Sarah Jessica Parker
Transom Year in Review 2008: Parties, Fashion Shows, and Tom Wolfe on Hip-Hop
photo face.
The year 2008 began with an extravagant bang and ended with a painful, economic catastrophe-induced whimper. Here, we relive some of the highlights.
We started the year worrying that pom-pomed moccasin boots were here to stay. Thankfully, we now know they were not.
Meatpacking district original Florent Morellet failed to understand the skyrocketing rents on his "shabby" bit of Gansevoort St.
At a Bergdorf Goodman Fashion Week party, a slightly manic Isaac Mizrahi explained why he does not attend fashion shows. Later on, at Cynthia Rowley, Parker Posey told us she doesn't like runway viewing because it makes her sweat. And Victoria Beckham almost prematurely revealed the winner of Project Runway. read more »
Fashion Roundup: Sarah Jessica Parker Looking for a Home; Kanye West 'Picks' a Model; Fur Flies at Department Stores
Now that Steve & Barry has filed for bankruptcy, Sarah Jessica Parker is looking for a new home for her Bitten line. [The Cut]
Vera Wang's ready-to-wear Soho boutique is set to open on Friday. The 2,500 sq. feet space will include "sliding partitions, shell-like hang bars, translucent shelving, scrims, neoprene-covered furniture and stackable mini gym mats." [WWD]
At the British Fashion Awards, Luella Bartley was named Designer of the Year while Jourdan Dunn won Model of the Year. [Vogue] read more »
Fashion Roundup: The Met Loves Sarah Jessica Parker; Beyonce Loves Obama; Everyone Loves Comme des Garcons for H&M
Sarah Jessica Parker lent her voice to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the audio guide to Costume: The Art of Dress, which will be available to visitors starting November 25. “Walking through the galleries listening to Sarah Jessica Parker’s narration will bring a sense of discovery and delight to the experience," said museum curator-in-charge Harold Koda. [WWD]
A reminder: Rai Kawakubo's Comme des Garcons collection for H&M arrives in stores Thursday, November 13. Prepare to lose a limb. [Vogue UK]
Actress Kate Winslet is angry at photographer Steven Meisel for talking her into posing nude on a piece of what she thought was fake fur in Vanity Fair. According to the magazine's spokesperson, the fur was real. [NY Daily News] read more »
Ready For Another Sex and the City Movie?
From the Least-Surprising-News-Ever file: looks like there will be more (yes more!) Sex and the City coming to movie screens sometime in our future. After SATC: The Movie made more than 153 million dollars last summer, we could practically hear these wheels get set into motion. Now, the question is – what’s left for these ladies left to do? It seemed like a lot of loose ends got tied up in the last one, but we suppose there’s always more to go. Will Carrie and Big break up and make up again? Is there a way to show Kim Cattrall’s Samantha character, in her ‘50s, be a sassy single gal beholden to no one without the audience feeling just a little bit like killing themselves? Maybe Charlotte’s adopted kid Lily will turn on her biological child? And, we assume, Miranda and Steve will move to Jackson Heights.
Morning Memo: Shannen Doherty Does Manhattan; Paris Hilton's British BFF; Tom Brady's Housing Woes
While visiting New York, Shannen Doherty likes "[carousing] with hipsters and chain-[smoking]," but not The Eldridge or other girls. Also, she does not care about the death of print. [P6]
Tom Brady has been forced to take his Time Warner Center apartment off the market because his tenant, an apparently uptight new mother, will not let brokers inside the place. [P6]
Jade Jagger is Paris Hilton's newest best friend. [Page Six Magazine] read more »
Bleeding for Zaha: Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld Can Only Hope to Contain Her
In an age where Damien Hirst errata have joined gold and United States government bonds in the shrinking pantheon of safe investments, can contemporary art still be dangerous?
More to the point, can contemporary art be dangerous when it's held in something of a polyurethane uterus, a haute-culture billboard designed by deconstructivist goddess Zaha Hadid, deposited on Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (after stints in Hong Kong and Tokyo), and paid for by Chanel—in these hard times is Lagerfeld really the Teutonic Karl we need?—whose iconic quilted handbag the melting plastic womb is said, implausibly, to resemble?
In a word, yes, if the traumas suffered by the Daily Transom at last night's opening party for the so-called CHANEL Contemporary Art Container—styled "Mobile Art"—are any indication. read more »
A New James L. Brooks Movie Or What?
Call it the mystery of the overwrought director. Last night while perusing the internets we saw a story posted on Ain't It Cool News about director James L. Brooks' latest project, a (probable) mawkish romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker for Sony Pictures. The story almost seemed ominous in alluding that the news about Mr. Brooks' next film, his first since 2004's Spanglish and only second since 1997's As Good as It Gets, would be confirmed by the trades within the next few days. OK!
Well, the plot thickens. When we went to Ain't It Cool this morning (yes, we're still furiously checking that site multiple times per hour, as if we were twenty-years-old), the story had mysteriously vanished. read more »
Night of the Living Sex and the City Cast: Franchise-less Zombie Ladies Talk Up Their Alter Egos on Pink Carpet
So here's a question: Will there ever not be Sex and the City-themed public-relations extravaganzas in New York City?
Last night marked roughly four months since the release of the undead franchise Sex and the City: The Movie, which means it was time for the release of the DVD, and therefore time to stretch a pink carpet the length of a city block down which stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall—even Lynn Cohen, who plays Magda the maid--could march to the bloodcurdling screams of their obsessed fans.
Such was the scene last night outside of the New York Public Library to celebrate the fact that we can now go home and watch the movie over and over again. read more »
Fashion Roundup: Sean Avery's Gonna Be In Pictures; Anna Wintour Supports Barack Obama Tonight; Topshop Available in the U.S.
Sean Avery's internship at Vogue is now the basis of a movie. [HR]
The fund-raiser for Barack Obama starring Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker at Charles Nolan's studio is tonight! [WWD]
There are now 152 fashion weeks in the world. Is it even possible to attend all of them? [NY Times]
Natalie Portman sat front row at Derek Lam this morning. [WWD]
If you can't wait for Topshop to open in Soho, you can log onto the website and order Kate Moss' collection in the U.S. starting today. [NY Daily News]
PETA was back outside the tents today protesting Dennis Basso. [The Cut]
Anna Wintour's Fund-Raiser for Obama, Round 2
show last February.
On June 17, Anna Wintour co-hosted a fund-raiser for Barack Obama with Andre Leon Talley, Calvin Klein and Michelle Obama followed by an $10,000-per-head dinner at Mr. Klein's home.
Now, with New York Fashion Week approaching, Ms. Wintour has roped in Sarah Jessica Parker to help with a second fund-raiser on Sept. 9 at Charles Nolan's West 27th Street studio, according to British Vogue.
In the spirit of Fashion Week, the fund-raiser will include a mini-fashion show, with designs donated by Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Proenza Schouler, and Narciso Rodriguez making their way down the runway. read more »
Sarah Jessica Parker's Ivy Chronicles Gets Prada Writer
Sarah Jessica Parker's The Ivy Chronicles will get a sinful treatment from the writer producers just hired. Aline Brosh McKenna, who scribed The Devil Wears Prada, will get typing soon.
As we told you, Ms. Sex and the City will play Ivy Ames, an upper-middle-class New York single mom who gets divorced and loses her high-powered job in one fell swoop. The plot is based on chick-lit writer Karen Quinn's novel. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the project has drawn comparisons to Prada as well as to The Nanny Diaries and The Starter Wife.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick Make Nice for the Cameras
Last week, Star reported that Matthew Broderick was cheating on wife Sarah Jessica Parker with a 25-year-old redhead, whom he wasn't very nice to. (It hurts us to discuss the sordid details; read them only if you must.)
And last night, presumably in an effort to appear as though everything in their relationship was just peachy, the couple made an outing to midtown looking very much together, according to the Daily Mail. Ms. Parker and Mr. Broderick, who are often described as a "private couple," walked out of a Chinese restaurant (could it have been Szechuan Gourmet, recently given read more »
Having Lost Project Runway, Bravo Picks Up SJP's Reality Show
The Sarah Jessica Parker-backed reality show that promised to be the Project Runway of the art world has finally been picked up by Bravo, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
America Artist is an hour-long art competition show in which contestants compete in front of judges—start guessing names!—to draw, paint, sculpt, and hopefully do some performance art until a winner is chosen. (Then all they have to do is go on to have a successful career in the art world.) read more »
Manhattan Weekend Box Office: Sex and the City vs. The Wackness on New York Screens
Things went much as predicted this Fourth of July weekend. New Yorkers fell in love with a homeless wino with a penchant for busting road signs and throwing live whales into the ocean. Hancock landed on top of Manhattan's sales charts with an $850,956 box office showing. It was the same story nationally. Sony's film scored $66 million in ticket sales, putting it way ahead of Wall-E ($33.4 million) and Wanted ($20.6 million). Since first hitting theaters on July 2, Will Smith's jaded superhero has made a total of $107.3 million.
Much like his alky antihero, Smith is a force to be reckoned with. read more »
Meet SJP's Latest Incarnation: Ivy, Deposed Upper East Side Mom
Now that the Sex and the City movie is finally behind her, Sarah Jessica Parker is ready to move on from the role of Carrie Bradshaw. But she's not straying far, characterwise.
Meet Ivy Ames, whom the actress will reportedly play in the forthcoming film The Ivy Chronicles.
She's an Upper East Side mom whose social descent is both literal and figurative: freshly divorced and given the boot at her job, Ivy moves downtown and transfers her kids from private to public school.
She then starts a business helping fellow middle-classers land a spot for their youngsters in elite kindergartens.
In real life she probably won't have much trouble with her own 5-year-old, James Wilkie.
Shocker! Sarah Jessica Parker to Play a Still Single Manhattanite
Sarah Jessica Parker is barely taking a baby step away from her role as Carrie Bradshaw for her next movie project. Warner Bros. is currently wooing her to star in The Ivy Chronicles, a movie based on Karen Quinn's novel about a single woman in modern-day Manhattan.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the story follows Ivy Ames, "an Upper East Side woman who, after losing her high-powered job and getting divorced, starts over again in a less ritzy downtown apartment. After pulling her children from private school, Ames starts a business to help upper-middle-class women get their children into elite kindergartens." read more »
Sarah Jessica Parker Blows Off Benefit For Fallen Baghdad Activist
Far be it from actress Sarah Jessica Parker to do something so clichéd as show up at her Sex and the City co-star Chris Noth’s bar, the Cutting Room, on West 24th Street—despite her position as honorary host of a benefit concert there, also on Monday, June 16.
A number of other entertainment luminaries, including the comedian and writer Al Franken, and the actresses Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, likewise lent their names, if not their presence, to the charity event, a fund-raiser for the fledgling Andi Foundation, which provides scholarships in memory of Andrea Parhamovich, a young activist with the Washington-based National Democratic Institute who was killed during an ambush on her convoy in Baghdad last year. read more »
S.J.P. Already Getting Hand-Me-Downs
Who would dare to send Carrie Bradshaw onto a red carpet in a hand-me-down dress? Nina Ricci's artistic director, Olivier Theyskens, apparently. read more »
Sex and the City Dominates Weekend Box Office
Despite negative reviews, Sex and the City dominated the box office this weekend, kicking the new Indiana Jones movie out of the no.1 spot and raking in roughly $55.7 million, The New York Times reports. And, surprise! 85 percent of ticket buyers were women, “many viewing in groups.” SJP is pleased: “I am so excited about the possibilities for movies about women,” she told the Times.
Sex Party Turns Into Estrogen-Fueled Rock Concert as S.J.P. Blows Giant Air-Kiss at N.Y.C.
Before last night's big-screen Sex and the City premiere at Radio City Music Hall, a tented red carpet sheltered Katie Couric, Donna Karan, the Seinfelds, Donald and Melania Trump, Mary J. Blige, Gayle King, and original Sex writer Candace Bushnell from the muggy drizzle outside, which Carrie Bradshaw would have just run through in four-inch heels.
The celebrities posed for pictures with cardboard posters of Sarah Jessica Parker (despite the fact that the actress herself was giving interviews nearby in a floor-length gray gown). Inside, large groups of women in short cocktail dresses and heels did the same. The occasional man looked either shell-shocked or gay.
Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley arrived and took their seats. Then it was Jason Lewis, a.k.a. Smith Jerrod. By the time Chris Noth strolled down the aisle in a khaki suit, the audience could take it no longer: A loud cheer went up and the women leaped to their feet in a flurry of flashbulbs. Sarah Jessica Parker soon made her way down the aisle at Stage Left, eliciting even louder cheers. One could have been forgiven for thinking this was a very stylish, estrogen-infused rock concert. read more »
Rex and the City: Carrie’s Ladies Who Lunch Aren't The Women
Sex and the City
Running Time 145 minutes
Written and Directed by Michael Patrick King
Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis
There’s nothing wrong with Sarah Jessica Parker that couldn’t be cured by wart-removal surgery. That growth on her face just gets bigger with every close-up, and in the full-length movie version of Sex and the City it’s so distracting you can’t concentrate on anything else. It’s not a beauty mark. I guess you can’t tell a co-producer anything, but listen up, girl. At this point, you would make a wonderful Halloween witch. Unfortunately, to fix all the things wrong with Sex and the City, you need more than a scalpel. read more »
Slicing the SATC Publicity Pie
The media campaign for the Sex and the City movie, which arrives in theaters May 30, was executed with near-militaristic precision. You might call it “flooding the zone.”
Vogue, which itself has a recurring role in the franchise, easily secured the big kahuna: 43-year-old Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover and an elaborate photo shoot featuring her posing with Chris Noth, 53 (Mr. Big): on top of a skyscraper, on a red carpet, in the bedroom making sex tapes! read more »
Specs and the Suburbs! Square Pegs DVD Release Pegged ... to Sex!
We know everyone is going through Sex and the City overload, but we just wanted to point out that Square Pegs, the 1980s CBS comedy that features Sarah Jessica Parker in tortoise-shells instead of peep-toes, was released on DVD this week... just in time for the Sex premiere.
The show started out with the typical teenaged girl stereotypes (the "smart girl," the "fat girl," the "mean girls," etc.) only to deconstruct them during the 19-episode series. (Hmmm, sounds familiar). read more »
Morning Memo: Has Keith McNally Found His Beatrice? David Lauren, You Beast!
Heatherette boys Richie Rich and Traver Rains may not be breaking up after all. [Fashion Week Daily]
After not being invited to Jenna Bush's wedding over the weekend, Lauren Bush's boyfriend, David Lauren (Raph's son) decided that the best way to spend his weekend would be to flirt with Greenwich magazine staffer Jennifer Danzi and ask for her number. That'll change the Bushes' opinion of him! read more »
Morning Memo: Leonardo DiCaprio, Bicycle Babe; Jenna Bush's Big Fat Presidential Wedding
O.K., so we knew that Leonardo DiCaprio was like the first person to buy a Toyota Prius, but last week he even rode up to the opening of Bonhams Flagship Showroom with his mom on bikes, and parked right out front on 57th and Madison. [P6]
David Mamet interviews himself about his new film. [New Yorker] read more »
Morning Memo: Out on a Limb With Olivia Thirlby; S.J.P. is Down on N.Y.C.
Brett Ratner is not allowed to use the trees in New York City parks to dangle 80-pound starlet Olivia Thirlby from for a sex scene. [NY Daily News]
Sarah Jessica Parker is down on the New York she helped create. [NY Mag] read more »
Slayed by Quaid! Middle-Aged Glamour Boy Scores as Scruffy Prof
SMART PEOPLE
Running Time 95 minutes
Written by Mark Jude Poirier
Directed by Noam Murro read more »
Manhattan Weekend Box Office: Smart People? Demographic Doppelgangers Devour Holdovers
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 »
Morning Memo: 'Carrie Bradshaw' Moves to Brooklyn; Sarah Jessica Parker is Staying in the Village, Though
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 Perfume Biz—With a Whiff of Celebrity
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 »
Sarah Jessica Parker, Bravo Duo to Make ProjRun Show for the Art World
A Project Runway-like show that replaces designers with aspiring artists and sewing machines with palettes and sculpting knives? read more »
From Sundance, S.J.P. Sends S.A.T.C. Co-Star S.W.A.K.
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 »
Old Town Jumps on Sex and the City Bandwagon
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 »
New Sex and the City Trailer Tickles, Teases
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
Project Runway Gets Bitten With Sex and the City Branding Bug
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 »
How Patricia Field 'Experiences' Sarah Jessica Parker's Body
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.”
Positively West Fourth Street: Cozy Architect Couple Says Pshaw to Postmodernism
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 »