For six seasons of \u201cSex and the City\u201d and two movies, Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte met weekly in Manhattan for brunch to giggle and gab over mimosas.<\/p>\n
The best friends led fabulous lives. Donning designer duds, they would hit every downtown party late into the night, snag New York\u2019s hottest men and cry on each other\u2019s shoulders when those men turned out to be pigs. Burgers and Bigs came and went, but the core quartet was rock solid.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe our girlfriends are our soul mates,\u201d says Carrie, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, in one \u201cSex and the City\u201d episode.<\/p>\n
A nice thought. But fans couldn\u2019t help but wonder: If that were true, why is Kim Cattrall, who plays Samantha on the original show,\u00a0being left out of the revival HBO Max series, \u201cAnd Just Like That,\u201d which was announced last week? The show is said to delve into the complexities of the ladies\u2019 NYC lives in their 50s \u2014 but not that of p.r. powerhouse Samantha Jones, a pop culture icon.<\/p>\n
Die-hards were devastated. Where the other characters get caught up in dramatic tailspins and career woes over the years \u2014 a sad Carrie dining alone on her 35th birthday at Il Cantinori; a frazzled Miranda navigating life as a single mom and lawyer \u2014\u00a0 Samantha is all sex and fun. Her average plotline centers around \u201cShould I bed this Staten Island firefighter?\u201d\u00a0(She does.)<\/p>\n
The \u201cAnd Just Like That\u201d slight was all too familiar. Two years ago, Kristin Davis, 55, who plays prissy Upper East Sider Charlotte,\u00a0posted a nostalgic photo on Instagram\u00a0from the 2004 Emmy Awards, showing herself, Parker and Cynthia Nixon (who plays Miranda) beaming next to two glistening statuettes \u2014 won by Parker and Nixon for their performances. Nowhere to be seen? Cattrall.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper happy memories and wishing joy to everyone tonight,\u201d Davis\u2019 caption coos. \u201cWe are all so incredibly lucky to get to do what we do!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
That night, a party was thrown for the final season, and, as Page Six reported at the time, Cattrall was the only one of the four to not be invited because she had yet to sign onto the planned film. (She eventually did, and it was released in 2008.) The whole evening, Cattrall was persona non grata in a pink Pamella Roland gown.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one talked to Kim except for when [Parker] won her award and kissed her,\u201d a source said. \u201cThat kiss was staged.\u201d<\/p>\n
While on-screen the actresses were all smiles and puns, once the camera stopped rolling they had knives behind their backs.<\/p>\n
Cattrall and Parker\u2019s long-brewing feud was laid bare for all to see in 2018, when Cattrall\u2019s missing brother, Christopher, was found dead in Canada. The actress, now 64,\u00a0took to Instagram\u00a0to call out Parker, 55, who had brought up the tragedy in a TV interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Mom asked me today \u2018When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?,’\u201d Cattrall wrote in the caption. \u201cYour continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven\u2019t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I\u2019m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your \u2018nice girl\u2019 persona.\u201d<\/p>\n
She then told her followers to \u201ccopy and paste [the] link\u201d to a Post story, \u201cInside the mean girls culture that destroyed \u2018Sex and the City.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Cattrall never took down that Instagram post.<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Beyond the fisticuffs, there were smaller slaps along the way.<\/p>\n The Post\u2019s\u00a0Cindy Adams reported\u00a0in 2009 that, during the nearly two months when the women were filming \u201cSex and the City 2\u201d in Morocco, there was no friendly socializing off-screen. They even slept in separate luxury hotels.<\/p>\n Cattrall and Davis both stayed at the Amanjena, Parker at La Mamounia and Nixon at the Es Saadi. One night, Cattrall and Davis had overlapping dinner reservations in the same restaurant, and didn\u2019t sit with each other.<\/p>\n A similar scene reportedly played out during an earlier shoot in Atlantic City, NJ, when Parker rented a house for her, Davis and Nixon, while Cattrall stayed on her own.<\/p>\n An HBO spokesman said at the time, \u201cKim stayed in a different house because she was married at the time, and her husband was supposed to come.\u201d<\/p>\n When Nixon, 54, unsuccessfully ran for New York governor in 2018, Parker donated $5,000 to the campaign, and Davis handed over $2,000. Cattrall\u2019s\u00a0only endorsement\u00a0came in a tweet: \u201cI support & respect any former colleague\u2019s right to make their own career choices.\u201d<\/p>\n The remark was not out of character for the actress, who has, in the years since \u201cSex and the City\u201d ended, maintained the gal-pal act was just for show.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never been friends,\u201d\u00a0she told Piers Morgan\u00a0in a 2017 interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve been colleagues, and in some ways it\u2019s a very healthy place to be, because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The remark stung Parker,\u00a0who countered with her own version\u00a0on \u201cWatch What Happens Live\u201d a few months later.<\/p>\n \u201c[I\u2019m] just heartbroken,\u201d Parker told host Andy Cohen. \u201cI mean, that whole week, you and I spoke about it endlessly, because I was just, I don\u2019t know, I found it very upsetting, because that\u2019s not the way I recall our experience.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019ve never been friends.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n But the final irony, perhaps, is\u00a0Cattrall\u2019s exclusion\u00a0from the new 10-part HBO Max show, for which the actresses will reportedly rake in more than $1 million per episode. In the past, Cattrall had fought for better paychecks for herself and, in so doing, for her co-stars. Before the first film,\u00a0a source told Page Six, \u201cKim\u2019s been bragging to everyone that she held out for more money on the film and, in turn, got better salaries\u201d for Davis and Nixon.<\/p>\n Page Six also reported in 2017 that a third film\u00a0was on the brink of being made\u00a0before Cattrall scuttled it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were expecting to go to work,\u201d a source said. \u201cIt\u2019s true. They were supposed to start shooting [on Tuesday]. Kim was negotiating and was asking for things the studio wouldn\u2019t go for, so they pulled the plug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Cattrall denies this, but tweeted at the time, \u201cThe only \u2018DEMAND\u2019 I ever made was that I didn\u2019t want to do a 3rd film .\u2009.\u2009. & that was back in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n Parker has been keeping it politic about Cattrall being left out of the new show, but Carrie-like politeness didn\u2019t stop her from referring to her former co-star in the past tense on Instagram after a fan commented that she\u2019d \u201cmiss Kim\/Samantha.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will too,\u201d Parker replied. \u201cWe loved her so.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n For six seasons of \u201cSex and the City\u201d and two movies, Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte met weekly in Manhattan for brunch to giggle and gab over mimosas. The best friends led fabulous lives. Donning designer duds, they would hit every downtown party late into the night, snag New York\u2019s hottest men and cry on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[391],"tags":[4636,4637,4197,3327],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n \t