One of the more delightful aspects of the new Sex and the City feud is how everyone involved is steadfastly refusing to break character.
Now Willie Garson—better known to tens of millions of fans as king of the bon mot, Stanford Blatch—has delivered a withering put-down that could have been scripted for his character in an episode from the show’s heyday.
Following Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones-style denunciation of her fellow stars as “toxic” in an interview on British TV, Garson has leapt, Blatch-like, to the defense of Sarah Jessica Parker and the other stars of the series, which also spawned two hit movies (but not a third, which is the cause of all the new tension).
The actor, 53, took to Twitter on Wednesday to hit back at Cattrall.
Ouch.
Garson was responding to an astonishing broadside by Cattrall, who told interviewer Piers Morgan that she would never play the role again, saying: “For me it’s over, it’s over with no regrets. I just wish that Sarah had been nicer.”
Garson later added another thought.
Garson’s brief summary of events contrasts sharply with the spin Cattrall put on the negotiations over a third film.
She said: “Usually what happens… for a job in my business, is that someone says, ‘Are you available?’ and you say ‘Yes’ and here’s the job and you say ‘Yes but thank you very much but I’m sort of over here right now but thank you very much,’ and that person turns to you and they say ‘That’s great, good luck to you, I wish you the best.’”
Cattrall then added: “That’s not what happened here. It feels like a toxic relationship.”
Cattrall said she was speaking out despite concerns that fans of the show would be upset.
“I don’t want to in any shape or form ruin the ideal of [the show], because it does stand for empowerment and it does stand for women sticking up for each other—but not always.”
Cattrall suggested another actress could take over her part: “I want them to make the movie, if that’s what they want to do. It’s a great part. I played it past the finish line, and then some. I loved it and another actress should play it, maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones or a Hispanic Samantha Jones?”
This possibility was raised—less tactfully—by some fans on Twitter to Garson, who, to his credit, refused to countenance it and appeared to have recovered some grace.
Cattrall stuck the knife in on a personal level when she said: “I don’t feel like a victim, I feel like I came out of this on top. This has given me a fantastic platform. Sarah Jessica, she could have been nicer, she could have in some way. I don’t know what her issue is, I never have.”
Garson concluded his tweet storm with what could be construed as another dig at Cattrall for denying fans the pleasure of a new movie.