Pub GuideThe Irish American writer behind summer blockbuster 'Sex and the City 2'
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Hello summer, you don’t stand a chance. The biggest movie of the year is about to hit Thursday.
Here’s what you need to know -- "Sex and the City 2" has more sparkle than Tiffany’s; it’s a new (and vintage) Carrie Bradshaw adventure and its guaranteed to be the magic carpet ride of summer 2010.
Irish American writer, producer and director Michael Patrick King, 53, is the man at the film’s helm once again, just as he was for the iconic show’s run on HBO. He’s the Scranton, Pennsylvania boy who -- just like Carrie -- arrived on this mythical island one day in the 1980s determined to be a writer. Like Carrie he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
That happy coincidence -- between King’s facts and Carrie’s fiction -- is what makes him the ideal writer for the movie. He just gets Carries journey in his bones.
King is also one of three famous Irish Americans (including Vice President Joe Biden and playwright Jason Miller) who grew up in the hardscrabble Scranton neighborhood before he left to make his fortune in the big city.
“Joe Biden did very well,” King tells the Irish Voice with a knowing laugh. “We have almost the same job wouldn’t you say? He’s the vice president of the country and I am the vice president of sex.”
Before his dizzying success (King is now a co-producer of the multi-million dollar Sex and the City franchise) he worked for years, decades actually, as a humble waiter in just about every greasy spoon restaurant in Manhattan.
It was his sheer determination that finally paid off, but it was also his talent at storytelling, which he attributes to his Irish background, and the Irish women he grew up around.
“My family is Irish on all sides. These are the names in my family -- King, Fitzsimmons, Judge and O’Malley,” says King.
“My grandparents actually came from Ireland, and I have three sisters, Eileen, Mary Ellen and Patty. The youngest one married a man named Cook. She went from a King to a Cook!”
Then King erupts with laughter. “My mother is a very loving woman and a great storyteller, and I think I get the ability to hold a room’s attention from the way she used to tell me stories.
“What I also get from my Irish background is an amazing sort of emotional depth and feeling. I have great empathy and I also have the Irish thing of understanding the balance between a laugh and cry, you know?
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