Best known for writing the column “Sex and the City” in the New York Observer, which spawned the hit HBO series with the same name, author Candace Bushnell visited Northeastern’s ballroom in the Curry Student Center on Monday to sign books, meet fans, and discuss the creation of four women who have great sex lives and an even greater friendship. The event was sponsored by Council for University Programs, the Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council.
Entering its sixth and final season this June, the show chronicles the lives and sexual escapades of Carrie Bradshaw and her three friends Miranda Hobbes, Samantha Jones and Charlotte York; single women in their thirties who have fabulous jobs, wardrobes and apartments, but have a hard time picking and keeping Mr. Right.
“It’s really about single women in that particular time of life. It’s about the way women think and the way women feel,” said Bushnell in an interview with The News. Bushnell says the show captures a world that was much like hers. Surrounded by women and men who led fast social lives but found themselves single at 35, Bushnell noticed a phenomena growing in cities like New York.
“I was frustrated because there was a lot of stuff about men and how they feel about the world but not that much about women,” she said. “Nobody wanted to hear about single women outside of women’s magazines.”
After writing about the lives of her friends and “alter-ego” Carrie, the columns were turned into a book and then the series.
“Carrie did what I didn’t do,” she said.
Bushnell answered questions from avid fans wondering everything from the identity of Mr. Big to what Bushnell’s life is like after marriage. Bushnell, who married ballet dancer Charles Askegard after a seven week courtship, said her life has not changed since marriage. She still attends parties and gets together with her girlfriends.
So what about Mr. Big?
He’s real, although Bushnell will not reveal who he is and says he has a “lovely wife.” As for his name, Bushnell explained she gave him the name not because of a physical attribute but because he was the kind of guy that women everywhere waited for but he was looking for something else.
“Carrie’s story with Mr. Big is a pretty accurate story up until they break up,” Bushnell said.
Of course, the show is overly dramatized for television purposes, but the emotions Carrie felt after the breakup are real, according to Bushnell.
She has something else in common with her alter-ego besides Mr. Big: a fettish for shoes. Her next book, “Trading Up” arrives in stores in July and is touted as the next summer “beach-read.” Bushnell is fine with the label but says the book is much more than a page-turner.
“It makes you think about choices,”she said.
Bushnell read a passage from the book which follows a character she introduced in her second book, “Four Blondes,” named Janey Wilcox who is a lingerie model.
“It’s really a classic story of a beautiful woman in society and what happens to her and the mistakes she makes. And she makes a lot of mistakes,” Bushnell said.
As for the course of the show, Bushnell said she is pleased with how it has turned out.
“I think the show is fantastic. The chartacters have stayed true to themselves.”
Of criticism that the show is only about sex, Bushnell said, “It’s more about women’s lives and sex is a part of women’s lives.”
For fans who are curious to know if Carrie will ever have a stable relationship or if she will keep breaking up with the good guys, they can tune in for the season premiere of “Sex and the City” on Sunday, June 22.
