The first review for the Sex and The City movie is out, and without revealing any spoilers, journalist Will Pavia of the Times Online says he doesn’t get what the hype is all about and that it’s just like the series, except it’s 2 hours and 20 minutes of it. The guy admits that the women in the theater were hooping and hollering, though, and ate up every scene. Despite his reservations, it sounds like it’s going to be a hit:

There may be a problem with characters who shop with such conviction while the audience looks up from the trough of a credit crunch.

There may be a problem with stretching Sex and the City into a two hour and twenty minute film - it can feel like a never ending dinner party: however pleasant the courses, after a while you can hardly eat another one.

None of these problems seemed apparent to the women who sat around me in the cinema in Leicester Square, laughing and weeping in quick succession. After a while I began to reason like one of the characters: maybe the problem was me.

[From Times Online via We Smirch]

The London Times should have sent a woman there, because middle aged guys are not the ones who are going to see this film unless they’re in trouble with their wives/girlfriends/older daughters and need to put in some chick flick time to make amends.

If the audience was crying and screaming, it must have been pretty good. It takes more than star power and a premiere to impress a theater full of moviegoers. And what did this guy expect, something completely different from the series? People want more of Carrie and the gang, and it seems like it really delivers. We’ll have to see what the rest of the reviewers say. I bet it gets at least a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes once it’s out in the states. What matters more is the box office, though, and this film is probably going to clean up.

Here are stills from the film and posters, thanks to AllMoviePhoto, which may have mild spoilers.

The stars of the Sex and The City movie were out for the London premiere tonight. People Magazine notes that the eye-catching contraption on Sarah Jessica Parker’s head is a Philip Treacy hat. Treacy is an Irish designer known for his hat sculptures. She is wearing an Alexander McQueen gown that’s a little too prom-looking, and what’s up with those shoes? The outfit might work with neutral shoes that draw the eyes up. She’s not going for subtlety.

I’m not really fond of any of the other dresses. Kim Catrall’s gown is a pretty cut, but the fabric is very thick and I don’t like the way it flares at the bottom. Cynthia Nixon’s gown is lovely but too low cut and Kristin Davis’ dress is a little matronly, but is probably my favorite.

The Sex and The City movie will be out in the US on May 30th.

Kim Cattrall is going to appear nude in the upcoming Sex and the City feature film – Sarah Jessica Parker has a ‘no nudity’ clause in her contract, and Kristen Davis refused, so it will be interesting to see just how much sex and nudity will appear. It was a pretty controversial thing for prime time television show to feature, and a big part of the success of the series.

Kim Cattrall, who has written two books about sex where she posed nude on the cover, will be featured in all her 51-year-old glory, and her mother Shane is proud.

She (Shane) says, “Kim is a role model for 50-something women. Much has been made about her nudity in the film, but I think she looks fabulous.”

And proud mum Shane, 79, insists people who criticise Cattrall’s on-screen antics are just jealous of her well-preserved body.

She adds, “Anyone who knocks that is jealous. All this fuss about a bit of nudity is ridiculous.”

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I am really looking forward to this film. Like the original series, I think it is going to push boundaries. It isn’t often that older women get shown sexually, and rarely are they shown nude. Probably because even the most confident of us doesn’t want the world to judge their body, even when it is appropriately lighted and digitally enhanced.

The Sex and the City movie will also be premiering in London two days before the ‘official’ world premiere in New York, and the four leading ladies will be asking the audience to please not give the plot away. Like the trailer hasn’t already.

Kim Cattrall is shown in the header at Point Foundation Honors the Arts on 4/7/08, thanks to WENN.

The Sex and The City stars were on Oprah yesterday in front of an audience that had screened the film the day before. There was a lot of screaming and enthusiasm for the cast and Oprah raved about how great the movie is. It’s out in the US on May 30. The studio audience had seen most of the film but were not allowed to see the end because they didn’t want all of the plot to get out. The women answered questions about their lives and their work and Mr. Big Chris Noth even came on and talked about his new baby son. Oprah didn’t ask them the standard question about whether they fought at all, and Kristin Davis wasn’t asked about her nude photos that were leaked earlier this year.

On fans surrounding them as they filmed in NY City, and the “dream sequence” story
Kim Cattrall: “I felt like a Beatle”
SJP: “You can’t be anything other than thrilled that people still care.”
Kristin Davis: “There were people writing down the dialog.”
SJP: “We kept going around saying ‘This is some crazy dream sequence we’re filming.’ We kept repeating this mantra to try and gaslight people a little.”
Oprah: “When you showed up in a wedding gown…”
SJP: “That crazy dream sequence”

Cynthia Nixon on her breast cancer scare and same sex partner
Cynthia Nixon talked about discovering breast cancer, and said “I did not cry.”

She talked in a matter of fact way about how she did radiation and had a lumpectomy and a lymph node taken out.

As for how Nixon fell in love with a woman and told her friends, she said “Kristin knew about it first” and Davis said “I know her. I know Christine,” and Nixon said “and then I think other people were left to fend for themselves when it all erupted and these ladies did great and so did Mr. Noth who I know is coming out later [crowd screams]

They were great the things they said to the press.”

SJP: “I think we all know Cynthia so well. She’s such a capable smart thinking person and our greatest concern was that Cynthia be happy… her happiness is everything.”

Oprah: “I heard you just sort of met Christine, fell in love and it didn’t matter to you whether she was male or female or what… how does that work?”

Nixon: “You haven’t met my girlfriend, she’s fantastic.” [others agree]

Davis: “What is love? I think that’s the important thing. There’s something real and intangible and solid about it, and that’s how I feel when I’m around them. It’s just undeniable.”

Kim Cattrall on her younger chef boyfriend
Oprah - to Kim Cattrall: “I hear you’re with a younger guy now.”

Catrall laughs. Oprah: “Did you have a limit to how young? Or is love is love.”

Cattrall: “As long as he has his driver’s license.

“He is 23 years younger than me and I wondered ‘what could we possibly talk about?’ but we talk about a lot of things, and he’s a professional chef, so it’s not just good in some areas of the house it’s good in all areas of the house. And he’s very sophisticated, he’s very zen.”

Oprah asked if it was true that they like cooking in the nude together. Kim said that wasn’t true.

Kristin Davis on feeling great in her 40s
Kristin Davis said she wasn’t happy in her 20s and didn’t know who she was. SJP said the 20s are about exploration.

Davis said that when she hit 40 the show ended and she wondered what she would do at that point, and she said it made her realize that she wanted to take more pleasure in small things in life. She said “Oh life is so fantastic, but it’s so charged up… you want to be able to feel like you’re connected to the earth.”

Davis said she was tired after all the frenzy at the end of the show, and Kim Cattrall said she went into a funk when the show ended. Cynthia Nixon said she was in love so she didn’t get depressed at that point.

Chris Noth says his girlfriend was told that she would miscarry their baby
Chris Noth came on to a lot of screaming. Oprah first asked if he gained insight about women from working on the show and he answered “Never interrupt makeup sessions.”

Noth said coming back for the movie was a no-brainer and that it’s the best job in the world.

As for how much he’s like Big, he says “He’s a lot more self edited than me.”

Davis said “Chris is very very male… like a Alpha male thing.”

They were joking about how Chris was doing Law and Order at the same time and how he had to do prison scenes and how much of a contrast it was to Sex and The City.

They showed pictures of Chris with his baby son Orion, who is three and a half months old. He explained that the constellation Orion was the first one he would see in the sky when he was in college. He introduced his girlfriend Tara in the audience, and said “I’m so lucky.”

Noth told a heart wrenching story about how doctors told Tara after she first found out she was pregnant that they couldn’t find a heartbeat and that she would have a miscarriage. He said she talked to the baby all night and that the next day a heartbeat was found. He called Orion a fighter.

SJP talked about her five and a half year old son and said he asks a million questions. She said it helps her realize how much you know and how little you know.

They showed the amazing shoes, dresses and purses used for the costumes and all the women said that it was a lot of fun getting dressed for the show. SJP had 81 outfit changes.

They had the director Michael Patrick King on via Skype and he joked that he’s “cutting out all the imaginary dream sequences.”

The dream sequence explanation sounds like a ruse
From the comments that SJP gave you can kind of tell that the dream sequence story was one they made up on the spot to try and keep the paparazzi and fans from guessing plot points after scenes were photographed in NY. But given all the well-deserved hype surrounding this film, I think it’s safe to say that whatever details were leaked won’t deter people from seeing it.

Here are links to the videos of the show, including clips from the Sex and The City movie. There are commercials but you can easily skip them.

Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 1
Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 2
Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 3
Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 4
Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 5
Sex and The City cast on Oprah: Part 6

Despite reports that Disney planned to keep 15 year-old superstar Miley Cyrus out of the spotlight after her controversial backless photo in Vanity Fair, she will go ahead with a planned concert at Walt Disney World on Sunday. E! Online reports that Miley has been in Nashville working on the Hannah Montana movie and that she’ll play the show at Disney World as scheduled. Paparazzi caught up with Miley outside a Target in Nashville, Tennessee and she was friendly and said “no comment” when asked about the Vanity Fair photos.

I checked the Disney World website and it was hard to navigate so I can’t be sure, but I couldn’t find the concert listed under the Live Events section or the park’s calendar.

There’s a story that’s hopefully misquoted, because Miley definitely doesn’t need the bad publicity, but she supposedly said she wants her show Hannah Montana to be more like Sex and The City - like, the friends part not the sex part. Disney producers are going to love this:

Despite the young impressionable market she is selling to, Cyrus wants her show to go in a direction more akin to the adult themes of New York based Sex And The City.

However, she denies wanting to make Hannah Montana’s situations raunchy like Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha. She explains via Wenn: “Obviously not the scenarios.

“But, if you watch Sex and the City, like the way the friends are, the way that it’s dry and they all have distinct characters - that’s a thing we try to do on our show. It’s my favourite show! I love it!”

[From Entertainmentwise]

It’s unclear if this quote is in Vanity Fair or if it’s from another interview, but it’s a pretty dumb thing to say given all the issues she’s having with the sort-of racy photos. Hopefully she said this before the photo controversy, but even so it’s foolish to say you want to make a kids’ show more like an adult one with sexual themes. She clarified that she wanted to have those kind of female friendships on her show, but she shouldn’t have used a cable show some consider raunchy as an example. Maybe Miley is deliberately testing the boundaries of her wholesome image and isn’t as much of a pawn in all this as some people would like to believe.

Update: People reports that Miley did say this in Vanity Fair, but that she watches the edited version on TBS. They also clarify that she will be playing at the 2008 Disney Channel games.

Miley Cyrus is shown at “Idol Gives Back” on 4/8/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Kim Cattrall has a new interview in The Advocate Magazine in which she talks frankly about her feelings about children, her relationship with her Sex and the City costars, and the fact that she was the lone holdout for the film and negotiated for a better salary.

On children giving her a headache
“I enjoy kids but not for long periods. I think they’re adorable and funny and sweet, and then I have a headache.”

On not wanting to see Sex and The City co-stars socially
“Do you get along with your colleagues all the time? If you’re spending 18 hours a day [at work], the last thing you want to do is go and have a drink with the people who you just — you just need to get away.”

On holding out for more money for the film, because she has to take care of herself
“I never expected to be paid what Sarah was being paid. Sarah’s a producer. But I felt that the offer was not worthy of what the three of us had contributed, and I spoke up about it. You know, my dad was a big union guy. He felt that the workers should get a part of it.”

“I’m a woman in my 50s. I’m not living with some multimillionaire. I’m it. Negotiation is about getting more money, and I think, Would they have a problem with this if I were a man? You look at James Gandolfini. He stood up and said, ‘Hey, I’m worth it.’  It’s like, ‘Oh, don’t make any waves. Just be a good girl and take it.’ And you know, I’m happy with my deal, ultimately. I feel like I stuck my neck out. I fought. I don’t ever want to be on a set where I feel undervalued.”

[All quotes from the Advocate from Insidesocal.com via Gossip Rocks]

Cattrall is rumored to have received $6 million for the Sex and The City film while her costars Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are getting $2 million each. Producer Sarah Jessica Parker is earning $10 million for playing Carrie Bradshaw and another $5 million for producing the film.

I admire Cattrall’s candor. She sure doesn’t skirt around issues and just tells it like it is. She also managed to secure three times the amount her arguably equal costars, Davis and Nixon, are receiving for their roles. And she basically said it’s not like she wants to hang out with them after she’s on set working with them all day, either.

Kim Cattrall and her Sex and The City costars are shown at Point Foundation Honors the Arts on 4/7/08, thanks to WENN.

Fergie’s theme song for the Sex And The City movie is called “Labels or Love,” and is thankfully the only song by Fergie on the soundtrack, which includes a new song by Jennifer Hudson, who has a part in the film. Other artists featured on the soundtrack include Nina Simone, India.Arie, Joss Stone, and Al Green.

I don’t like this song at all. It’s all name dropping brand labels with over synthesized beats and it’s not catchy or memorable. It’s loud and grating and doesn’t feel sophisticated, fun and smooth like a Sex and The City song should.

The Sex and The City movie is out in the US on May 30, and comes out around the world shortly afterward.

Thanks to Hollywood.TV for the link to the YouTube song.

Fergie is shown at the her joint birthday party with Quentin Tarantino at the Revolution Lounge at the Mirage in Las Vegas on 3/28/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

I’ll bet the stars of the “Sex and the City” movie can’t wait for this film to open so they can move on. The last few months have been non-stop gossip about all four of them, and there are no signs of the rumors slowing down. The latest word is that Sarah Jessica Parker, fresh from being voted Maxim’s Unsexiest Woman, is making demands that the movie posters for “Sex and the City” only feature her character.

Kim Cattrell might be in for a little competition for her title of Most Demanding SATC Cast Member. Sarah Jessica Parker may not be the only star of Sex And The City, but you’ll have a hard time telling her that. According to new whispers from the Rumor Mill, SJP has irritated film bosses with demands that she be the only star featured on promotional materials for the May 30th, 2008 film Sex And The City: The Movie.

“She fought to have the movie poster feature only her,” Star Magazine writes.

“They planned to sell luxury T-shirts and shoes to coincide with the movie’s release, but Sarah demanded that the merchandise be sold only through her Bitten line. This way, the focus will still be on Sarah and she’ll profit from the sales.”

[From Pop Crunch via Gossip Rocks]

Sarah Jessica is also listed as a producer of the film, and was an executive producer of the show. I suppose if she’s taking the largest share of the business risks for the movie- which, based on the trailer I saw, looks terrible- she should reap the benefits. Even though the actresses all insist that everything was hunky dory on set, Sarah should have known that appearing solo on the movie poster would cause people to talk.

Note by Celebitchy: Sarah Jessica Parker might be taking business risks by producing the film, but she’s also cashing in big time. She’s making $10 million for playing Carrie and another $5 million for producing the film. Kim Cattrall will take home a reported $6 million for being the hold out and negotiating a larger share, but Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis are only said to have made $2 million each. It hardly seems fair that they’re not featured on the posters too, since it’s the ensemble cast and the friendships between the women that were the focus of the show, not just Carrie. It looks like her fellow cast members are getting screwed out of the publicity too.

A lot of people think it’s only fair that Sarah Jessica Parker is getting paid so much more than the other actresses since she’s the lead, but $10 million is 5 times the amount some of her equally-important co-stars are getting. Maybe that’s common in the industry.

In case you haven’t had enough Sex and The City after all the on-set photos and perhaps-misleading plot leaks before the much-anticipated first film is even out, you can rest assured that it won’t be over after you’ve spent two hours in the theater watching it this spring. Producers are said to be so convinced that the movie will be a commercial success that they’re already planning a sequel. In fact they want to do four or five films!

Producers are so sure the movie version of the classic HBO show… is going to be a box office hit that they plan to exercise the sequel option in the contracts of stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kirstin Davis, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall. “They are hoping it will become a franchise,” an insider tells In Touch. “They would love to do four or five Sex and the City movies. Script ideas were even in the works before the writers’ strike.

[From In Touch, print edition, December 3, 2007]

Four or five Sex and the City movies? If this is true, maybe they’ll be derailed by the writer’s strike, although I hope it reaches an amicable conclusion soon so that more worthy entertainment is not affected.

I guess this isn’t surprising, considering how many successful film ideas get run into the ground with sequels. (Where is the Finding Nemo sequel? If they can do three Shreks there can be at least one more Nemo.)

It seems like the movie took so long to make that they should put it out and see what happens before jumping into a sequel. All of the stars except Kim Cattrall are in their early 40s, with Kim 51. Can they continue to play these characters convincingly for another 5-6 years? As long as the plotlines mature along with them, I suppose it’s possible and there definitely aren’t enough older women in current films. Still, you can’t help but think that the movies are going to decline over the years, getting older and more haggard as they cling to a shopaholic youth and carefree sexuality that wasn’t that appealing in the first place.

Here are pictures from the Sex and The City set, along with the younger versions of the characters who will appear in the film, thanks to PRPhotos.

Update: thanks to commentor na for letting us know that the picture below is of a group of girls that the aging Sex and The City ladies pass on the street who remind them of themselves. They aren’t supposed to be the younger versions of the characters.

Kim Cattrall sure wasn’t kidding when she said that she was just doing the Sex and The City movie for the money. Not only is she being paid the hefty fee of $6 million to do the film - her salary is three times the amount that her fellow supporting actresses Cynthia Nixon and Kirsten Davis are being paid. Davis and Nixon, who were always on board for a film version of the hit HBO series and didn’t hold out for more money and perks like Cattrall did, are receiving just $2 million a piece. That hardly sounds fair, does it?

[Kim Cattrall will] get a whopping $6 million to re-create her character Samantha Jones for the film version of the hit show, while Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte York) are walking away with only $2 million each, The Enquirer has learned.

“Kim has had the last laugh on her co-stars,” said a source close to the highly anticipated project.

“For years she was the odd girl-out while Cynthia and Kristin sucked up to Sarah Jessica Parker and snubbed Kim.

“But this time Kim’s calling the shots. She’s letting everyone in the world know she was the cast holdout and she demanded triple was the other girls got.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 26, 2007]

According to The Enquirer, Sarah Jessica Parker had plenty of incentive to reward Cattrall for driving a hard bargain. She will make nearly $10 million for playing Carrie Bradshaw and will earn another $5 million for producing the film.

What I fail to see is how Cattrall is technically more valuable to the cast than Nixon and Davis are. If someone has a more central role, like Sarah Jessica Parker, they should get more money for it, but Cattrall certainly isn’t worth three times the amount her costars are. It sounds like they were so desperate to make this already-overdue film that they just dealt with Cattrall and met her demands. Meanwhile the actresses who played fair and just wanted to do their jobs are the ones who got screwed.

This is the woman who put out two how-to sex books and deliberately went without panties (NSFW link) to pull a “Basic Instinct” crossing-legs maneuver while promoting the second last November. Maybe she won’t have to resort to such desperate measures to revive her career now that she has some cash in the bank.

Life is imitating long-gone television for Kim Cattrall. 51 year-old Cattrall has been dating 28 year-old Canadian chef Alan Wyse since 2004.

Cattrall and her co-stars are shown on the Sex and the City set on 11/7/07. Thanks to Splash News.