This is good news for Sarah Jessica Parker and her Sex cohorts Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis. The first SATC movie took forever to make, because the ego-besotted foursome imagined the HBO series would give them all big movie careers. When those Hollywood dreams fizzled, they crawled back to Sex work. With a box office of $152 million, the movie version did well. And the Scary Sadshaws will keep cracking Manolo jokes until their facelifts are too tight to laugh. Hey, it beats auditioning for parts.

"The movie studio gave out way more promotional tickets than could fit in the orchestra," said one insider. "Radio City managers told the New Line people, 'You can solve this by opening up the mezzanines, which have 2,700 more seats - but they wouldn't do it."

However, a New Line source countered, "It was Radio City Music Hall making that decision. They took control of the fan line. They turned the fans away."

People get upset about Sex And The City selling vacuous lies — about New York, about relationships, about sex, about life — but now the enterprise has gone and done something that really will, for once, help hundreds of its most fervent fans start behaving more independently.

[Post]

It seems Sherman won't get to go to a promised event featuring Sex star Kim Cattrall, a party that would likely have figured prominently in the story she's freelancin for some big Asian magazine.

"It was the after-party that was the big thing for me," she told the Post.

Oh please, Ella. You don't need to go to that. You've clearly soaked up the naive, entitled, psuedo-feminist striving at the heart of Sex And The City better than virtually every person at this little "after-party," assuming it ever existed in the first place.

[Post]

(Photo via Post)

Watching TV all day — watching any TV show all day — will do that to you. But you know, there is something especially mindfucky about SATC. There's something about Carrie! (Ugh, something that encourages terrible, terrible puns! I promise to try to not to make any more of them.) And, actually, let me also dispense with a couple of other things right up front.

I am not interested in making qualitative judgments about this TV show. Maybe it's groundbreaking, and documentary-realistic about New York City, and it gave women permission to speak frankly about men and sex and dating mores in a way that they hadn't before! Or maybe it's hilariously dreadful — full of schlocky metaphors and over-the-top untruths about New York City, and stunningly, feminism-hobblingly retrogressive portrayals of womens' priorities and desires!

In this clip, Miranda sums up my feelings. Basically she's like, "Why do you only ever talk about penises? There is other stuff to talk about!" Unfortunately they don't listen to her and the show continues for another four seasons.

I don't know anymore. I change my mind every five minutes. This minute, on my TV screen, Carrie and friends are watching Big come down the stairs of Denial in slow motion and a huge grin is lighting up her face — he does care about her friends, after all! — and Miranda is running out into the street after Steve — she will give him a chance, after all! — to kiss him in the rain. And I'm thinking the answer might be that everything everyone's ever said about Sex and the City, both good and bad, is somewhat true. All that matters is that it's already been said, so I won't waste time saying it again here, and neither should you. Instead I want to talk about the kind of insight that can only be gleaned by watching many, many episodes of a TV show in a row.

Such as: there is a LOT of rollerblading going on in Seasons 1 and 2. A whole lot.

There are other stand-out un-modern touches, of course. Just to get it out of the way: oh my god their CLOTHES, their HAIR! The fact that their cellphones are the same (enormous) size as the Rabbit Pearl vibrator Charlotte gets "addicted" to in episode 9 ("It's pink! For girls!") And of course there's the unfortunate fact that, thanks to increasing budgets and the increasing social acceptability of facial muscle microparalysis via injected botulinim toxin, the gals seem to have grown younger, not older, as the series wore on.

Also, remember the HBO Real Sex-style Man on the Street interviews and Carrie's turn-to-the-camera confessionals? Those were weird.

But yes, seriously, really I wanted to mention something about the early seasons of SATC that — I think, at least! I haven't read everyone's grad school theses — hasn't already been discussed to death. It has to do with Carrie's job.

As the first episode opens, we hear Carrie narrating, in voiceover, the story of another woman's love and loss. We don't even see Carrie onscreen for a few minutes — instead, we learn about Elizabeth, a young British woman who came to New York and met a charmer who talked marriage and babies, then completely disappeared. Remember? It's the monologue that ends, "Welcome to the age of un-Innocence. No one has breakfast at Tiffany's and no one has affairs to remember." We're then given to understand that this voiceover, like alllllll the voiceovers that will follow it, is an excerpt from one of Carrie's columns. She is a sex columnist for a New York newspaper. "This is my work," she later tells a man she's just met when he asks what she does besides going out every night. "I'm sort of a sexual anthropologist." "You mean like a hooker?" he (it's Big!) asks—his joke-or-is-it? quasimysogny, established here, continues throughout the series and is meant to be, I guess, realistic and endearing.

"No. I write a column called 'Sex and the City.' Right now I'm researching an article about women who have sex like men. You know, they have sex and then afterwards they feel nothing," Carrie says. So this is the premise for the show: her life is research for her column. All the things that happen on the show — everything that makes Carrie have "to wonder," to announce that she "had a thought," to conclude that "the truth was," to sum things up with "and just like that," — these are all things that Carrie is sharing with a public. She's a little bit famous. "I'm a huge fan of your column," random characters say throughout the series. "I'm sort of somebody and she's definitely sort of somebody," Samantha tells an indifferent gatekeeper at a fancy restaurant.

So as Carrie and her friends navigate the many pitfalls that can imperil romance in New York — modelizers, married people, lesbians, twentysomethings, butt sex, vibrator addiction, pregnancy, flatulence and Catholicism in the first season alone — they're doing so in front of an audience. Not just the people who are unfortunate enough to be seated around them at brunch or at so-hot-right-now restaurants — no, Carrie and co. are figuring out whether nice girls do anal in front of all the people who read Carrie's column. You have to wonder whether this scrutiny is affecting their relationships — well, you have to wonder, but Carrie never does. It's the one thing she never wonders about.

Carrie's column is the elephant in the room for a reason — what if Big and Carrie had ever argued over how he was portrayed in her column? It's like wondering what Friends would have been like if Rachel had married that dentist — which is to say, probably nonexistent. And of all the credulity-straining things about SATC — you know, the 'how can she afford those shoes/that apartment?' factors — this is, to me, the most egregious. As I watched my 17th episode of the day, I HAD TO WONDER: How does Carrie constantly, publicly pontificate about her personal life and still manage to, you know, have one?

Also, why does Miranda always talk with her mouth full?

More things to WONDER about in this season one highlight reel: are women "things?" Is Big calling Carrie ugly? Is Carrie good at dumping people? And is Charlotte, in fact, a hole?

Earlier: 36 Straight Hours Of Sex (And The City)

• "Helen Malani, an online shopping expert [in Los Angeles]... has already bought seven tickets to an opening-night showing on May 30. One guest is coming from as far away as Arizona... the chance to 'hoot and holler' at the screen with a like-minded sisterhood has been lacking in her years of devotion to the series."
• "In Vail, Colo., Bonnie Vesey plans to go one better, with cosmopolitans and an Asian fusion dinner party for 10 at the Beaver Creek resort before a 9 p.m. screening at a nearby theater... 'We’re all going to dress fabulously... I’m the Kim Cattrall of the group.'"
• "In Manhattan, On Location Tours sold out 300 tickets, at $130 each, for a special 10-hour tour of “Sex and the City” hot spots. The night peaks with a group viewing of the movie at a reserved theater auditorium in Midtown, followed by a party at a club in Chelsea."
• "A spokesman for... an online ticket service said... 26 percent of those who responded planned to see the film 'with the whole gang.'"
• "Approximately 20 'beautiful females have all decided to meet for the event starting at Mangia e Bevi then out for a stroll to the movies with our man Manhattan...'"

On the bright side, this will be a huge, huge money night for cat-sitters.

[Times]

(Photo via EveryStockPhoto)

In one episode, Carrie does debate whether it is proper etiquette to contact an old boyfriend by e-mail; on another occasion, a boyfriend dumps her by leaving a Post-it on her computer. Ms. Allison, by contrast, may be best known for her online breakup earlier this year with a boyfriend with whom she once shared a blog, jakobandjulia.com, where they would tell readers details of their life together. Hundreds commented, both on their blog and elsewhere, as the relationship dissolved through a series of nasty posts. Soon afterward, her ex appeared, seminaked, on the blog of a woman they both knew.

Asked how it feels to end a relationship in public like that, Ms. Allison nods her lovely head and gazes into the distance. "People were preying on my pain," she says, her voice not quite cracking. "It was hell."

There's also a video interview with Julia called "Web and the Single Girl", in case you've never seen Julia talk about herself.

Ahahahaha, I couldn't even type that with a straight face.

Does this writer own a TV? Because Rachel wouldn't have settled for Barry—he was kind of a lying jerk. Remember?

Well, whatever. On the eve of Valentine's Day, we leave you with this:

What I didn't realize when I decided, in my 30s, to break up with boyfriends I might otherwise have ended up marrying, is that while settling seems like an enormous act of resignation when you're looking at it from the vantage point of a single person, once you take the plunge and do it, you'll probably be relatively content... I didn't fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn't necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you're married, it's not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it's about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn't a passion-fest; it's more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business.

As heavily made-up ladies milled around the third floor (DvF!) of Bloomies, studiously avoiding the gaze of the two or three men in attendance, I made my way over to get my book signed by Imogen herself. She is a tiny, tiny, miniature person, the kind of girl who makes everyone around her look and feel fat. She is single and 30 and loving it! She's even teaching a class at the Learning Annex to this effect. And of course it is the subject of her book.

"I'm recently single," I told her. "What is the best tip from your book?"

She looked at me with genuine concern, and began to speak in that concerned tone of voice British people have that is actually very comforting and usually accompanied by offer of tea. She seemed to be trying to restrain herself from patting me on my hand. Anyway, she told me I should not think at all about attracting men or trying to have a boyfriend and just focus on myself for right now. "I could have told you that," Nikola said under his breath as he took unflattering photos of Imogen squinching up her brown, trying to think of what to say next.

"Umm, I'm thinking of getting a dog! What's your opinion on that? Should a single lady have a pet? I already have a cat," I said.

"I used to have a cat named Smirnoff, and he was a very bad cat!" she said. "The neighbors must have thought I was an alcoholic, which I probably am—joke!—because every morning I would be running about the flat shouting "Smirnoff! Smirnoff!"

She paused to finish signing my book in pink pen. ("Dear Emily, Hope you enjoy. Have fun! Much love, Imogen")

"But a dog is a massive responsibility," she said. "I mean, I'm a bit more of a cat person. I feel a bit of an obligation to be, actually. You know, 'Cats' paid for my college education!"

Nikola and I laughed, but later mused about how uncharming it is when extremely rich people pretend to be ordinary. After all, the collected revenues from Imogen's father's musical 'Cats' could pay for the college educations of maybe an entire small country. Should one make self-deprecating jokes about one's wealth, or allow it to become the elephant in the room? This topic is not covered in The Single Girl's Survival Guide.

Examples of singlefiers have been popping into my head with alarming regularity lately, possibly because I'm about to live alone for the first time. And, to be honest, I really want it to be completely unlike every other New York bachelorette pad, which are so often completely alike. Not that there aren't various grossnesses endemic to apartments inhabited by couples! (Seriously, people, that bedside trash can? Empty it oftener, or throw the condoms out elsewhere.) But here's the stuff I'm worried will happen in my new place:

• Piles of magazines everywhere, comprised of tons of pretentious ones that are clearly untouched and then severely thumbed-through Vogues and Luckys
  
• Overflowing shoe rack and nothing in the fridge
  
• Scented candles
  
• Slovenly heaps of little-used makeups in the bathroom
  
• Stuffed animals in the bed
  
• Cat hair on the furniture
  
• Cat smell
  
• Cabinets full of mugs featuring the likeness of lady who looks like those hypertrophically-limbed Daily Candy illustrations, bearing the legend "I Love Shopping" or whatnot
  
• Anything pink
  
• Ornamental pillows
  
• Unedited bookshelves, esp. if they include He's Just Not That Into You or anything along those lines
  
• Nair
  
• Lite cottage cheese in the fridge
  
• Anything lite or diet around. Cases of Diet Coke. Weight Watchers 'Just 2 Points' bars
  
• Inspirational or thinspirational things on the fridge
  
• Framed posters
  
• Handbag tree
• I could go on. Or maybe you could?

We mention this because, apropos of nothing, we got two emails today directing us to Carrie's blog, both pointing out how stupid it is. Seems like somebody wants some attention. Well, congratulations, Carrie: your plan worked. Please send us a cut of the book deal cash. —emily

Though he said he understood my issue and there shouldn't be a problem with what I wanted, they aren't yet equipped to handle this request. I kid you not. He tried to push that $7 swirl crap on me again and I told him all I wanted was a medium cup with half and half and that I didn't want to pay $7 for it. When you go to Starbucks and you want a cup of half regular, half decaf, you don't have to choose between one or the other. He told me that Pinkberry has a certain way of doing things, for example, some frozen yogurt places off gummi bears as a topping, and they do not.I told him that they are denying you what they offer—which is only 2 flavors—and that's ridiculous. He's presenting this to the "Pinkberry people" to offer their customers in the future. Just wait until the Murray Hill girls starting asking for it to be layered with sprinkles.

Earlier: Pinkberry "Will Never Conquer Tasti-D", Claims Lady

Last night, I stopped into the relatively new pinkberry on 8th avenue and 17th or 18th street - I didn't want to decide between the 2 flavors so I asked for both. She said they weren't allowed to do that and that they only had the swirl in a 10 oz container for like $7. There was NO ONE in the store with me and it was 18 degrees. So I left. Apparently they would rather not sell than give 2 flavors instead of one. They will never conquer Tasti - d. This is so not New York.

Pinkberry Rising [Eater]

When you read the words "young, single, and living in the city" on a computer screen, don't you just want to gouge your eyes out (a little)? Well, you must not be the kind of under-35 year old the AP is going for with its new youth-targeted ASAP service, which brings us the videoblog Reel City Tales. Our heroine, one Donna Arazie, is going to "vlog" (ugh!) about "men, careers, money, [and] big decisions" — like whether or not to booty-call. Giving credit/blame where it's due, Arazie admits in her intro post,"Sure, there was "Sex and the City," but that's so 2003." Omg, you guys, let's totally all watch this vlog on our portable handheld devices! Shoot. us. now.

Associated Press Starts A Sexy Videoblog [NewTeeVee]

As for Bushnell, everyone thinks she made a mint off Sex And The City at HBO and in syndication. But lore has it [ed: we love 'lore' as a source ] that Bushnell sold the rights to Sex And The City producer Darren Star for a mere $60,000 way back in 1996. Asked about her payday from the deal, Bushnell back in 2005 confirmed to Radar that she'd taken the opportunity to cash out long before Sex And The City took off and said it was "highly unlikely" that she'd ever see a dime from its syndication (though her subsequent books and other projects have reportedly earned her millions). Interesting that, at one point, Darren Star tried to buy the TV rights to Lipstick Jungle, too, but the deal went south. No doubt, a kiss-off.

Hopefully, NBC Deal for 'Lipstick Jungle' Better Than 'Sex.' [Deadline Hollywood]

In addition to being a romantic time of year, it is when everyone's together, so they can start to make plans," said Millie Martini Bratten, editor in chief of Brides. "And the ring is the ultimate gift."

Carley Roney, editor in chief of The Knot, an online wedding planning company, says its traffic surges each January. About 17 percent of the 2.3 million engagements every year take place in December, The Knot estimates. New Year's Eve is also a popular time for engagements, Ms. Roney said.

"A lot of people have end-of-year deadlines for themselves," Ms. Roney said. "You know: 'If he doesn't propose to me by the end of the year.' ..."

Finding Love and the Right Linens [NYT]

Sara aspires to be a sex columnist, just like her new employer. We think she's a great fit for the job, based on qualifications that we've extrapolated from her five-entry blog oeuvre: