The Irish American writer behind summer blockbuster 'Sex and the City 2'

“I don’t want just the comedy or just the tear. If it’s a funny moment I want it to be real. I think that balancing act is a very Irish trait.”
Of course Sex and the City isn’t just a TV show or a series of films. It’s a massive worldwide phenomenon, and no one knows this better than King himself.

“I’m very blessed to be the antenna that’s allowed to tell this story, and I think that I’m partly the guy who can write this because of being Irish,” King reckons.

“I think it’s partly because I was raised in a family of Irish women. I mean, what could be more Irish than a bunch of strong women getting together to laugh and cry at the adventure of life?”

King was scheduled to talk to the Irish Voice two weekends ago at the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel in midtown, but in a carefully planned attempt to throw the paparazzi that haunt his cast’s every footstep, his publicists rescheduled in favor of one of one of the movie’s locations -- Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue.

As the unsuspecting public shopped on a gorgeous May morning the entire second floor of Bergdorf’s was quietly sealed off, and suddenly rows and rows of Armani suited male models began working a security detail, standing behind black ropes and redirecting anyone who dared to even think about having a look.

To say that the setting for our interview with Michael Patrick King was impressive is an understatement. You have never seen glamour like it in your life.

The second floor at Bergdorf’s is already one of the most important fashion epicenters in the world, but with the arrival of Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis it instantly became the world’s fashion center. All together, in person, these women are a force to be reckoned with.

The ladies have the look, but King is the storyteller and he has a set of rules about how and where he wants the girls to be each time.

“One of my rules with 'Sex and the City' is that I always make sure that I don’t repeat myself. I knew I wanted the second movie to be completely different than the first,” he said.

“I wanted it to be more of a party, a big extravaganza. I wanted to embrace the word sequel and go bigger.”

The first scene King came up explored tradition and how even today, in a cosmopolitan city like New York, the four women (and all women) are still struggling with traditional roles and expectations.

As the film opens Carrie Bradshaw is deciding how to be a wife. She’s also starting to feel her identity swamped by being Mrs. “Big” John Preston, and by the tradition and expectation that comes with it.

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Nster.com