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Bruce Willis Gets His Own Razzie Award Category for Making 8 Bad Low Budget Movies in One Year

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The Razzie Awards nominations are out, and there’s a sad new category they invented just for this year.

It’s Worst Performances by Bruce Willis in a 3032 Movie. It’s not just one or two, but EIGHT different movies. That’s right, the former box office star of “Die Hard” and “The Sixth Sense” was featured — albeit briefly — in 8 different low budget, “B” movies that went straight to video and to foreign markets where knowledge of the English language isn’t necessary.

In all these films, Willis barely speaks and is shown intermittently. He gets second billing credit to washed up, younger action stars, too, which is embarrassing. It’s unclear if Willis has any idea what’s going on. In recent years there have been reports of cognitive difficulties, trouble remembering lines or understanding situations. That can be the only reason for his frightening career decline.

This all began in 2015 when Willis was hired to be in a Broadway stage production of the movie, “Misery,” with Laurie Metcalf. He was playing the James Caan role. At the same time he was supposed to star in Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society.” The Broadway run was cut short by terrible reviews. Willis was said to be “sleeping through” the show, and he missed performances. For the Woody Allen movie, he worked on set for one day and was replaced the next by Steve Carell. The reason was Willis could not remember lines.

Then there was this regrettable appearance on Stephen Colbert in 2015, which was pre-taped and used a stunt double.

There was also this strange 2010 appearance on “Between Two Ferns” which was supposed to be ironic satire, but there’s some underlying weirdness that was an omen.

Willis’s next movie is coming February 25th. “Gasoline Alley” is yet another crap fest in which Willis plays third banana to Luke Wilson and Devon Sawa. It’s the first of another seven or eight junk Willis movies we’ll see in 2022. All of them boast at least 20 or more “producers” who are really investors who want to see their names on movie screens.

What Willis gets out of all this is not money, certainly, since little is made, and he has plenty from real estate investment and past multi million dollar salaries. Just being part of a movie, if only for a couple of days or a week keeps him busy, out of the house and on location somewhere. But he doesn’t do much press, I think, because he can’t. And when he does, the former bad boy seems subdued and indeed somnolent.

So a whole category of Razzies. Not even Nicholas Cage has that. Quite an achievement.

42nd Annual RAZZIE® Award Nominations

WORST PERFORMANCE by BRUCE WILLIS in a 2021 MOVIE

(Special Category)

Bruce Willis / American Siege
Bruce Willis / Apex
Bruce Willis / Cosmic Sin
Bruce Willis / Deadlock
Bruce Willis / Fortress
Bruce Willis / Midnight in the Switchgrass
Bruce Willis / Out of Death
Bruce Willis / Survive the Game

WORST PICTURE

Diana the Musical (The Netflix Version)
Infinite
Karen
Space Jam: A New Legacy
The Woman in the Window

WORST ACTOR

Scott Eastwood / Dangerous
Roe Hartrampf (As Prince Charles) Diana the Musical
LeBron James / Space Jam: A New Legacy
Ben Platt / Dear Evan Hansen
Mark Wahlberg / Infinite

WORST ACTRESS

Amy Adams / The Woman in the Window
Jeanna de Waal / Diana the Musical
Megan Fox / Midnight in the Switchgrass
Taryn Manning / Karen
Ruby Rose / Vanquish

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams / Dear Evan Hansen
Sophie Cookson / Infinite
Erin Davie (As Camilla) Diana the Musical
Judy Kaye (As BOTH Queen Elizabeth & Barbara Cartland) Diana the Musical
Taryn Manning / Every Last One of Them

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Ben Affleck / The Last Duel
Nick Cannon / The Misfits
Mel Gibson / Dangerous
Gareth Keegan (As James Hewitt, the Muscle-Bound Horse Trainer)
Diana the Musical
Jared Leto / House of Gucci

WORST SCREEN COUPLE

Any Klutzy Cast Member & Any Lamely Lyricized (or Choreographed)
Musical Number / Diana the Musical
LeBron James & Any Warner Cartoon Character (or Time-Warner Product) He
Dribbles on / Space Jam: A New Legacy
Jared Leto & EITHER His 17-Pound Latex Face, His Geeky Clothes or
His Ridiculous Accent / House of Gucci
Ben Platt & Any Other Character Who Acts Like Platt
Singing 24-7 is Normal / Dear Evan Hansen
Tom & Jerry (aka Itchy & Scratchy) Tom & Jerry the Movie

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL

Karen (Inadvertent Remake of Cruella deVil)
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Tom & Jerry the Movie
Twist (Rap remake of Oliver Twist)
The Woman in the Window (Rip-Off of Rear Window)

WORST DIRECTOR

Christopher Ashley / Diana the Musical
Stephen Chbosky / Dear Evan Hansen
“Coke” Daniels / Karen
Renny Harlin / The Misfits
Joe Wright / The Woman in the Window

WORST SCREENPLAY

Diana the Musical / Script by Joe DiPietro, Music and Lyrics by DiPietro
and David Bryan
Karen / Written by “Coke” Daniels
The Misfits / Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Robert Henny,
Screen Story by Henny
Twist / Written by John Wrathall & Sally Collett, Additional Material
by Matthew Parkhill, Michael Lindley, Tom Grass & Kevin Lehane,
from an “Original Idea” by David & Keith Lynch and Simon Thomas
The Woman in the Window / Screenplay by Tracy Letts, from
the Novel by A.J. Finn

NOMINATIONS per PICTURE

Diana the Musical (9 Nominations, including Worst Picture, Actor & Actress)
Karen (5 Nominations, including Picture, Actress, Screenplay & Director)
The Woman in the Window (5 Nominations, including Picture, Actress
& Remake/Rip-Off)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (4 Nominations, including Picture, Actor
& Screen Couple)
Infinite (3 Nominations, including Worst Picture, Actor & Supporting Actress)
The Misfits (3 Nominations, including Supporting Actor, Director & Screenplay)

“Rust” Never Sleeps: Alec Baldwin Making Another Low Budget B Movie in Small Town 3 Months After Halyna Hutchins Death

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“Rust” never sleeps.

On the set of a low budget movie shot in a small town back on October 21st, the cinematographer was accidentally shot dead by the star.

The movie was “Rust,” the star was Alec Baldwin, and the dead woman was Halyna Hutchins. Production was cancelled, Hutchins left a 9 year old son, and Baldwin ran around fighting with people in Vermont.

Three and a half months later, Baldwin is back to work. This time it’s another low budget movie shooting in the hinterlands of England, a village called Alton in the district of Hampshire. The movie is called 97 Minutes, and you’ve never heard of the producers, the director, or the screenwriter. No one has. Can there be a big payday here? Unlikely? Will there be guns? “97 Minutes” is about a hijacked plane. No other cast or crew has been listed. The movie is budgeted for a meager $7 million.

We only know this because Alec went for a walk in Alton on a gray, cold looking,rainy Sunday and shot a video while expounding on small town life.

Here’s the description of the movie: A hijacked 767 will crash in just 97 minutes when its fuel runs out. Against the strong will of NSA Deputy Toyin, NSA Director Hawkins prepares to have the plane shot down before it does any catastrophic damage on the ground, leaving the fate of the innocent passengers in the hands of Tyler, one of the alleged hijackers on board who is an undercover Interpol agent – or is he?

 And life, you see, goes on. (PS If I’d been stuck in a house with six kids under the age of 10 for 90 days, I’d take a small budget movie anywhere. I mean that in the best way.)

Does Off Broadway Have Another “Hamilton”? One May Be Brewing with “Black No More” Starring Lillias White and Brandon Victor Dixon

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Is there a new “Hamilton” brewing out there, off Broadway? Some say “Black No More,” a musical adaptation of George S. Schuyler’s Afrofuturist 1931 Harlem Renaissance novel, has the feel of something that may go off the charts in the manner of “Hamilton.”

A new production from The New Group, “Black No More” features a stellar Broadway cast led by powerhouse Tony winning vocalist Lillias White, and Tony-Emmy-Grammy nominee Brandon Victor Dixon, of “Hamilton” and “Jesus Christ Superstar fame.” The show’s ensemble of excellent singers and dancers tell a tale of contrasts: the exciting free, artsy denizen of Harlem vs. the racist “crackers” of Atlanta and how they handle their Black folk.

Needless to say, whites do not fare well in this scenario, despite the efforts of fine performances by such actors as Theo Stockman as the chief villain Ashby Givens. A young man named Max (Dixon), after a night of flirtation with a white woman (Jennifer Damiano, a Broadway star at this point) in a Harlem club, is persuaded to follow a dream of pursuing her by taking advantage of the opportunity to become white.

Against the protests of his friends—great work by Tamika Lawrence as Buni and Ephraim Sykes as Agamemno, — Max follows the science of Dr. Junius Crookman (Tariq Trotter) whose name says it all. To the credit of this production, the audience is moved to suspend disbelief. And Dixon takes on whiteness to a fault, changing his name from Max to Matthew. He follows his dream girl to Atlanta, and is so persuasive a speaker against black culture, he becomes a leader in the community, and marries his dream. Be careful what you wish for.

There’s a lot of star power here. Scott Ellis is the director. Tariq Trotter of the Roots wrote the lyrics to the songs and the music with Anthony Tidd, Daryl Waters, and James Poyser (also of the Roots). John Ridley, who won the Academy Award for his “12 Years a Slave” screenplay. wrote the book.  He’s also in the cast. At a talk back after a preview s week, Trotter of The Roots said  he took his first meeting about writing the music and lyrics for “Black No More” on the very day he saw “Hamilton” at the Public Theater.

The Roots’ MC further explained the work’s grounding in the history of American music—actually rap and hip hop, and his determination to explore Black experience. To that end, he never intended to play the role of Dr. Junius Crookman, a satiric figure determined to sell the science of making people of color white. But the actors who he imagined would play this strange figure—he named only one, the late Michael K. Williams — did not embrace “time,” as he called it (translation:  they didn’t respect respecting a rehearsal schedule). But he does not condemn: he knows lots of people like that, he said.

 

RIP Mary Ryan Munisteri, Soap Opera Writer and Inspiration for “Ryan’s Hope” Character Mary Ryan

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Fans of “Ryan’s Hope,” the beloved (and Emmy winning) ABC soap opera from the 70s and 80s, may not realize it, but there were real Ryans.

The soap concentrated on an Irish American family on the Upper West Side, the Ryans, who owned a bar. Their children included a writer and a politician. The writer was named Mary Ryan, played by newcomer Kate Mulgrew, who was incredibly popular and has had an enormously successful career including playing the commander of a Star Trek spaceship and playing Mrs. Columbo.

The real Mary Ryan was a person. Sadly she has died at age 82. She was writing partners with her best friend, Claire Labine, who created the show and borrowed the Ryan name (and a lot of their story) for the soap.

Mary Ryan Munisteri was a headwriter on “Ryan’s Hope” for many years, and also worked as headwriter on other shows like “Guiding Light,” “General Hospital,” “Love of Life,” and “As the World Turns.” According to her biography, she earned a dozen Daytime Emmy awards on writing teams. She  also won a best writing Emmy Award for the short film “Mandy’s Grandmother” (starring Maureen O’Sullivan), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film.

On a personal note I never knew Mary Ryan Munisteri. But her name was spoken in our house in the 1960s and 70s because her mother-in-law, Inez Munisteri (Mary later divorced her first husband) was great friends from the 1930s on with my grandmother, Marion Davis Becker. Small world. I hope they’re all catching up and having a good time in the cosmos.

Vindication: New Motown Collection from the Supremes Features 14 Mary Wilson Solo Tracks, None by Diana Ross

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At last, Mary Wilson is vindicated as the great singer of The Supremes.

A new Supremes collection, called “The Motown Anthology,” features 14 solo tracks from Wilson, redefining her role in the group and in pop history. It arrives on March 4th.

Mary died last year suddenly from a massive heart attack. She was 76, and one of my favorite people. I featured her in the documentary, “Only the Strong Survive,” as she toured endlessly, cut off from the Supremes legacy by Diana Ross and Berry Gordy for telling the truth of her life in her memoir, “Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme.”

This new “Anthology” showcases Mary. There are no solo tracks from Ross, who cut the final Supremes single, “Someday We’ll Be Together,” without Mary or Cindy Birdsong but using studio singers. Mary didn’t even know the song existed until she heard it on the radio in 1969. But on tour– as we recorded in the documentary– she sang and made it her own.

A 44-page booklet comes with the CD package and offers detailed track annotations, and exclusive tributes to Mary from such fellow stars, notables, and admirers as Dionne Warwick, Darlene Love, Otis Williams, Duke Fakir, Martha Reeves, Claudette Robinson, Brian and Edward Holland, Paul McCartney, Rita Coolidge, Merry Clayton, Brenda Russell, Blinky Williams, and RuPaul. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has written a special appreciation for the unique release.

Mary triumphed over the Motown PR machine in the end. She worked tirelessly for artists’ rights, and for the rights of all musicians who’d had their legacies taken away in legal disputes over names of famous groups like the Supremes, Platters, Drifters, and so on. She was so smart, too: Mary kept all the Supremes’ gowns and lent them out as a museum exhibit on a very popular national tour.

Mary was fiercely independent and knew her worth. When Ross wanted her to join a Supremes 40th anniversary Mary declined because she’d be paid a fraction of what Diana was receiving. She was never going to be second fiddle. When Gordy latched onto Ross as the Supremes’ lead singer, knocking Mary to back up status, Supremes records were mixed to highlight Ross’s voice. But years ago a new CD of Supremes songs was released in which the original intended mixes brought out Mary’s contribution. Now this collection offers alternative mixes that really demonstrate Mary as a power house.

 

The full tracklist of the 2CD edition is:
Disc 1
Pretty Baby (Mono Single Version) – The Primettes
Baby Don’t Go (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
The Tears (Stereo Mix) – The Supremes
Our Day Will Come (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
Come And Get These Memories (Alternate Mix) – Diana Ross & The Supremes
Can’t Take My Eyes Off You (Live at The Frontier January 13, 1970) – Diana Ross & The Supremes
Falling In Love With Love (Live at The Frontier January 13, 1970)- Diana Ross & The Supremes
Send Him To Me – The Supremes
If You Let Me Baby – The Supremes
Son Of A Preacher Man – The Supremes
Witchi Tai To – The Supremes
Touch (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
Floy Joy (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
Automatically Sunshine (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
I Keep It Hid (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
Can We Love Again (Outtake) – The Supremes
Early Morning Love (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
You Turn Me Around (2021 Alternate Mix) – The Supremes
You’re What’s Missing In My Life (2021 Alternate Mix Edit) – The Supremes
Don’t Let My Teardrops Bother You (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
Till The Boat Sails Away (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
I Don’t Want To Lose You (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes

Disc 2

We Should Be Closer Together (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
You Are The Heart Of Me (2021 Alternate Vocal and Mix) – The Supremes
Anytime At All – Mary Wilson
Red Hot – Mary Wilson
I’ve Got What You Need – Mary Wilson
You Make Me Feel So Good – Mary Wilson
(I Love A) Warm Summer Night – Mary Wilson
Pick Up The Pieces – Mary Wilson
You’re The Light That Guides My Way – Mary Wilson
Midnight Dancer – Mary Wilson
Save Me (The Gus Dudgeon Sessions) – Mary Wilson
Love Talk (The Gus Dudgeon Sessions) – Mary Wilson
Green River (The Gus Dudgeon Sessions) – Mary Wilson
You Danced My Heart Around The Stars (The Gus Dudgeon Sessions) – Mary Wilson
Why Can’t We All Get Along – Mary Wilson
Red Hot (The Eric Kupper Remix) – Mary Wilson

 

Belated Obit: Dick Sequerra, Genius of Audio Hifi, Died Last October at Age 92, Made Marantz a Household Name

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This is a belated obit, but one that’s necessary. I had just read about the death of John Koss, the man who made stereo headphones popular in the 1960s. I wondered what had happened to Dick Sequerra, one of the trailblazers in audio hifi equipment. It seems he died without an obituary or funeral back in October 2021. He was 92 years old.

Sequerra was a legendary name in the audio business. He didn’t give many interviews, but you can read the one he gave to Stereophile in 2009 here.

Dick was famous for being a boy wonder in the business when audio hifi was just becoming a thing. In the 1960s he worked with Saul Marantz to make Marantz Electronics a household name. Dick was already famous for his speakers and his tuners. Back before there was satellite radio and streaming, etc. people heard music from radio stations on FM tuners. Sequerra invented Marantz’s 10B, a famous tuner that plugged into home pre-amps and integrated amplifiers. Now besides record albums and cassette tapes, you had a way of bringing the FM signal into your house through high end audio.

Sequerra left Marantz in the 1970s. He started and lost his own company. called Day Sequerra. Then he started R Sequerra Audio. His home speakers, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to many thousands, became cult favorites. In 1989, my friend Bruce MacDonald– who 33 years later is a veteran audiophile, wrote to Dick about getting a pair of his rare ribbon speakers. That’s when I first heard the name. We became two of his many devotees. Bruce still has three piece set, handcrafted by Dick, and I still use my Met 7.7’s which have a glorious full sound.

I got to know Dick in the 2000s, visiting his home in Connecticut and his factory. He was a real life Mr. Wizard at time when more and more people were moving toward small speakers, portable systems. iPhone type music heard through little earplugs. As the systems shrank, so did the music. But it was Dick who was responsible for building nd maintaining the studio at New York’s classical premier music station WNCN.

With the return of vinyl, it’s possible the new generation will want to hear their music properly. Alas, there isn’t much left of Sequerra stock (I asked wife, Ilene, about it- there may be some errant pieces coming available this year). You can look on ebay or audio swap sites and find Dick’s Met 7 speakers at bargains. Buy them. They will blow your mind. Even the little ones.

Dick leaves his wife, Ilene, and two adult children. I don’t think there’s an Audio Pioneers Hall of Fame, but there should be. Back before digital, we worshiped the names on name plates of stereo equipment. This was when you sat and listened to music, from classical to jazz, to Broadway show, crooners, big bands, and complex rock and roll recordings (there is no such thing now). Dick Sequerra was at the top of that list.

UPDATED Box Office: $150 Mil “Moonfall” Sees the Sky Fall with Just $10 Mil, “Jackass” Rings in $23.5 Mil Weekend

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SUNDAY UPDATE: “Moonfall” total $10.5 million, “Jackass Forever” made jackasses of us all with $23 million. “Spider Man: No Way Home” now bearing down on number 3 all time box office record. Will happen next week.

 

SATURDAY Imagine Adele singing”it’s the moonfall, the moonfall!”

Well, the sky fell last night when “Moonfall,” the Roland Emmerich sci-fi space opera, took in just $2.7 million. Adding Thursday previews the opening total is $3.4 million. This movie cost at least $150 million.

To the moon, Alice!

Contrast that with $8 mil Friday for “Jackass Forever,” a movie made by jackasses for jackasses. And everyone seems to like it. Total for the opening is $9.6 million. So the producers are themselves no jackasses.

Here’s my one Johnny Knoxville anecdote: I was coming down on the elevator at the Soho Grand hotel, mid 2000s. Doors opened and Johnny Knoxville gets on. He’s not really dressed for public consumption. And he’s holding a big wad of sheets in his hands. We get down to the lobby, doors open, he runs out in front of me through the hotel doors and out into the street. I thought he was headed for a limo, but instead he turned and ran up West Broadway into the night.

Did he kill someone? Was that the evidence? Was there a body part in the sheets and he was trying to get rid of it? One thing’s for sure, there were no cameras around. It wasn’t a stunt for his TV show. If anyone has a clue, give me a holler at showbiz411@gmail.com

Maybe it was millions of box office dollars.

Anyway, “Moonfall” is a bust. It won’t make $10 mil for the weekend. The sky is really falling.

 

“Farewell” Actress Awkwafina Bids Her Own Farewell, to Twitter: “I’ll see you in a few years– per my therapist”

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Just now, beloved and unique actress from “The Farewell,” Awkwafina, posted two notices. One was an editorial but the next one seems to have been her own farewell — to Twitter

“Well, I’ll see you in a few years, Twitter – per my therapist. To my fans, thank you for continuing to love and support someone who wishes they could be a better person for you. I apologize if I ever fell short, in anything I did. You’re in my heart always”

The editorial is below.

Since Nora Lum, her real name, has erased all her Tweets going back two years, I don’t know what happened to hasten her exit. But obviously it was something bad, which is no surprise on the rough and tumble platform. What a shame. Lum is a sweetheart, and so talented. Someone owes her a big apology.

PS Lum just DM’d me: “I just need a social detox.” Hey don’t we all? Very healthy plan!

Around 9am Saturday:

“Jeopardy!” Loved 38 Game Winner Amy Schneider’s Run that Ended with Record Ratings

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“Jeopardy!” almost sank last year after Alex Trebek died and multiple guest hosts had terrible ratings. At one point, the guest hosts had weighed the show down to just 4.7 million viewers. The regular fans were tuning out.

But then came Amy Schneider. Her 38 game winning streak, with greatest of all time player Ken Jennings hosting, was the miracle “Jeopardy!” needed.

Last week, when Schneider’s run came to an end, the  game show finished with 6.6 million viewers. That was 2% higher than the previous week, and a 12% increase year to year. “Jeopardy!” may finally have shrugged off the dark days of random hosts and bad publicity. Jennings has proven himself after former Executive Producer Mike Richards nearly destroyed the franchise.

The Schneider effect helped “Wheel of Fortune,” the sister show of “Jeopardy!” The latter came in at 6.0, a great number for them.

In the rest of the syndicated, all remains status quo. “Dr. Phil” and “Kelly and Ryan” remain at the top of the heap. “Judge Judy” reruns are still fetching 4.9 million viewers per day. The fans don’t remember the shows, so it all seems new!

 

“Sex and the City” Reboot Ends in Rancor as Kim Cattrall, John Corbett Are Dissed in Interviews

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And just like that, “Sex and the City” the reboot no one wanted has ended its first season with rancor.

In interviews with Variety and Deadline, showrunner Michael Patrick King and star Sarah Jessica Parker have dissed former cast members Kim Cattrall and John Corbett pretty thoroughly.

They now say that Cattrall was never considered for the series and will never be asked in the future. They also say that Corbett– who led press to believe he’d be in the new series– was never asked to return.

No one knows what the ratings or viewership were for this series because HBO Max is a streamer and not monitored publicly. But it’s likely the show will return since it’s a WarnerMedia brand, it may have had more viewers than a CNN show, and all the relevant parties seem to have agreed on this already.

But does anyone want more of Sara Ramirez’s Che? Or Miranda, a successful attorney in New York not knowing what a “TV pilot” is? Or Carrie texting a phantom Samantha who we know we’ll never see? Also, they’ve sent poor Willie Garson’s Stanford to Japan forever without mentioning him again?

Also, these episodes portrayed people at age 55 like they were 75. I’m over 55 and I felt like they were my elders. Their medical problems, and constant complaining, their inability to have adult thoughts, their lack of interest in anything cultural in New York, and the annoying woke-ness whether it was language or current cultural obliviousness. I’m surprised none of them said, “Back before we had these dang phones…”

PS Aside from Mr. Big having a much older brother (James Naughton is nine years older than Chris Noth). none of the main SATC women has any family whatsoever. Parents, siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews. Is this possible? Are they all dead or estranged? Is that why they’re all friends?