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Blame it on 'Sex and the City?'

BY JULIE GORDON | amNewYork

May 5, 2008

The decade since "Sex and the City" premiered saw the transformation of New York into a real-life set for the show, with gaggles of cosmo-swigging young women chasing the lifestyle it depicts.

The city now teems with glass tower condos and swank shops that have displaced affordable apartments as well as small businesses that cater to longtime New Yorkers.

So is it the show's fault that the corner diner was knocked down for a condo and places such as Third Avenue in Murray Hill are overrun with Samantha clones? No way, says actor Chris Noth, who plays Mr. Big on the show and in its big-screen treatment, which premieres May 30.

"Look, there's always been plenty of fashion in New York, and it's never going to die," Noth said yesterday at a roundtable discussion with the film's cast and director at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. "But this show didn't create 40-story-tall buildings and it doesn't negate [that] either."

Cast members conceded yesterday that they were familiar with the critique that "Sex and the City" helped launch these changes by drawing out-of-towners hell-bent on living the life at all cost.

Designer labels and extravagant lifestyles have been as much a part of the series as its four female stars - Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon.

Nixon is all too familiar with these bright-eyed girls.

"When people come up to me on the street and say, 'I just got here from Iowa two weeks ago. Your show made me come.' I'm like, 'Oh, no,'" said Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbes. "People do come here looking for love, but what do they find?"

Quite possibly bad luck in love, cramped apartments, shopping trips that don't include Fifth Avenue and life in a borough other than Manhattan.

In a city facing relentless neighborhood gentrification, Noth says he is a strong advocate of old New York. The actor mentioned his support of a movement to keep the 13th Street Repertory Theater and other city mainstays alive.

Michael Patrick King, writer and director of the film, said fans should keep in mind that the series and film don't exactly reflect reality.

They should, in a sense, watch with a shaded view - even if those shades are Gucci.

"I think the movie reflects your life but with a really big budget," King said.