Issue date: May 28, 2000

In this article:
Appeal of "Sex and the City"
Being single is not a disease
Fashion statements and imitators
Is she anything like her character?
The new season: clothes, accessories, etc.

Sarah's sexy success

Mary Tyler Moore for the '00s? Sarah Jessica Parker's Sex and the City speaks to a new generation of single American women.

"The underlying message that has hooked the show's hard-core fans goes deeper than sex: Being single is no longer a disease."

arah Jessica Parker and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, had just left a downtown Manhattan restaurant one recent Saturday night when they were accosted by a roving band of teenage girls. Instantly recognizable, with her size-0 figure and blond corkscrew curls, the 35-year-old Golden Globe-winning star of HBO's provocative and witty series Sex and the City was momentarily taken aback.

They looked maybe 14. They were squealing, "Oh, my God! We love your show!" As she turned to leave, teetering in her trademark 3.5-inch Manolo Blahnik heels, the actress took her husband's arm, mildly distraught. "Matthew, they're too young to watch Sex and the City."

As if parents could somehow drag their daughters away from the award-winning Sunday-night supposedly "adult" series, featuring Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, New York "sexpert" columnist, who ruminates on subjects not covered in Family Life class: foot fetishes, faking orgasms, vibrators, voyeurism, men who scratch themselves in public, gay straight men and straight gay men.

Along with her three smart, successful best friends -- cynical lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), naive art dealer Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and jaded PR executive Samantha (Kim Cattrall) -- Carrie Bradshaw is looking for love, fab shoes, spandex, sexual gratification and $4,000 Fendi handbags, not necessarily in that order. "More important than the subject matter," says Parker, "is the friendship and intimacy between these women. It's a love story for women looking for relationships with men that are as fulfilling as their friendships with women. Their lifeline is a deep connection."

And while the women are portrayed as serial Serta-hoppers, Parker says they're not sexual predators. "They're comfortable with their sexuality. There is no judging."

BEING SINGLE
She bristles at the perception that her character is, well, a slut. "I walked into a friend of mine's dressing room the other day after his performance in a play. He said, 'Wow! I didn't recognize you with your clothes on.' On network television, there are female leads who have slept with a lot more men in one season than Carrie did."

The underlying message, however, and one that has hooked its hard-core audience, goes deeper than sex: Being single is no longer a disease. "So many more women are finding themselves single for longer than they imagined," says 41-year-old Candace Bushnell, whose often racy columns for The New York Observer inspired the show. "Life's really about self-actualization. This gives women some glimmer of hope they can attain that." Still happily unwed, Bushnell -- who confesses to just having dropped $5,000 at a Prada boutique -- says Carrie Bradshaw is a "hyperversion" of her experiences on the Manhattan dating scene. That would also include Bradshaw's love affair with toxic bachelor "Mr. Big" (Chris Noth playing Ron Galotti, the former publisher of Vogue who now toils for Tina Brown's Talk magazine).

While premium cable channels tend to attract more male viewers, Sex and the City boasts more female viewers (ages 18-34) than any other original HBO series. The total audience last year averaged more than 9 million per episode, up from 6.9 million in 1998. Women gather in bars and basements and throw parties to celebrate new episodes. This spring, the complete first season was released on video.

"It's looking at sex from a female point of view," says the show's creator and executive producer,

Darren Star (Beverly Hills, 90201, Melrose Place), explaining the cult status. "Something that's never been done before. And it speaks to single women of this generation the way Mary Tyler Moore spoke to single women of her generation."

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But there is another ripple effect. Camisoles and miniskirts are hotter than ever. Dolce & Gabbana. Vintage corsets. Stiletto heels (Manolos, Jimmy Choo), no stockings. Sales of Fendi baguettes soared after Carrie and friends toted the designer's furry or bejeweled handbags, and fashionistas faithfully tune in every week looking for trends. The only guarantee: What Carrie is wearing this season will soon be as passé as pashmina and prayer bracelets.

"They've become a new fashion authority," says Kate Betts, 36, editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar. "The clothes on the show are so sexy, and fashion hasn't been so sexy in a long time. The short skirts, the cocktail look. It's in-your-face and fun."

Even Carrie's signature gold ID necklace -- so out it's in -- sent hundreds of teenage girls to a shop in Greenwich Village to order identical ones.

But any resemblance between the actress and her fictional alter ego stops at the 60 pairs of Manolo Blahniks in her closet. "I've lived a pretty quiet life," she insists. (And she owns only two Fendi baguettes.)

IS SHE ANYTHING LIKE HER CHARACTER?
A child actor, she was born in Ohio and moved to New Jersey after winning her first Broadway role in The Innocents. In 1978, she became the third actress to play the lead in Annie on Broadway. Many of her fans weren't even born when Parker appeared in the 1982 television sitcom Square Pegs. Something of a square herself, she had relationships with a few bold-faced names (Robert Downey Jr., Nicolas Cage, John F. Kennedy Jr.) before falling in love with Broderick. They dated for two years before marrying on May 19, 1997.

She and Broderick (referred to by friends as the Baby Lunts because both have starred on Broadway) have an apartment in Manhattan and a summer house in the Hamptons, and they hope to start a family.

The show's quick success, however, has certainly increased her visibility. Perfect strangers have been known to stop her on the streets of New York and ask for advice, seeing her as a hip-hop Ann Landers with a laptop. Walking around and being anonymous? That's over. "This season feels very different for me. We're no longer under the radar." More evidence: Parker will host this year's MTV Movie Awards on June 8.

She jokes about playing Carrie Bradshaw into retirement. "We're going to rename it 'Please Have Sex With Me in the City.' "

The actress, something of a prude (she gave up using the f-word as her New Year's resolution), claims to be no authority on sex in the city. Or the suburbs, for that matter. She does offer one bit of wisdom, when asked to name the biggest mistake women make with men: "We pick a man that we dig and then we want to change him," she says one day, taking a break from filming. "What you glean from courtship is what you should try to keep. It's that specialness you don't want to lose. There are things about Matthew and things about me; you have to recognize these differences. If you just want a mirror image of yourself, what a bore!"

She also worries that single women set impossibly high standards and that one of the show's recurring themes -- "We don't need men to anoint us anymore" -- might contribute to that.

"I was recently with a woman who said she would never consider dating a bald man. Are we sure we don't want to explore the options? We can have anything we want now. We can make a lot of money. There's this immediate need to have whatever we want. Upon the first appearance, if somebody doesn't make you swoon, you move on. I'm not saying compromise, but we miss out sometimes."

She says she's grown a lot less judgmental, something she has learned in recent years. "If there's anything I've learned it's that one cannot judge [someone else's] choices. The best thing you can do for a friend is to remind them to be smart and safe."

And if you can't snag the perfect man, there's always the perfect Manolo.

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THE THIRD SEASON
Short shorts, chunky jewelry and -- oh, yeah -- a new boyfriend

The third season: Kicks off next Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
The clothes: Italian lines that are a little more glamorous than last season's, by designers such as Roberto Cavalli, Anna Molinari and Dolce & Gabbana. "We're going to see a lot more leg. Short shorts, hot pants," says wardrobe designer Patricia Field. Thrown into the fashion mix will be Field's distinctive pairing of urban wear with vintage pieces, often inspired by the 5-foot-4-inch Parker herself.
The accessories: The girls will still carry Fendi baguettes, but watch for the more classic leather Dior saddlebag to upstage last year's hot purse. The jewelry will be a little chunkier, à la Lil' Kim -- and shoes will be more close-toed (Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin).
The new boyfriend: Parker's new love interest, actor John Corbett (Northern Exposure), arrives on the scene around the fifth episode as a studly furniture designer and builder. "Carrie falls in love," says Field. He's a practical man, leather and denim. "But don't look for any sudden settling-down modesty in Carrie's wardrobe." Laughing, Field says, "We're just getting sexier!"

Contributing Editor Stephanie Mansfield last profiled pop star Britney Spears for the magazine.