Let the record show that Candace Bushnell does not count herself as a fan of HBO Max’s divisive Sex and the City revival series, And Just Like That... And for her, it has nothing to do with Che Diaz.
The Sex and the City author and real-life inspiration behind Carrie Bradshaw gave a characteristically juicy interview to Jia Tolentino at The New Yorker in which she admitted to being “really startled by a lot of the decisions made in the reboot.”
The subject came up when Tolentino asked if Bushnell could relate to the characters’ experiences with realizing they’re out of touch with “woke” culture and grappling with their privilege in the new series. Her response was vaguely shady. “You know, it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past,” she said. “HBO decided to put this franchise back into their hands for a variety of reasons, and this is what they came up with.”
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Bushnell shared that she does not see herself in Carrie “at all” anymore, citing the shoe-obsessed protagonist’s trajectory of settling down with Big (Chris Noth). “I mean, Carrie Bradshaw ended up being a quirky woman who married a really rich guy. And that’s not my story or any of my friends’ stories. But TV has its own logic,” she said. That lines up with what Bushnell has said in the past about feeling like she stopped relating to Carrie during the original series when the character famously had an affair with Big while he was married to another woman.
One thing Bushnell did have in common with Carrie, however, was a perplexingly lavish lifestyle for a sex columnist in the '90s. In the New Yorker interview, Bushnell unintentionally shed some light on how Carrie was able to afford her gorgeous one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan with its bottomless closet of couture, not to mention all the club-hopping and dinners at trendy restaurants. She told Tolentino that three decades ago, she was paid $5,000 a month for her Vogue column “People Are Talking About.” Her rate for the Observer column that became Sex and the City, meanwhile, was $2 per word, which Tolentino points out would still be considered competitive today, nearly 30 years later.
“I mean, this was a time that writers were getting a Vanity Fair contract for six pieces and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,” Bushnell explained. No wonder Carrie never seemed to get too worked up over dropping $800 on a pair of bejeweled Manolos.
Elsewhere in the interview, the one-time party girl addressed the rumors that she’s joining the cast of The Real Housewives of New York City. And unfortunately, it sounds like Bushnell won’t be gallivanting around the Upper East Side with Sonja Morgan anytime soon.
“I love that rumor. I kind of wish it were true,” she said. “Luann is one of my neighbors in Sag Harbor—love Luann. I’ve known Ramona and Sonja for years. But no, no one’s gotten in touch with me.”
But even though she believes she is too non-combative for the Bravo franchise’s wine-throwing antics, Bushnell is still totally into the idea of joining Housewives. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Andy Cohen has a New Yorker subscription.
