RSS

Contact us

Thursday 20 November 2008

Very few single girls actually have that much sex

Marianne Macdonald says that, in an encounter in New York with Sarah Jessica Parker, she realised, finally, how much of a myth Sex and the City really was

SJP volunteered that she never really felt comfortable having those conversations, in any case, ‘even among my girlfriends: I have a child, I have a husband, I have really followed a far more conventional life than Carrie. In every city I have known single people say it’s hard to find men, and I don’t see that New York is any harder [than anywhere else]. I always think Los Angeles might be harder, because you’re in your car all day. I feel like in New York, if you walk out on the street, there’s all this hope and potential. In the subway in New York you meet men, you’re in restaurants and you’re waiting outside in the street — you’re pushed up against each other in the city, you just have to be willing to be surprised by somebody and not have a fixed idea about who you’re supposed to date.’

As she was saying this, and more, I had another SATC reality check: that, unlike Carrie, SJP was not totally sweet-natured. Occasionally she didn’t bother to hide her impatience — ‘Why do we need a Sex and the City movie? You don’t!’ — and she openly rolled her eyes at the notion that she and her fellow actresses didn’t get on. ‘How tired is that? Have you ever heard that of The Sopranos? I actually heard that of The Sopranos, but you guys didn’t. After a while it’s actually an offensive, insulting question when it doesn’t exist in any other way, in any other job you do, and this story kind of repeats itself. You start to think there’s a misogynist overtone to it — this idea that four women cannot work or function and be happy and like each other.’

This woman, you realised, was in fact as far as you could get from the über-rich, über-stylish, über-poised goddess of a million articles. She was just normal — cleverer, undoubtedly, than most actresses, but still, just a normal woman labouring like an ant with a crumb under the fabulous weight of her fame. She hardly ever shopped for clothes, she explained, and if she did she got only one or two things; she would always borrow from designers and give things back. She did the school run unless she had to work, she was intimidated by the fashion shows and she had as many — maybe more — insecurities as anyone else.

More articles from: Marianne Macdonald | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comments (3)

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved