More than a decade after the premiere of their hit TV show, the fabulous femmes of the latest Sex And The City film talk to Linda Barnard about why the desert is their new favourite location and how getting out of the Big Apple cemented their real-life friendship.
"There was a wedding and now there has to be a marriage," says Sarah Jessica Parker, reflecting on the next step for her character, the glamorous writer Carrie Bradshaw, in Sex And The City 2 (SATC2).
Now married to her Mr Big (aka John James Preston, played by Chris Noth) the setting shifts from Manhattan to the exotic and luxurious world of Abu Dhabi in the latest film - but with Morocco standing in as shooting location for the UAE.
From sand dunes to souks, the women immerse themselves in their gorgeous surroundings, while often bumping up against culture clashes - especially Samantha (Kim Cattrall), who can't quite manage to dress demurely enough.
"Carrie finds herself starting, as she typically does, to ask questions about the environment in which she currently lives," says Parker of SATC2's early New York scenes. The petite 45-year-old actress looks typically stunning in a puffy floral skirt and shimmery silver-beige, lacelike jacket shot with miniature crystals over a hot-pink bustier. Her eyelids are layered with glittering opal shadow and on her feet, of course, sky-high shimmering strappy sandals.
It seems fitting that the four fabulous femmes of Sex And The City are talking about their new film in what you could call their natural habitat: the shoe department of ultra-chic and expensive Fifth Avenue retailer Bergdorf Goodman. The first scene involving all four stars was shot in the shop, as Carrie, Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Samantha and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) meet to buy a wedding gift.
Surrounded by Christian Louboutin, Chanel, YSL and Jimmy Choo heels, the four women, along with Noth and the movie's writer-director, Michael Patrick King, share their thoughts on making round two of the successful film franchise.
Carrie has left her single-girl life behind after six seasons of looking for love in Manhattan on the HBO hit TV series, Sex And The City, followed by the 2008 film. She and hubby John have set up house in a sumptuous Manhattan apartment, complete with a massive walk-in wardrobe for Carrie and her legendary shoe collection. But she questions what marriage means to both of them when her party-girl persona starts to clash with John's suddenly revealed homebody leanings.
King says sending the women to Abu Dhabi in the film - public relations powerhouse Samantha is invited on an all-expenses-paid trip with her best friends to explore a possible business opportunity for a magnificent luxury hotel - allowed him to have "this incredible cinematic experience" that mimicked the Busby Berkeley-style films of the 1930s.
King says he wrote the script for the sequel just as America was plunging into the economic downturn and that led him to decide to pull out all the stops on a storyline, "like they did in the Great Depression. I thought Hollywood should let people go on a big, extravagant vacation that maybe they couldn't afford themselves."
And how. The newly built Mandarin Oriental Jnan Rahma in Marrakech stood in for the fictitious Abu Dhabi hotel. The costume budget alone for the film, with extravagant designer fashions and one-of-a-kind vintage items pulled together by longtime SATC designer Patricia Field, rang in at US$10 million (Dh37 million). The women don Chanel and Prada to ride camels in the desert, Halston gowns for a walk along what is meant to be the Arabian Gulf and vintage Dior to check out the spice market.
For Parker, shooting in the Moroccan desert away from family and distractions - she and her husband, Matthew Broderick, have a seven-year-old son James Wilke, and twin daughters, Marion Loretta Elwell and Tabitha Hodge, who were born to a surrogate last year - helped her get closer to her cast-mates. They're a trio of women Parker calls "thoroughbreds".
"I got to live with this cast," Parker explains. "We were removed. We were shooting outside of the country and we've never done that and we had this chance to live together and know one another in a way we've never had an opportunity to do in New York."
There were times, shooting in isolation in the Sahara Desert, when they didn't even have a bathroom, Parker says, laughing.
"In New York we go home to our friends and our family and our children and our animals. For me, it just changed everything (to be in Morocco) and I came away loving them more than I ever have because I got to see them in a new way and I was so reliant on them," Parker says of the women she began working with when the cable show Sex And The City premiered in 1998.
Parker adds that she hopes the enduring on-screen friendship among the four strong-willed stars can help teach women how to get along better.
"I look at what's available on television and I see how women treat each other and it's stunning to me," Parker says, shaking her head. "It's arresting and I like that there is some place to illustrate that women would much rather be allies than adversaries," she adds of the SATC franchise.
"We seem to be moving towards where women are really unkind to one another, call each other horrible names and there's a vernacular which I find really objectionable.
"I really love how these women love each other and I love how decent and honourable they are to one another. I love how much they respect each other. I love that they were never meant to be friends," she says of the quartet. "Their DNA is so radically different from one to the next and they have found this incomprehensible friendship that is truly inspiring to me and it changes the way I feel about my friendships constantly."
Cattrall, who jokes that she didn't need to do any research to realistically portray Samantha's menopause woes, says plots in the series helped change how women feel about a variety of issues, thanks to scripts that often tackled controversial topics.
"We have encouraged a lot of women to change the way they feel about being single, about having cancer, all the storylines about being married and being left and being lonely," says Cattrall.
"I think we have addressed all that and that's a very powerful thing. In this era of post-feminism, I think we have helped to find what it is to be successful, smart and also feminine."
Like Parker, Nixon says the idea of getting the women out of New York not only helped the characters relate to each other, it added a new dimension to their friendship. (There had been rumours of rifts among them in the past, tensions Parker and the rest have denied.)
"That's what was wonderful about going away," adds Davis. "The girls get to go away and get to a deeper place together."
And they learnt a new phrase working in an Arabic-speaking country. Insha'Allah, replies Davis when asked if the movie will be a success.
The sense of family was deepened among the four by celebrating American Thanksgiving together, enjoying a traditional meal that night and another celebration on the weekend when their families flew in to join them, complete with apple and pumpkin pies and a snake charmer.
"It was Thanksgiving. We were thankful when he left," says King with a grin.
King says shooting in the isolation of the Moroccan desert, including in the sand dunes where multiple Oscar-winning film Lawrence Of Arabia was shot in 1962, made for a real contrast to working in New York, where huge crowds gather to watch anything to do with SATC.
"We have New York, which was here, Bergdorf's, with thousand and thousands of people watching and it's like an interactive theatre piece? I call that the celebrity petting zoo," King laughs. "We went to Morocco in the middle of the Sahara Desert and not a sound. No paparazzi; just the crew, the hot sun and us. It was a very different, bizarre and colourful time."
Also "laborious and Herculean", adds Parker, who, as with the first film, co-produced SATC2. "But it was one of the great experiences of my professional life to live and work with this cast and crew, and to be on a camel with Kim Cattrall."
"Not many people can say they've done that!" Cattrall jokes.
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Seven tips from Emirates NBD
1. Never respond to e-mails, calls or messages asking for account, card or internet banking details
2. Never store a card PIN (personal identification number) in your mobile or in your wallet
3. Ensure online shopping websites are secure and verified before providing card details
4. Change passwords periodically as a precautionary measure
5. Never share authentication data such as passwords, card PINs and OTPs (one-time passwords) with third parties
6. Track bank notifications regarding transaction discrepancies
7. Report lost or stolen debit and credit cards immediately
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
Directed by: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry
4/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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The biog:
Favourite book: The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma
Pet Peeve: Racism
Proudest moment: Graduating from Sorbonne
What puts her off: Dishonesty in all its forms
Happiest period in her life: The beginning of her 30s
Favourite movie: "I have two. The Pursuit of Happiness and Homeless to Harvard"
Role model: Everyone. A child can be my role model
Slogan: The queen of peace, love and positive energy
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
Dubai World Cup nominations
UAE: Thunder Snow/Saeed bin Suroor (trainer), North America/Satish Seemar, Drafted/Doug Watson, New Trails/Ahmad bin Harmash, Capezzano, Gronkowski, Axelrod, all trained by Salem bin Ghadayer
USA: Seeking The Soul/Dallas Stewart, Imperial Hunt/Luis Carvajal Jr, Audible/Todd Pletcher, Roy H/Peter Miller, Yoshida/William Mott, Promises Fulfilled/Dale Romans, Gunnevera/Antonio Sano, XY Jet/Jorge Navarro, Pavel/Doug O’Neill, Switzerland/Steve Asmussen.
Japan: Matera Sky/Hideyuki Mori, KT Brace/Haruki Sugiyama. Bahrain: Nine Below Zero/Fawzi Nass. Ireland: Tato Key/David Marnane. Hong Kong: Fight Hero/Me Tsui. South Korea: Dolkong/Simon Foster.
SCHEDULE
December 8: UAE v USA (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)
December 9: USA v Scotland (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)
December 11: UAE v Scotland (Sharjah Cricket Stadium)
December 12: UAE v USA (ICC Academy Oval 1)
December 14: USA v Scotland (ICC Academy Oval 1)
December 15: UAE v Scotland (ICC Academy Oval 1)
All matches start at 10am
RESULTS
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Samau Xmnsor, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Ottoman, Szczepan Mazur, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Sharkh, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 85,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Yaraa, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Maaly Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Jinjal, Fabrice Veron, Ahmed Al Shemaili
8pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Al Sail, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
