OMG – Cuddy might have been Carrie! Lisa Edelstein currently stars as Abby “Seriously, What Did She See in Jake?” McCarthy on Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. More famously, she played Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House. I fell in love with her as Laurie, the law student putting herself through law school by working as a high-priced call girl on The West Wing. On GGTD Lisa plays the author of a series of self-help relationship books whose own marriage has fallen apart. Her character is surrounded by some sassy (and morally questionable) girlfriends and a collection of quintessential LA-type people. You could say Abby is an older, maternal, West Coast version of Carrie Bradshaw. Apparently Lisa was predestined to play Abby because had Sarah Jessica Parker passed on the role, Lisa would have filled Carrie’s Manolo Blahniks:
Lisa Edelstein, who is perhaps best known for her seven-season turn as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House M.D., was initially in the running to play Carrie Bradshaw on Darren Star’s Sex and the City, a character ultimately made iconic by Sarah Jessica Parker.
“It wasn’t a rumor,” she told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on the Tuesday, February 2, episode of Access Hollywood Live, referring to speculation that she was being seriously considered for the coveted role. “That actually happened.”
“I was either going to do it or not,” she said of playing the Big Apple heroine. “It all depended on whether [Sarah Jessica Parker] said yes. My contract was complete. I was waiting.”
In the end, of course, Parker decided to take the role, leaving the now-49-year-old brunette actress to launch her storied career another way.
I was not a big fan of Sex and the City but I’ve watched many episodes. One of the things I liked about SJP in that role was that I believed her Carrie could be that naïve in ridiculous situations; there was the right balance of chaos and cool in her portrayal. I am positive Lisa could have pulled the character off, she played vulnerable beautifully on House, but it definitely would have been a different Carrie. Besides, Lisa was Carrie in real life; she didn’t need to act it. Lisa E, as she was known, was such a fixture in the New York club scene she was dubbed “Queen of the Night” and mentioned in James St. James’s book Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster.
As if you needed any more reasons to like Lisa: as a 16 year old cheerleader for Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals football team, Lisa helped organize a walk out due to sexist working conditions. Reminds me of another Lisa who helped organize a cheerleader strike.
Photo credit: Wenn Photos and Getty Images
In my head, she’s just too badass to have been Carrie.
All the SATC women were well-rounded and badass in their own way, but (maybe I’m projecting Cuddy’s no nonsense and have no idea what I’m talking about) I can just see her being all “Nah” with Big’s bullsh*t.
I reckon the right people got the right parts (for once!)
agree on everything,
Yeah, she’s way to badass to play Carrie. And I think only Miranda ( my personal favourite) and Samantha were badass, Charlotte ( she got a lot better in later seasons) and Carrie not so much.
Miranda and Samantha were amazing.
Samantha was unhapologetic, and free, I loved her.
Ooh, Miranda was my all time favorite of the SATC girls, followed by Samantha.
Who else remembers that she played the recovering alcoholic Ben KNOCKED UP ON SEASON 4 of Felicity! oooooh
And I noticed she had a guest role on Seinfeld. I think she was either George’s or Kramer’s girlfriend.
The risotto woman!
Yes! The Felicity role is still the first thing I think of when I see her!
I remember her in Felicity too!
I agree. I can’t picture her putting up with Big’s nonsense.
I like girlfriend’s guide! I just skimmed that club scene link and saw that she said she was “asking for it” if she walked home from the club in a tight dress and heels.
ETA: I don’t think I would have liked her as Carrie, but that’s because I despise Carrie as a character and I like Edelstein so I wouldn’t want that to be tainted.
100% agree with your second paragraph.
I loved and still love SATC.
I love Girlfriend’s Guide. Wish it was a bigger show.
And Will Kemp is still the best swan in that iconic reworking of Swanlake Ballet by the Mathew Bourne’s adventures in motion pictures ballet company where they gender reversed all the roles.
She is really cool, I wish I could see her more often on bigger projects. love her!
I’ve always really liked her, too. I can’t see her as Carrie, glad it worked out the way it did.
I’m disgusted that professional football teams have cheerleaders who are only 16. I didn’t realize that. What an unhealthy situation. Gross.
I don’t understand cheerleaders at all. What’s the point? Why are they needed? Clubs here don’t have them and the atmosphere is just fine.
Oh, I’m so there with you. They “need” them so fat old men can watch teenage girls in what are essentially bathing suits jumping up and down. It’s gross. Oh, but wait, someone will inform us that being a professional cheerleader is “a great jump start to a girl’s career.” Because, they become so famous, you know, and make all these great contacts, for example there’s …um…the one who…no, that was an exotic dancer…oh well, can’t think of anyone who used this marvelous springboard to fame, but I’m sure she exists.
GNAT: I agree with you 100%, BUT just to be facetious……Paula Abdul. Started as a cheerleader for the lakers. 🙂
@LAK lol I knew somebody must have made the transition!
Agree agree! I’d like to watch a football game for once without having to look at some girl’s crotch while her legs, teeth and pom-poms flash by the screen.
Cheerleaders to me means, hey I can’t play the sport so I’ll cheer all you men on, to get you all testosteroney, so you’ll win the game.
It’s demeaning.
Any team above high school level with underage cheerleaders is really gross. Somehow I’m not surprised Trump had one.
Throw rocks at me if you want, but I did cheerleading in high school. I loved dance and choreography, but my school didn’t have a dance team, so that was the closest I could get, and I did get to choreograph the routines. We also had fairly modest uniforms, and cheered at both the boys’ and girls’ basketball games.
Of course, two years after I graduated, the school started an actual dance team. And I side eye pro team cheerleaders now – barely dressed adult women who mostly just whip their hair around.
I was a cheerleader in high school, too, but that’s not the same thing. As you said, we didn’t show any skin and we weren’t bumping and grinding. Not that I see that as my finest hour or anything, but it was athletic and fun and with people our age. I think professional cheerleading is just dumb.
You know what makes it even worse? Those cheerleaders are barely paid, but are expected to put in something like 20-25 hours a week of rehearsal time and practice, as well as maintaining a certain ‘physique’ and ‘style’, and making any additional appearances/charity work.
I don’t get the cheerleader stuff either
I know American football and basketball has them. Other than that I haven’t seen them in other sports.
It’s funny because cheerleading, the literal version, was started by men!
Sarah Jessica Parker was Carrie. No one could have been better than her. That ensemble casting was perfection.
Agreed! I think everyone was cast perfectly.
It would have been different. I liked SJP as Carrie. But sometimes I was too annoyed with that character. Samantha was a riot!
No she doesn’t have SJP’s charm. No way.
She looks too “smart” to play Carrie.
I think the character would have ended up the same, though, has she played her. And honestly, her character on Girlfriend’s Guide is as perplexingly immature as Carrie was.
I LOVE Lisa, I LOVE her eyes, her face just Love her, she gives fierce emotion like no other
She is insanely charismatic.
I thought the Dana Delaney was supposed to be Carrie. There’s something playful about SJP. She’s also naturally stylish so I think SatC made the right choice.
Yep. Dana Delaney was the original first choice, and Parker got it after she declined.
Delany was also first choice to play Bree in Desperate Housewives. I can’t picture anyone but Marcia Cross, just like I can’t picture any one but sjp as Carrie.
And then she ended up on Desperate Housewives playing Bree 2.0 when it became obvious that she’d made a huge mistake. Again.
I could picture her as Carrie. As an actress she should be able to play any part.
I have only seen her in house, but I didn’t think she was that good at all…apart from the fact that hers was the weakest scripting of the show. How many times could they have her warn House that he wasn’t going to get a away with things again…or that she had had to fight to keep him in his job…it’s the same thing that’s annoying me about Luther….
I love her on girlfriend’s guide to divorce,really good show.
LOVE GGTD, too. This season is flying by, though. I don’t want it to end.
WOW I had no idea about her past, that is so interesting. I feel like she could have lent a lot more credence to the role. BUT SATC was about Carrie’s present and only brought up her past when it was necessary or relevant to the plot of the episode. Also i feel like it would have been a darker story. I really like GGD, I fell off in the first season but that was because I had a newborn and i started back to work and didn’t have time to stay up late to watch it anymore. And i really like Jeannine Garafalo (sp) once she left i couldn’t really get into the new friend from college or the other attorney friend.
I saw last season also. I stayed with it as it found its footing, and then Janeane Garafalo quit in the middle of the season and threw the whole show off. I stuck with it still. and it got back on track after a while. Plus, the ending was sweet. I confess I haven’t watched this season. I will binge watch it some day probably.
Whenever I see her, I can’t help but think “penis!!” because of Ally Mcbeal.
Love her!
Woulda brought a different flavor to STAC, but Lisa is terrific in everything!
Lisa E is great in GG2D, but lately her character is really annoying the hell out of me. So whiny and kinda mean. I hope that passes.
So glad to see Will Kemp as the British baker. Yum.
Still remember him from that Gap ad that he danced in. Damn, he was hot . I remember having to look up who that guy was who danced in loose jeans for about 10 seconds. That was the impact he had on me !
… And he’s still hot !
I had NO IDEA she was Lisa E. But then everyone in that scene wore so much makeup you wouldn’t recognize them if you woke up next to them.
She probably could have been a good Carrie, but I think SJP is way closer to Candace Bushnell, who wrote the book. It’s less of a stretch to see SJP as Candace. Lisa just doesn’t have that vulnerability and kookiness.
She can play kooky, though. Have you ever seen the episode of Frasier that she was on? She was another one of his girlfriends and he was attracted to her because she was so far out there. She played an artist that did all kinds of squirrelly things, like howling at the moon and impulsively chopping her hair off.
She was in a short lived show in the 90’s called Serendipity which I loved!!!!
She is one of my girl crushes. I LOVE Lisa Edelstein. She is gorgeous, and I love her voice, and I really like her screen presence.
Just love the whole thing. I almost never read anything about her online because I’m afraid of reading something that would make me not like her and ruin it. I know nothing about her personal life, and I want to keep it that way. She’s just dreamy. She’s the kind of woman that I look at and think, “God, I wish I looked like her.” Ha ha