No “Sex” for You: The Sex and the City Premiere Freeze-out

Sex and the City had its New York premiere last night, and more than a thousand fans were turned away because Radio City Music Hall was filled to capacity. The Daily News referred to the overbooking as “THEIR ‘SEX’LESS NIGHT,” while the Post simply mentioned the locked-out fans in its coverage of the “HOT PREMIERE IN ‘SEX’-CRAZED CITY.”

Perhaps the Post‘s choice not to highlight the thousands dressed up with nowhere to go stems from yesterday’s story about a woman who forked over $19,000 to fly from Singapore to the premiere in New York. She later learned that the agency she bought the travel package from on eBay didn’t have tickets to the premiere. Ella Sherman told the Post that the agency also claimed to be in touch with Sex star Kim Cattrall, as part of the $19,000 was to go to one of the actress’s favorite charities. Today’s paper features a statement from Cattrall’s rep saying the travel agency was never in touch with the star.

Those who were frozen out of the premiere expressed their annoyance to both tabloids. A Rockland County woman tells the Post that after taking off work and not being able to attend the premiere, she may boycott the film. Another woman who took the day off and was planning on celebrating her 27th birthday by watching the film tells the News of her alternate plans: “I guess we’ll go drink a Cosmo or five now.”

But other than people not getting in, how was the premiere? Absolutely fabulous, according to both papers. The Post splashed its color photos of the event all over pages 4 and 5. We get a shot of the four co-stars decked out in designer duds, complete with balloon captions telling us what exactly everyone is wearing. If that’s not enough fashion coverage for you, there’s an accompanying article on page 5. (Apparently as acorn hats were the big statement for the London premiere, metallics were de rigeur for the Big Apple launch.) The News forgoes a photo of all four ladies for individual photos of each star as well as pics of other celebs in attendance. The pictures are in the NOW section of the tabloid since it allows them to be in color.

As for the film itself, both the Post and the Daily News have completely different opinions on its quality. Post critic Lou Lumenick gives it one-and-a-half stars, and the headline says it’s “Shooting Blahniks.” He finds the movie dull and formulaic and notes it “feels like it was written by an audience focus group in Omaha.” Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman gives the film four stars, praising it as an examination of friendship between women.

The reviews are irrelevant anyway. Fans will flock to theater despite them because they want the joy of seeing how their beloved characters’ stories end. Unless, of course, the fans in question took yesterday off and found themselves locked out of Radio City.