fever. And while we may never know how much S.J.P. loves us, HBO and New Line Cinema definitely do. After all, they really needn’t pour a bunch of money into fancy promotions. If they build it, we will come! A decent Web site, some late-night talk show appearances and movie listings would probably suffice. Still, they give us a rapturous, twirling Carrie Bradshaw in a wedding gown, a breathy voiceover (“They say nothing lasts forever; dreams change, trends come and go, but friendships never go out of style.”), a wide-angle shot of the ladies tromping down Fifth, shopping bags securely in-hand. Then, of course, they really stick it to us—the kicker: a lingering, fairytale smooch between Ms. Bradshaw and Mr. Big. Spring can’t come soon enough.

Semi-related shameless self-promotion: The Observer's Sex and the City archives

Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress who is frequently confused soap-opera-fan-style with Carrie Bradshaw, the character she portrayed on HBO hit series Sex and the City, who was a writer and not a fashion designer anyway (and based on former Observer scribe Candace Bushnell, btw), has been rewarded for being the beneficiary of a fantastic wardrobe: she has her own fashion line!  read more »

Patricia Field, Sex and the City’s controversial costume designer (who has become largely famous for her often zany clothing choices for Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw) can’t imagine dressing a more ideal body than Ms. Parker’s.

“Sarah Jessica Parker has the best body that I have experienced and probably will experience in the future, because I mean, she’s just got great proportion, great tone, great movement, grace,” she continued, “She’s got long legs, a high ass. She’s miniature, but it’s all perfect.”

Last night at Carnegie Hall’s “interSEXtion” after-party for The Notables—the institution’s membership program for young music enthusiasts—Ms. Field showed up at D’Or at Amalia on West 57th Street wearing a white faux-fur jacket over a black miniskirt and tank top. She had just come from a panel discussion, moderated by our very own Simon Doonan, where Ms. Field was joined by the likes of designer Zac Posen, photographer Mark Seliger, rocker Tommy Ramone and lifestyle entrepreneur Damon Dash. Ms. Field’s sparkly pink purse was about the size of a lipstick bag, so she had wedged her black Motorola cell phone between a couple of very tan breasts.

Ms. Field did go on to say that she is aware of critics who claim that her fashion sorcery is, ultimately, less than alchemic. “I don’t say anything to them, because basically I don’t really have a face-to-face confrontation with people that say those things, or that say they love it. I don’t really respond to it, because, otherwise, what would I do?” she inquired, a pair of sunglasses tucked into her raspberry-red mane. “I don’t really think about any of that. I just try to think about what makes sense to me and hopefully others will like it; I’m not really that concerned,” she added confidently.

Ms. Field, who owns a clothing boutique on the Bowery, said that her favorite designers were probably John Galliano and Diane von Furstenberg—the former designer for his “air of theatrics and fantasy” and Ms. Von Furstenberg because “she makes clothes that women can wear.”

Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons, who’ve renovated residences for Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler and playwright John Guare, roundly reject the cold glassy aesthetic.  read more »

Here’s what the world needs: one more mass-market celebrity clothing line!  read more »

The MTA board meet at their headquarters.

HUD recognizes agencies for their outstanding performance at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. Sarah Jessica Parker, now a UNICEF Ambassador, hosts a Halloween Party at the UNICEF House. The Public Service Commission holds a public hearing on the Long Island City power outages at the Hellenic Center in Astoria.

The Stonewall Democrats hold their monthly meeting at the LGBT Center featuring Alan Van Capelle and Hank Sheinkopf.

DL21C and NYU Law School Democrats host "Blogs and Politics: A Critical Look at New York's Political New Media Landscape."

Public housing tenants protest vacancies and mismanaged elevator repairs in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

A forum on new voting technology will be held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Russell Simmons and Rabbi Marc Schneier lead a panel discussion on black and Jewish race relations at Columbia University.

Nita Lowey addresses a summit on hunger and homelessness at the Generoso Pope Foundation in Tuckahoe.

Nick Spano and Vincent Leibell discuss Internet safety laws at the offices of Westchester District Attorney Jane DiFiore.

—Nicole Brydson

Our luxury correspondent Trevor Butterworth continues his demented trip down the international lane of luxury. The other day, he rode-along with the Cartier crew for the launch of their Love charity bracelet. There was dash, there was swoon, there was confusion and there was envy. But how could there not be on "declare your love" day? "Cartier stands for love, commitment and passion," said Frederic de Narp, President and CEO of Cartier North America, as he launched a national charity initiative from Manhattan's de facto pulpit, the NASDAQ exchange in Times Square on June 8. And if the adoring looks of the ladies present were anything to go by, the day was off to a tragic start: the 37-year old Frederic—clearly the hottest CEO in North America—was married and would go home that evening to Chateaux de Narp in Westchester to be with his "brilliant and amazing wife" and their six children.

And then there was Sarah Jessica Parker, who arrived with golden hair a-flowing on feet that barely touched the floor. "They are fabulous," whispered a French reporter in awe of Ms. Parker's gravity-defying Christian Louboutin shoes, even though it looked as if the delicate star might break free at any moment and float off to join the cast of a pre-Raphaelite painting—which is quite possibly where she'd just come from. "I want to thank NASDAQ for this lovely and hospitable welcome," said Ms. Parker, as she was breaking poor NASDAQ's heart. She would ring in the opening of the exchange with Monsieur de Narp and Spike Lee, but she would not, as is tradition, sign the opening book.  read more »

"The big elephant in the room is ‘Sex and the City,'" said a woman at the Rubin Museum of Art last Wednesday. She was speaking to the photographer Eric Boman, who is a close friend of the shoe designer Manolo Blahnik.

Mr. Boman had delivered a talk about the still life portraits he's made of Mr. Blahnik's architectural footwear. In them, they are dressed up in everything from African ceremonial jewelry to a scale-less Spanish mackerel. The photographs have now been collected in a weighty volume destined, it's safe to say, for the coffee tables of many fans of the HBO series which featured the famously Blahniks-addicted character Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker.

"Do you make any references to the show?" the woman inquired eagerly.

"Manolo thinks—which is very unfair—he thinks it's vulgarized his name," said Mr. Boman, who has a boyish, fine-featured face.

A listener in the audience gagged loudly.

"He says,"—here Mr. Boman traded his casual chatty tone for a comically grandiloquent one—"‘I'm sure that that Miss Parker is a perfectly nice woman,' and, he says, ‘I have met her, as a matter of fact'—I think she presented him with some award, you know, and she is a very nice woman, but he just thought that..."—Mr. Boman went into silent reflection for a moment—"It's an aspect of his work that he doesn't feel is his work?"

There were chuckles from the audience, which numbered 12. In this intimate setting, Mr. Boman spoke freely, as one might of a difficult, yet still utterly adored relative. "But it is, of course, what made him very successful and he should be very grateful. But he will not listen to any of that, and that's the way he is. He's the most stubborn...."

Mr. Boman met Mr. Blahnik in the early 1970's, shortly after they both arrived in London. Mr. Boman is a native Swede and Mr. Blahnik is of Czech and Spanish parentage. After years of shaping their respective careers—Mr. Blahnik, Mr. Boman noted, held no formal training in shoe design before taking up the profession, and adding Paloma Picasso to their happy circle, Mr. Boman decamped for New York. He's lived here, in Chelsea, for decades now.

"We've been friends for this long, I think, because there is an ocean between us," Mr. Boman said.

A sentimental sigh rose from the audience.

"He's a wonderful, loyal friend, a wonderful person, but he's very, very...it's a lot of stuff, and you can only deal with it in small doses. He has a very definite idea about how he thinks he wants to be seen—and not seen."

Mr. Boman had earlier described how Mr. Blahnik flatly vetoed one of his shots because it featured lines of powdered sugar that suggested lines of cocaine. "And so he puts on this rather showy performance persona, which is sometimes very exhausting. He used to walk down the street with me in London and he would spit out insults at people as he saw them because he would think that was, like, funny. He liked to outrage people."

That evening, just blocks away, Sarah Jessica Parker was treading the red carpet for the New York premiere of her new film, "Failure to Launch." And on her feet—what do you suppose she wore?

—Nicholas Boston

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