When it was suggested that the covid-19 pandemic could feature in the Sex and the City reboot, I was appalled. SATC is supposed to be about fantasy and glamour – not a highly contagious respiratory disease. But however unwelcome that news was, the news that John Corbett could be reprising his role as Aidan Shaw is even worse.
This week, Corbett told reporters that he will be appearing in ‘quite a few’ episodes of the new, as yet untitled SATC reboot. There will be some who will welcome the return of rugged Aidan and his big oversized shirts – but I am firmly not in that camp.
We last saw Aidan in the dire Sex and the City 2 movie. You’ve probably blocked it out because it was so bad so let me refresh your memory. Around halfway through the film, Carrie is in a souk in Abu Dhabi being generally patronising while buying shoes when she hears the call to prayer and spots Aidan. (The film seems to suggest that those two things are connected, which is just too troubling to get into right now.) Aidan is buying a rug but, when he sees Carrie, he drops the rug and the two walk towards each other in slow motion, staring intensely. ‘This is the best mirage that I’ve ever had,’ Aidan says in his southern drawl. He then says, 'What the? Abu Dhabi? You? Why?’. I think his inarticulacy is supposed to be part of his charm – but I find it incredibly off-putting.
It never rang true though that Carrie would have found herself caught in a bind about choosing between Aidan and Big.
Anyway, Carrie and Aidanmake several culturally insensitive, lame jokes and he gives her his card, which has his ‘international cell number’ on it before they part ways. Later, Carrie gets a bad review for her latest book so she phones Aidan and agrees to go to dinner with him. At dinner, Aidan tells Carrie – who is wearing some kind of bizarre evening gown – that he is still married to ‘Cathy’ and has three boys. Then he says, ‘You look good, you look hot. I’m sorry but you do. Did you enjoy the muhammara?’ (He mispronounces the word ‘muhammara’.) As he walks Carrie out of the hotel restaurant, they kiss and Carrie runs away. The rest of the film is concerned with whether or not Big will forgive Carrie for the fairly minor indiscretion and there’s no real tension because yes, of course he will.
What’s so worrying about this new suggestion that Aidan is to appear in more than one episode of the reboot is the idea that we could, once again, be forced to endure a plot about a love triangle that clearly has no real emotional stakes. When furniture maker Aidan was introduced in season three of the TV show, he was a plausible if annoying boyfriend for Carrie. Carrie tells us via a voiceover that he is ‘warm, masculine and classic American, just like his furniture’. I always found his prudishness – he’s firmly anti-smoking and insists on taking it slow when it comes to sex – irritating and thought that his big, hulking leather chair was ludicrously overpriced at more than $3,000 but sure, he’s the kind of person Carrie might have gone out with for a little while.
READ MORE: Sex And The City Author Candace Bushnell Dated Aidan Actor John Corbett
It never rang true though that Carrie would have found herself caught in a bind about choosing between Aidan and Big. It was an interesting, well-handled storyline in season three, already a little boring and unbelievable in season four and just plain ludicrous in Sex and the City 2. In this reboot, Carrie will be heading towards 60 and will we seriously be expected to believe that she still holds a candle, two decades on, for a man who regularly says ‘holy moly’?
Ever since the reboot was announced, I have been worried about how they’re going to deal with the fact that Carrie and Big ended up happily married. It’s always a challenge when it comes to romcom sequels – do you break up your happily married couple or allow the story to become less about new love and more about maintaining an established love? The SATC writers have a choice: send a single Carrie back onto the NYC dating scene or have her struggle with the realities of marriage in middle age. Both storylines would be interesting. What would not be interesting is to see Carrie caught in an inauthentic dilemma as she chooses between two suitors, one of whom is deeply unsuitable. Let’s have Aidan turn up in a small cameo – he could appear at a funeral of a mutual acquaintance or in a weird dream or something – but please: no souks and no kissing.
READ MORE: The 28 Men Carrie Bradshaw Dated, Ranked
READ MORE: Chris Noth Casts Doubt Over Reports That Mr Big Won't Return For The Sex And The City Reboot
30 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City
The tutu that Carrie wears in the opening credits cost $5 from a showroom bargain bin. It's now framed and hangs in Michael Patrick King's office.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Even if she was filmed from the waist up, Kim Cattrall – who played Samantha – insisted she wore heels as she said it made her feel more like her character.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
MISTAKE ALERT! In the opening credits, the bus that goes past Carrie with her picture on it is full of people in the first shot, then totally empty once it splashes her.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Sarah Jessica Parker was the only one of the four ladies to have a nudity clause in her contract stating she would never appear naked.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Mr Big's second wife, Natasha, always wore white because her character was meant to be 'vanilla'.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Remember that politician Carrie dates in Season 3? He only went on to play ROGER STERLING in Mad Men.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda, didn't have pierced ears. All her earrings were clip-ons.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
When Trey (Kyle MacLachlan) proposed to Charlotte (Kristen Davis) outside Tiffanys, it wasn't the real Tiffanys. The store wouldn't let them film for security reasons, so the set designers had to design a fake Tiffanys window. A Tiffanys employer still okayed it though.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
No outfit was ever repeated twice – except Carrie's fur coat in the final scene of the last series where she's on the phone to 'John'.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
When Miranda's cat steals Brady's umbilical cord (hard to forget that bit) the 'umbilical cord' was actually some beef jerky tied to a piece of string.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
The scene where Carrie and Miranda ate a cupcake outside Magnolia bakery was credited for the global boom in cupcakes sales which followed. Yes, GLOBAL. The shop also later had to hire bouncers to control the crowds.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Why was Mr Big called Mr Big? Sex and the City author Candice Bushnell told New York Magazine in 2004, 'He was one of those New York guys with a big personality — you just notice him as soon as he walks in the room.' She also said, 'I called him Mr. Big because he was like a big man on campus.'
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Carrie's iconic nameplate necklace came from costume designer, Patricia Field's, East Village shop – often frequented by students. 'That name necklace was something that black kids, Puerto Rican kids, borough kids, ethnic kids had been wearing forever, that was just a statement,' she said. She had one made up especially for Carrie.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Jennifer Aniston's ex-husband, Justin Theroux, appeared twice in SATC. First as Jared, Stanford's pal in Season One's The Monogamists, who Carrie flirts with at New York Magazine's '30 coolest people under 30' party. Second, as writer Vaughn Wysel in Shortcomings, who has a very close and open family, the mother of which Carrie felt was the person she ultimately had to break up with when the relationship with Vaughn collapsed.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Who was Mr Big supposedly based on? Publishing executive Ron Galotti, former publisher of GQ and Talk. Wanna see a pic of him? Ok...
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Mr Big was originally described by Carrie as 'the next Donald Trump'... What a relief she was wrong.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
The first dog to play Aidan's pooch, Pete, was afraid of actor John Corbett. It loved SJP though. In the end, they had to find another dog for the role.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
When Carrie falls into the Central Park pond to avoid a kiss from Big, Sarah Jessica Parker cut her foot on the bottom and had to have a tetanus shot straight after, even though the pool was dredged prior to filming. Luckily the scene was filmed in one take – but still... WHAT a palaver!
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Sarah Jessica Parker was once set-up on a date with Willie Garson.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Season 5 was created to be shorter than the other series' because Sarah Jessica Parker was pregnant.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Carrie never calls Mr Big 'Big' to his face – only behind his back. In fact, she doesn't call him anything at all in the ENTIRE series. It's only in Sex and the City: The Movie that she refers to him by his real name, 'John'... and that's just the once when she gets home and asks where he is.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
The four girls' family are rarely mentioned because the show's creators didn't want family issues to detract from the friendships and characters.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
When Carrie goes to LA to talk about a film version of her book and ends up having that #awkward chat with Matthew McConaughey about his take on the 'Mr Big character', Matthew wasn't the first actor approached for the cameo. Originally it was Alec Baldwin, who turned it down. As did George Clooney and Warren Beatty.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Candice Bushnell only made $60,000 from selling the rights to her bestselling book Sex and the City.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
The most expensive dress Carrie wore was the Atelier Versace Couture 'Mille Feuille' gown in the penultimate SATC episode, when she was in Paris awaiting her date with Aleksandr Petrovsky. It cost $80,000.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Carrie's apartment – 245 E 73rd Street, between Park and Madison – doesn't exist. It's actual location was 66 Perry Street, between Bleeker and 4th East 73rd street.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Kim Cattrall only decided to play Samantha after a friend convinced her. She turned down the role twice.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
Carrie Bradshaw's apartment was sold in 2012 for $9.65million. In the series she said she paid just $750 per month in rent for it.
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
The book Love Letters Of Great Men from SATC
31 Things You Didn't Know About Sex And The City - Grazia
When Carrie bumps into Aidan carrying his baby in Season 6, the child was actually Sarah Jessica Parker's. That's why the baby looks so pleased to see her – CUTE!