Kim Cattrall is returning as Samantha Jones. Honey, let me explain why this is shocking ...
It’s unclear what persuaded Kim Cattrall to return for a one-scene cameo in the upcoming season of “And Just Like That,” but to the shock, dismay and ultimate delight of “Sex and the City” fans everywhere, Samantha Jones is back! And, honey, it’s going to be fabulous.
As first reported by Variety, Cattrall — who played the self-assured and promiscuous PR savant Samantha Jones on “Sex and the City” for 94 episodes broadcast over six sexy seasons and two follow-up films — will appear on the “SATC” revival “And Just Like That,” but only for a New York minute, The Times confirmed.
Variety reports that Cattrall won’t necessarily be sharing any on-screen cosmos with her former on-screen besties, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker, or actually conversing with them (or executive producer and co-creator Michael Patrick King), she will appear in a single scene, which she filmed in Manhattan on March 22.
Now if you’re wondering why this is shocking news, you clearly weren’t sipping that “Sex and the City” tea brewing behind the scenes of HBO’s hit romantic dramedy. Cattrall made it clear that she loved playing Samantha Jones, but she loved Kim Cattrall more.
And she reportedly did not have much love for her co-stars, especially the series’ highest-paid star, Parker. The ongoing media attention and back and forth between Cattrall and Parker seemed to escalate the feud between the two. In 2017, Cattrall told Piers Morgan that she was never actually friends with her co-stars and that they regarded one another as colleagues.
When Parker asked Cattrall to sign on for a third “SATC” movie, Cattrall told Morgan that she said, “Thank you, but no.” She said she blamed Parker for the subsequent negative press that implied she was a demanding diva for passing on a third installation. “I really think she could have been nicer,” Cattrall added of Parker.
Parker then responded to Cattrall’s remarks during an appearance on “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” in 2018, telling Cohen that she was “heartbroken” and found it “very upsetting,” adding that that wasn’t the way she recalled their experience.
Days after SJP spoke with Cohen, Cattrall’s brother was found dead from an apparent suicide, and Parker publicly offered condolences and then spoke to “Extra” about Cattrall’s tragic loss. “Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” Cattrall wrote on Instagram. “Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend.”
In a follow-up post, Cattrall added, “I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona,” after noting that her mother called Parker “that hypocrite.”
Michael Patrick King of ‘And Just Like That...’ didn’t indulge in ‘magical thinking’ about Kim Cattrall returning to the ‘Sex and the City’ spinoff.
Last year, co-creator King weighed in on a “Sex and the City” universe sans Samantha Jones, and told Variety that Cattrall “said what she has said.”
“The only place I participate in magical thinking is in fiction,” he continued. “You take people at their word, and you’re a smart producer — you don’t back yourself into a corner. Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.”
On the first season of “And Just Like That,” Samantha Jones was noticeably missing from action, but the series worked her absence into the story line. While fan theories pondered if Jones would succumb to breast cancer (which her character battled in Season 6 of “SATC”), the series decided to go the route of art imitating life: Bradshaw and Jones were feuding over a business arrangement. In a scene from the first episode of the revival, Bradshaw quipped, “I thought I was more to her than an ATM.”
Still, Jones was worked in via strained text message exchanges and referenced in conversations had on New York City strolls. Later in the season, when Bradshaw texts Jones asking to talk, Jones coolly replies, “Soon.”
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