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Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success

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ElleL
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
Actually, I think the movie SUCKED and could quite possibly ruin the series. I mean come on, a sex columnist who wont talk about her sex life?!

And IF they break them up again in the 2nd movie, yeah.... total fuckery.
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LaComtesse
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
What kind of authenticity? The authenticity of a New York City writer living in a brownstone and wearing a different pair of $500 shoes every day? The authenticity of their pun-filled banter? Or perhaps you mean the actual authenticity of me wanting to throw up whenever I either read the column or watched the show?
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kppontrucking
06/04/09

@LaComtesse: Yeah really. How realistic is that? I can't imagine Carrie being able to afford live so comfortably considering she's not exactly a stock broker and raking in the big dough. Plus, Carrie throws the most ridiculous tantrums over situations she intentionally puts herself into (bringing designer shoes to a party and getting them stolen, visiting Aidan at the rural cabin and complaining about not living in luxury).
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vintagegoddess
06/04/09

@LaComtesse:

Thank you.

I spent a lot of time wondering if her parents were helping her pay for the apartment or if a crazy cat lady aunt had left it to her along with a couple of closets of vintage.

I hated the movie...except for the clothes eyecandy.
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Artemisia999
06/04/09

@kppontrucking: Hey! Getting upset about having your shoes stolen at a party is NOT throwing a tantrum! I hate when you are invited as a guest to one's home and they make you take of your shoes..with sometimes the most stupidest of reason...we just had our floors done.. well, then do NOT invite people!!!)Except for religious reasons....or out of a cultural respect..

Who wants to see sandal foot/reinforced toes hose or scrapped at the heel and toes socks..NO ONE!! And , hello, smelly feet!! Also, without heels I am short!! damn it!!
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colormeroutine
06/04/09

@LaComtesse: I went to college with a decent number of girls who decided to come to school in New York because they really, truly believed it would be like this show. Watching them find out otherwise was always pricelessly awesome. Especially watching them venture off campus for the first time and realizing they were, in fact, in the Bronx
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maybeimamazed02
06/04/09

@Artemisia999: You got hearted for this. :)

I grew up in a shoes-off household, which I've carried into adulthood. However, when you are having guests over, you do NOT make them take off their shoes. That is rude. Her friend in that episode just pissed me off generally.
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hellosunshine
06/04/09

@vintagegoddess: At one point in the series, you find out that the apartment is ridiculously cheap because it's rent-controlled. Other than that, my gosh, it's just a fantasy version of NYC!
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queenieinmanhattan
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
Um...is it opposite day?
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morninggloria
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
One day, out of curiousity, I read some of the archived Sex and the City columns.

Holy cocaine, Batman! And holy everyone seeming a little sad yet angry yet defensive yet defeated yet superior.

I found the columns supremely depressing and the show entertaining and groundbreaking and slightly shallow shoe girl wet-dreamy. I don't see how the "authenticity" of the columns translated to the show at all. The show's success came from the quality of the writing and acting, not from the columnns.
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AlmostDream
06/04/09

@morninggloria: I'd always heard that the show was nothing like the columns or the book. Thanks for confirming that. Where did you find the old columns?
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morninggloria
06/04/09

@AlmostDream: They were archived on the New York Observer website, but it doesn't look like they're there anymore.
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BlondeGoddess
06/04/09

@morninggloria: So seconded.

@AlmostDream: There's a collection of them, which came out a couple of years before the series started. You can probably can find it cheaply on amazon.
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morninggloria
06/04/09

@AlmostDream: Ah wait! Found one!

[www.observer.com]
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queenieinmanhattan
06/04/09

@morninggloria: The first season had more characters/plot points derived from the columns, and definitely had a slightly grittier sensibility (the pilot in particular). That disappeared pretty quickly, though.
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EdnasEdibles
06/04/09

@morninggloria: Yeah, I read the book which was a collection of the columns and I found it in the sociology section of Barnes & Noble. They were pretty boring and there were a few eps that were loosely based on columns but only in the first season. The one I remember most was in the book was a whole column about men that only date models and then in an ep they had Miranda date a dude who only dated models. But that is where the similarities ended.
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Eleanor Ramilly
06/04/09

@morninggloria: Ugh- I got to page two and had to stop reading... just poor writing. Perhaps some of her other columns are better?
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hortense
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
This is like saying Applebee's is successful because they always stayed true to "eatin' good in the neighborhood."
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SkipToMyLou
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
they have never lost the authenticity of the column

Well, I can't speak to the authenticity of the characters per Candace Bushanell's original column, but I do seriously think the authenticity- what little of it there was- of the TV characters was horribly destroyed in the movie. The movie was so obviously slapped together as fast as everyone would agree to the schedule and in doing so they made every character a shallow reflection of what the TV writers had developed over several years.
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katie.scarlett.o'hara
06/04/09

@SkipToMyLou: True. And the sequel will undoubtedly be even worse.
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RobertaFisk
06/04/09

@SkipToMyLou: And what edge/interest/orginiality there was in the show as compared to other tv shows out there was totally lost in the movie, which the characters spent constantly wetting themselves at the sight of the product-placement designer goods.
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SkipToMyLou
06/04/09

@RobertaFisk: The characters in the movie were just so flasei>. Especially Miranda, who I feel sort of proprietary toward (becuase I'm also a red-haired lawyer). In the show, she was conflicted and serious and in the movie she was just an unrealistic, vengeful, petty bitch. So was Carrie, but my feelings toward that character as less strong.
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SkipToMyLou
06/04/09

@SkipToMyLou: Note to self: close tags after intended italicized word next time.
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nyc-caribbean-ragazza
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
I thought the columns in the NYO were more cynical.

I'm very curious what the sequel could possible be about.
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bluebears
06/04/09

@nyc-caribbean-ragazza: I thought the same thing about the columns. Very different from the show, or at least the later years and movie version.
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tscheese
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
Authenticity. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
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Laulau
06/04/09

@tscheese: Really? I don't know the woman from Adam, so to speak, but her columns and books seem to faithfully represent the kind of life she has had.

Now, is her authentic representation of that life essentially voyeurism of rich, privileged people? Yeah.
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greengrey
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
Why do we hate her again? I mean, one or two of her books were crap, but I like a couple...
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Trulymadlyme
06/04/09

@greengrey: I can't stand her because I blame Bushnell for inspiring Julia Alison's fame balling. I illogically blame Allison for derailing Harold Ford Jr.'s campaign (though I know it's went down in flames b/c of racism and not her semi-coherent musing of a fake southern belle Dating A Man In Power [who happens to be black]).
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MilointheMeadow
06/04/09

@greengrey: I can tell you that right now I'm not feeling too much love for her because of that damn fur collar. Otherwise, I'm pretty indifferent.
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greengrey
06/04/09

@Trulymadlyme: That makes sense. I still can't hate her though. Isn't Julia Allison over? Hasn't she been for a while?
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cirocco
06/04/09

@greengrey: Julia's picture was on THIS VERY SITE on THIS VERY DAY--see the Gracies post. She is, in the deathless words of Frank Stallone, far from over. But blaming Candace for Julia seems unfair, much like holding Jennifer Aniston responsible for that awful layered haircut that was going around 15 years ago. It's not a celebrity's fault when someone tries to ape her and the aping falls flat.

(Full disclosure: I don't even dislike Julia Allison!)
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BlondeGoddess
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
I think it's completely the opposite.
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badmutha
06/04/09

In reply to Candace Bushnell Explains The Secret Of Her Success
That's right, sweetie, it is all about YOU.
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