Year after year, twenty-something women come to New York City in search of the two "L"s: labels and love. Twenty years ago, I was one of them. Having gotten the knack for labels early…I concentrated on love."

Carrie Bradshaw

Strap on your Manolos and grab a cupcake and a Cosmopolitan. Those four fabulous New Yorkers - Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte - are back and coming to the big screen in the feature film Sex and the City, based on one of the most talked about series of all time.

The series Sex and the City debuted in 1998 on HBO and ran for six illustrious seasons before the finale in 2004. The series earned 50 Emmy nominations during its run, winning seven, including acting nods for Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon. The series also won 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series and was nominated for 24 Golden Globes, winning eight, including Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and acting awards for Parker and Kim Cattrall.
But before it hit the small screen, Sex and the City was a series of autobiographical newspaper columns in The New York Observer by author Candace Bushnell. Darren Star, the creator and executive producer of such iconic television shows as "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place," saw immediate potential in Bushnell's writings about sexual politics among New York's social set. "I read those articles and I thought, 'wow, this is a great window into New York,'" Star recalls. "I just loved the character of a single woman who is writing about herself and exploring the city and the nature of relationships at the same time." Bushnell later compiled her columns into a book, which became a bestseller when it was published in 1996.
With the start of the series, Star also asked Michael Patrick King, the man who would go on to executive produce the series as well as eventually write and direct the feature film, to join the series as a writer and as co-executive producer. "Darren knew that Michael brought something that was very unique in terms of his skills as a writer," says Sarah Jessica Parker, who returns in the role of Carrie and also serves as a producer on the film. "That was just our good fortune and Darren's smarts."
In writing for the series, King concentrated on developing the characters of the four women. He offers, "Miranda's the sarcastic, sort of angry, one. Charlotte's the sweeter, sort of preppy one, the more traditional one. Samantha's the sexy, sort of power-hungry one. And then, there's Carrie, the indefinable one. From there, everything grew. You figure out their sense of humor, on and off screen. And then each year of the series we became more and more connected, like a relationship, as the girls grew and the relationships between the actresses and the writers and directors grew."
Once the series began to air on HBO, audiences fell in love with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, and discussions about the previous night's episode became regular water cooler talk all over America.
"It was not at all what any of us expected," says Kristin Davis, who reprises the role of Charlotte. "You never expect something to be as successful and go for as long as we got to go. We had just a really incredible time."
"The success of the show stemmed from a lot of things," adds Cynthia Nixon, who again plays Miranda. "It starts with the writing. It's really clever and heartfelt writing. People watch the show over and over, the same episode five, ten times because it's so jam-packed full of content. Not just jokes - ideas. And I think the actors are wonderful."
"It was about women joining together as the new family, girlfriends sticking together through thick and thin" adds Kim Cattrall, who returns as Samantha. "And those relationships are what made the show so popular."
"The show was successful because there was a void that needed to be filled," adds Michael Patrick King. "And that was, someone had to speak out for single women, someone going through life alone in a society that says everybody should be together. And then in the show, subliminally and sometimes not so subliminally, is the other voice that is saying, 'Be smart, strong! Follow your own road!'"
By the time Sex and the City ended its run on HBO, its audience had grown exponentially with new fans discovering the series on DVD and in syndication. In 2004, the series aired its last original episode, preceded by a media blitz befitting its huge following and its place in the cultural lexicon. Even those with only a passing knowledge of the show knew that it featured independent, smart, sophisticated, single women with a taste for Manolo strappy sandals, Magnolia Bakery cupcakes and the crispest Cosmopolitans that the newest Big Apple hot spots had to offer.

REUNITING THE CREATORS AND CAST
Reuniting the creators and cast in a feature film seemed a natural next step in the story of the four women. For Sex and the City star and producer Sarah Jessica Parker, there was no question that anyone other than Michael Patrick King would write the story for the film. "Of course there would be nobody else to tell it, I knew he could do it," she states. "He's a really gifted romantic comedy writer, and I just felt like I couldn't do it without him."
"I got to fall in love with four women for many, many years, and hold them in my heart, even when we weren't doing the series," King continues. "I got to be in love with these four women for whom I actually created their voices. It's rare to get that kind of a love affair going with people."
The script that King ultimately wrote has a universal theme that touches Carrie, as well as her girlfriends. "The series was really about the search for love," says King. "And I think the movie's about what happens when you find it. It's about women in relationships, and their friendships."
John Melfi, who was a producer on the series and is also a producer on the feature film, describes the film as posing a question deriving from the classic fairy tale ending: "What is 'happily ever after?'"

"Some love stories aren't epic novels - some are short stories. But that doesn't make them any less filled with love."

Carrie Bradshaw

A NEW BEGINNING
Michael Patrick King's script for the movie opens up in present day, four years after we last saw Carrie and her friends. And, as happens with time, their lives have all changed.
Still working out of her Upper East Side apartment, Carrie is no longer writing her newspaper column. "She is a sometimes contributor to Vogue," explains Sarah Jessica Parker about her character. "She's working on her fourth book - the three previous were best-sellers. So she's experiencing New York City in a different way. It's the first time she's been wise and smart enough and prudent enough to save money. She's much more of an adult." Carrie's new maturity extends to her love life; she is at last in a stable relationship with Mr. Big, played by Chris Noth.
"Sarah Jessica Parker is a phenomenal muse for a writer," King says. "When you want her to be a star, she's a star. And yet she also has the ability to be the one who wasn't chosen. She can do the full range of what people tend to do in life. Sarah Jessica is also really smart; the character would never have worked if she wasn't able to project that kind of intellect. Other than that, she is hilarious, really sensual and pretty, and with a deep well of emotion."
Producer John Melfi has high praise for Parker's abilities both in front of and behind the camera. "She has an absolute ability to be completely in the moment as an actor, and so she can literally jump between roles like I've never seen," Melfi describes. "She can go from Carrie here. Then the camera stops rolling, and she's focused on being a producer."
Over on Park Avenue, Charlotte, played by Kristin Davis, is living her dream come true. After years of dreaming of love and motherhood, she and her mensch of a husband Harry (Evan Handler) are proud parents to Lily, a darling little girl they adopted from China. With her newfound happiness comes a change in Charlotte, according to Davis. "Because she has so much of what she wants, she's kind of focused on other people."
Surprisingly, Kim Cattrall's Samantha, who once prided herself on her sexual conquests, is also in a committed relationship, though on the opposite coast. Having bravely battled breast cancer, Samantha has followed her actor boyfriend Smith (Jason Lewis) in his career move to Los Angeles. She now lives in a beautiful beach house in Malibu, but she misses her life back in New York. "Her girlfriends are getting married and having babies," says Cattrall. "There is that feeling of being left behind, not just distance-wise."
Back in Brooklyn, Miranda, played by Cynthia Nixon, also feels cut off from her beloved Manhattan. Having settled down with her husband, Steve (David Eigenberg), and their son Brady, Miranda is experiencing the pressures of modern life. "She's just exhausted," explains Nixon. "Just like a working mother, she's extended in five different directions."
Actress Candice Bergen also returns as Carrie's chilly editor at Vogue, Enid Frick. "Enid is very, very professional, very careerist," says Bergen, who played Enid in several episodes of the series. "She's very devoted to her work, and very much in need of a life outside of her work, I would say," the actress laughs. Bergen's working relationship with Michael Patrick King dates from her hit comedy series Murphy Brown, where King started his writing career. "I love Michael so much," she says. "It's always a pleasure to get to work with him."
In addition to the familiar faces returning from the series, one new character stands out: Louise, a young woman Carrie hires to work as her assistant, played by Oscar®-winner Jennifer Hudson. Hudson had not been a regular viewer of Sex and the City, so when she heard about the role of Louise, she happily delved into her research. "And I have not stopped watching it since," she laughs. "I'm addicted - I'm in love with it."
When Carrie, newly flush from success as an author, hires Louise to work as her assistant, the young woman proves to be a godsend, bringing some order to Carrie's rather disorganized life. Hudson describes Louise as family-oriented, and recently relocated to New York. "Louise is a twenty-five year old girl from St. Louis who moves to New York to find love," she says. "She believes in love. And what greater message is there than to spread love?"
In a show about four single women in New York City, the men in their lives tend to come and go. However, their importance to the story is not to be underestimated. "The men are the unsung heroes of Sex and the City, because without the men to react to there would have been no tide," explains Michael Patrick King. "There would have been no punch or pull."
Chris Noth reprises the role of Mr. Big, Carrie's longtime romantic ideal throughout her various romantic entanglements. During the series, "Mr. Big was the holy grail," King laughs. "It's important that Carrie had somebody she couldn't figure out." In the film, Mr. Big is, at long last, Carrie's fiancé.
"Chris is a wonderful, wonderful actor," King continues. "Something about when he becomes Mr. Big is so compelling that people wanted it to work with Carrie. Or they wanted to punch him. Or they wanted her to get away from him…"
"Men love him," adds Sarah Jessica Parker. "They'll say to me, 'You're not going to do something awful to Mr. Big, are you? And women of course swoon because he's that guy. He's worth every argument, every fight. And there's just nobody in the world I would have wanted to do this with other than Chris."
"The chemistry that Sarah Jessica and I had was invaluable," Chris Noth agrees. "She and I, in playing together and having a simpatico relationship and a certain chemistry, allowed the relationship to go a lot of different places."
David Eigenberg returns as Steve Brady, Miranda's husband and the father of her young son. After several unsuccessful relationships, "Steve is the one who got into her heart and was a grownup with her," King says. "David Eigenberg is authentic. He is New York."
"Steve is a stand-up guy," says Eigenberg about his character. "He'll do anything for the people he loves. Miranda and Steve are two true-blues. They're a great love story."
Completing Miranda's family circle, young Joseph Pupo, no longer a baby, reprises the role of Miranda and Steve's son, Brady.
On the heels of a failed marriage, Charlotte had an unlikely flirtation with her uncouth yet decent divorce lawyer Harry Goldenblatt, which developed into something more. Evan Handler returns in the role of Harry, who King describes as "the opposite of the preppy dream. Evan is so important because Harry to me had to be literally all heart, and all acceptance. He's like a peasant king, an easygoing, supportive husband.
Handler also describes Harry as someone with "not all the social graces that Charlotte York was used to," but was "someone whose spirit and soul she couldn't resist."
Meanwhile, Kim Cattrall's Samantha Jones took great pride in her liberated attitude toward sex, bedding as many men as suited her. However, she is now in a monogamous committed relationship with Smith Jerrod, played by Jason Lewis.
According Lewis, Smith accepts Samantha for who she is. "What defines him is his openness, his willingness to accept somebody for who they are without judgment." Smith's devotion to Samantha was tireless; their sex life was robust, but he also cared for her during her bout with cancer.
Another man in the girls' lives is Anthony Marentino, played by Mario Cantone, who originally joined the Sex and the City family as Charlotte's wedding planner. Cantone, who has known Michael Patrick King ever since they both performed as stand-ups at the Improv in the early 1980s, credits Sex and the City for dealing with sexual mores in a new and groundbreaking way. "It was never like, 'oh, he's gay,' or 'she likes to have sex with a lot of men,' or 'she's kind of prudish and neurotic.' It was all just accepted and presented to the audience so you see it clearly and without judgment. And on top of that, it's hilarious. You can break through things that are taboo with humor."
One man who has been constantly at Carrie's side is Stanford Blatch, a gay talent agent played by Willie Garson. Full of his own romantic dramas with men and offering support as Carrie experiences hers, Stanford is perhaps most memorable for his sartorial style, which includes pointy shoes, shiny suits and bow ties. "Stanford, as a character, was very much created by (costume designer) Pat Field," says Garson. "It's the only character where she had carte blanche, whatever she wanted to do. So Pat's a big personality, Stanford is a big personality."

Michael Patrick King (Director/Writer/Producer)
Michael Patrick King has received a number of accolades for his work as writer, director and executive producer. For his work on HBO's "Sex and the City," he has been honored by The Writer's Guild, The Director's Guild, The Producer's Guild, The Television Academy and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, culminating in three Golden Globe awards for Best Comedy Series and two Emmy awards, one for Best Comedy Series and one for Best Director.

More recently, King created "The Comeback" with Lisa Kudrow, who also starred in the HBO series. King served as executive producer, writer and director on "The Comeback," and received his most recent Emmy nomination for his directing work on the show. The black comedy about an actress' (Kudrow) desperate attempt to stay in the television spotlight lasted only one season on HBO, but is considered, in some circles, to be a cult comedy classic.

King began his television career working in network television, cutting his teeth as a writer and producer on two other classic TV programs, "Will & Grace" and "Murphy Brown," for which he received his first Emmy nomination.

Before his arrival in Hollywood, King spent many years in New York City developing his skills in the theater as a playwright and in the comedy clubs as a standup comedian. Last year, he combined both of those venues by writing and directing the hit Off-Off Broadway revue "At Least It's Pink."

Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw/ Producer)
A celebrated icon in film and television as well as fashion, Sarah Jessica Parker continues to expand upon her impressive collection of credits through her remarkable range and effortless style. An actress since the age of eight, Parker continues to come into her own as an artist and as an entrepreneur.
Parker serves as a producer and reprises her Emmy award-winning role as "Carrie Bradshaw," for the screen adaptation of the hit HBO series "Sex and the City". Parker won over critics and audiences alike in the series for which she was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2001. Parker was also an executive producer on the series, which received the Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Comedy Series three years in a row in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and was honored with an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001.
HBO and Parker have signed a two-year, exclusive-to-television deal for Parker to develop and produce series and long-form programming for HBO through her production company, Pretty Matches Productions.
In addition, Parker recently wrapped production on the upcoming film Smart People. Directed by Noam Murro, she stars opposite Dennis Quaid as a doctor who falls in love with a professor whose wife's death has turned him into a bitter man. Smart People will be released on April 4, 2008.
Parker most recent film, Paramount's Failure to Launch with Matthew McConaughey grossed more than $128 Million worldwide.
Other recent credits include her Golden Globe nominated performance in The Family Stone; David Mamet's satirical comedy, State and Main; Dudley Do-Right, opposite Brendan Fraser; Paramount's Til There Was You opposite Dylan Mc Dermott; Tim Burton 's Mars Attacks; If Lucy Fell, opposite Ben Stiller; Tim Burton's Ed Wood, co-starring Johnny Depp; The First Wives Club with Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn; Miami Rhapsody, with Antonio Banderas; Disney's Hocus Pocus; Honeymoon in Vegas, opposite Nicholas Cage; and her breakthrough role in LA Story co-starring Steve Martin.
Parker's early motion picture roles include Flight of the Navigator, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Footloose, with Kevin Bacon; Michael Apted's First Born; Robert Wiemer's Somewhere Tomorrow, and United Artists' Rich Kids, with John Lithgow.

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