Clothes worth £7m, a lesbian crush and some VERY uncouth camels... yes, it's Sex And The Sequel

By Lina Das

The girls are back: Carrie Bradshaw and the gang hit Abu Dhabi in Sex and the City 2


Christian Louboutins at the ready: there are just seven days to go before the UK release of Sex And The City 2.

It's been two years since Carrie Bradshaw, played by Sarah Jessica Parker and her trusted group of friends - Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) ventured from TV to the big screen.

Now their second cinematic outing sees them swap the streets of New York for the souks of Abu Dhabi.

While the first film, which made £275 million was 'pretty sad' according to SJP, the second installment is 'more like a caper, a romp'.

The gang

By the end of the first SATC film, Carrie had recovered from being jilted at the altar by Mr. Big, (Chris Noth), to marry him in a quiet courthouse ceremony.

Miranda had reunited with Steve (David Eigenberg) after a brief separation caused by his infidelity.

Charlotte and husband Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler) were happily ensconced with their adopted daughter Lily and newborn Rose.


Changing times: The girls have a new set of problems to deal with, including making marriages work and the pressures of continuing careers


And Samantha had left LA and boyfriend Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis) to return to singledom in New York.

Come SATC2 however, the girls all have a different set of problems to contend with.

Carrie and Big are 'somewhere between wed and a baby' and comfortably settled.

Her concerns about the lack of spark in their relationship, together with a crushing review of her fourth book, I Do, Do I?, which chronicles her transition from archetypal single girl to married woman, force Carrie to re-examine her marriage.

'There was a wedding and now there has to be a marriage and the two are very different,' says Sarah Jessica Parker, 45.

'It's such a new concept for her that she has to redefine it in her own way.'

Charlotte encounters a different set of problems in the shape of a shapely nanny (played by rising British star Alice Eve) - and it's not her husband who's attracted to her! - and the overwhelming demands of motherhood.

As Kristin Davis, 45, says of her character: 'Charlotte's always been very traditional and she has very high expectations of herself.

'Often she doesn't live up to them and so in this film she's faced with her own lack of the perfect picture that she's trying to create.'

Miranda has to deal with a nightmare new boss and having always been the most career-oriented of the quartet, now starts to see that there may be an alternative way of life.

'The issue that she has to deal with is what to do when she has a really terrific job that she's well paid for and which she's worked for decades to get and all of a sudden, she's just miserable in it' says Cynthia Nixon, 44.

The problem for PR girl Samantha can be summarised in one word.

'Menopause,' says Kim Cattrall. 'And I didn't need to do any research,' adds the 53-year-old.

Courtesy of Samantha's wealthy potential client, the foursome are sent on an all expenses-paid jaunt to Abu Dhabi and while crossing the desert on camels, Samantha complains to Carrie that she's having a hot flush.

'You're on a camel in the middle of the Arabian desert,' Carrie points out. 'If you're not having a hot flush, you're dead.'

The women of SATC2 have no problem with the fact that they're no longer 25.

'Who cares about 25?', says Cattrall. I'm bored with 25. It's like a young wine. I hate Beaujolais.

'I don't want to drink it, I think it tastes terrible. I want a nice, full-body wine that's aged gracefully.'

The City

While the fashion was the fifth character of the series, New York was a close sixth - the shimmering Manhattan skyline symbolising everything that was sparkly and aspirational about the show.

Although a good chunk of time is spent in NYC (Carrie and Big have downsized from their Fifth Avenue penthouse to a smaller place), the girls soon hotfoot it to Abu Dhabi.

'I knew SATC2 had to have a different vibe,' says director Michael Patrick King.


New digs: The girls go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Abu Dhabi, but the movie had to be filmed in Morocco for religious reasons


'When I sat down to write this, the economic downturn was in full swing, everybody was sort of pulling it all and I thought: "OK, my job is go the other way".

'I wanted to blow it up and have fun, because, after all, that is what movies are for.

'They are to escape and leave your problems for couple of hours. No one wants see Carrie Bradshaw reduced selling apples under a bridge.'

Neither Dubai nor Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates would agree to SATC2 being filmed there ('Abu Dhabi was like: "You know, the UAE is not really ready to have four sexually liberated American girls filmed here,"' says King), so filming was done in Morocco as a stand-in.

Says Cattrall: 'To transport these emancipated new-millennium women to a world that has not changed, in a lot of ways, since Biblical times was a fascinating idea.

'You'd think a Muslim country would not embrace a show like this, but they loved Samantha, they loved the show, they understood what we were doing.'

The Fashion

As SJP says: 'The fashion really is another character in the movie' and fans of Carrie & co's often outlandish styles won't be disappointed.

Stylist Patricia Field, the show's Emmy award-winning costume designer, has once again pulled out all the stops, with a reported £7 million-worth of outfits - and the girls even got to keep the clothes.

They include a £34,000 Chanel dress and overskirt and £2,800 studded jeans worn by Carrie during a karaoke scene; a £1,000 Roland Mouret Brise Noire dress worn by Miranda, and Samantha's stunning £3,500 red dress with spiked epaulettes which was designed by hip New York duo The Blonds.


Gladrags: Louboutins are the in shoes and fashion labels including Jalston and Heritage feature prominently in the sequel


The fashion label Halston features prominently in the film, unsurprisingly as SJP is the creative director of the label's new line Halston Heritage.

Of Carrie's 48 outfits, five are from Heritage, including the white, semi-sheer dress she wears in the poster teamed with £700 gold Pigalle Christian Louboutins.

Louboutins seem to have usurped Manolo Blahniks as the SATC shoe of choice.

Carrie's love of Blahniks may have been absolute (Big proposed to her with a £615 satin royal blue pumps), but it was unrequited.

In a recent interview Blahnik said: If people talk to me about Sex And City, I get sick... I have never wanted to be a celebrity designer.'

And of those blue pumps he rather ungraciously added: 'Well, we had a good year last year, thanks to stupid satin shoes. That shoe saved our company.'

Although mindful of the recession, Michael Patrick King, writer-director of both films says: 'No one wants to see the four of them depressed and wearing brown.'

And as the girls find themselves in the Middle East, vibrancy and colour aren't lacking, though more modesty was required.

Field decked them out in harem pants, turbans and beaded slippers and, says King, 'Miranda is constantly covering Samantha's shoulders in case people take offence.'

As a fun aside, we also get to see the foursome in a flashback to the Eighties, with Carrie in Desperately Seeking Susan garb and Miranda in that horror of Eighties' horrors - a boxy skirt suit and white trainers.

The Desert
Our four heroines traverse the desert on camels, 'dressed like lunatics', according to SJP.

The sight of Carrie and her friends riding camels and decked in couture, 'and I mean couture - real vintage Dior pieces on a camel' she says, is, on its own, worth the trip to the cinema.

'It was 110 degrees and they were out there in their Hermes and Chanel' says King.


Desert orchids? The gang cross the desert on the backs of particularly bad tempered camels wearing all their usual finery


'It's crazy and it should be. This movie never stops being big!'
Cattrall's discomfort is more obvious. 'They don't call them the ship of the desert for nothing,' she says.

'We were in turbulence on that thing. Sometimes we would have to take bathroom breaks and the occasional spit breaks for the camel and then, of course, there was the smell to deal with.

'So not a fun day at the office!'

The Rows

It would not be SATC without mention of the supposed tensions between the women on set - tensions which all four are quick to allay.

There are always rumours that they have fallen out over money - this time SJP's pay packet, said to be £10.4 million is apparently twice that of Cattrall and five times more than Nixon and Davis. But she is producer and star.

Says Cattrall: 'Nineteen-hour workdays are stressful, whether you're driving a truck, working in a coal mine or on a set and trying to be your brightest at 4 o'clock in the morning.'


Old flame: Samantha also bumps into her ex Smith Jerrod


Parker also admits that the 90-hour weeks they were working did make for occasional frayed nerves.

'There are times when all of us have been sensitive and sometimes feelings get hurt,' she says.

'I'm not going to say there are never any disagreements or cranky moments but we are human and we all love each other very much.

'It's real life and we are real people with real emotions.'

She dismissed reports that they stayed in different hotels in Morocco and even ate at separate tables in the same restaurants.

'We lived together, ate every single meal together, stayed in one dressing room together - sometimes slept in the same bed together. We have a very tight bond'.

The Lovers

With the girls in Abu Dhabi and away from their husbands much of the time, fans might be wondering where all the sex has gone.

But for Carrie, a chance meeting with former love Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) in the middle of an Arabian market raises the possibility of a little souks in the city.

'Whenever anybody tells me they like Carrie, I always ask: "Which one - Big or Aidan?"' says director Michael Patrick King.


Bedfellows: Carrie and Big, played by Chris Noth


'There's usually a split and they represent two very different things to her.'
Typically though, it falls upon Samantha to put the sex in Sex And The City 2.

She has two love interests: a construction worker called Nicky played by D&G model Noah Mills and an older architect, Rikard Spirit, played by British actor Max Ryan.

Former lover Smith Jerrod also reappears.

Samantha may now be popping pills to counteract the effects of ageing, but you have to admire her determination to die with her clothes off.


The big-name guests

In the first SATC, Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson played Carrie's assistant Louise, and there was a cameo appearance from Princess Diana's favourite photographer Patrick DeMarchelier.

This time, Miley Cyrus makes an entrance in a red carpet faux-pas with Samantha (both are in the same £2,500 gold Matthew Williamson dress) and Liza Minnelli performs Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' at the wedding of Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone) and Stanford Blatch (Willie Garson).

Penelope Cruz also pops up, playing a Spanish banker who chats with Big at the premiere of Smith Jerrod's latest movie, sparking Carrie's jealousy.

'Penelope's a very big fan of the first movie and the series,' says King. 'She said to me: "I watched that movie 15 times".

'So I called her up and she agreed to do it.'

* Sex and the City 2 is released in cinemas next Friday.


source: dailymail