Why Jill Zarin is More of a New Yorker than Sarah Jessica Parker August 14
NY Post Writer, Danica Lo’s tongue in cheek attempt to define a New Yorker in her piece You’re a New Yorker If, reads like a Press Release off the desk of Sarah Jessica Parker’s publicist. Coming from someone who covers New York’s Fashion beat, it almost makes sense that she would highlight Sarah Jessica Parker of Sex & the City fame. But in all candor it does not even pass the smell test. Danica Lo’s “insight” is more analogous to Ray Bari Pizza than it is Lombardi’s or Grimaldi’s. And if you are a “Real” New Yorker, you know what I am talking about, even if your favorite joint is Connie’s Pizza in Sheepshead Bay.
Her piece is cute, almost funny. But all I can say is sorry babe, Sarah Jessica Parker is but a “caricature” of a New Yorker. Although in fairness to her and Sex & the City, also a caricature of New York created by Darren Starr (a non New Yorker who learned his craft in Hollywood) based on a column by Observer columnist/party girl, Candace Bushnell, who was raised in surburban affluence in Connecticut, has led to increased tourism for the city even if it has created a distorted reality of what the lives of New Yorkers are actually like. Mostly, it has led to the willingness of many out of town idiots to plunk down $15-20 for Cosmo like cocktails at trendy upscale lounges, wax on about their shoe fetishes, crass lifestyle, including openly referring to the guys that they may have given a BJ to the previous evening. Mostly, it was like an infomercial for certain brands that led to increased materialism and narcissism and a cultural acceptance of that as the norm, whereas the average real New Yorker would sooner hit the Bull & Bear. As aptly stated by my friend, also a lawyer/photographer Erika Andresen:
Sex and the City made everyone growing up anywhere but New York City believe this is how New Yorker’s act and then they come here and act that way because that’s what they think is right. And now New York has become a caricature of itself. This is no longer my New York and it breaks my heart.
As one who was born and raised in three boroughs, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, my belief is that you would be hard pressed to find actual New Yorkers, outside the fashionista quadrant and those who work at Vogue who could relate to or who would consider Sarah Jessica Parker a New Yorker. Now Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Candace Bushnell’s alter ego, Carrie Bradshaw on TV and the big screen, is reportedly worth $100 Million dollars. This is far more than Bushnell who was raised in Connecticut in suburban affluence before writing the column for the Observer that in essence launched her career and who is in essence the art behind the life of Sarah Jessica Parker. Parker’s career frankly would not be where it is absent Ms. Bushnell. Ironic that art does not mimic life, life mimics art and becomes more lucrative than the art behind it. There is more money in playing Candace Bushnell than in being Candace Bushnell. Now if that is not a mind phuck, I do not know what is. But then again you would have to go to Brooklyn to find Amy Sohn who is more of a real New Yorker or one with a real grasp of the feminine perspective in this town. So in short, if your life and persona are largely derivative, I hardly see, regardless of how good an actress you might be, how that makes one “authentic.” Me thinks that Sara Jessica Parker owes Ms. Bushnell a royalty fee for her life. The self appointed fashion icon even launched her own clothing line.
But then actually, one can simplify all of this drama by recognizing and accepting that Jill Zarin, “The Real Housewife from New York”, originally a Long Island Girl is actually more of a New Yorker than all of the above. And for accuracy’s sake, Cynthia Nixon, who plays lawyer Miranda Hobbes on Sex & the City and who lives in Brooklyn, performs on Broadway and actually uses her celebrity for responsible activism, is also actually more of a New Yorker than Sara Jessica Parker. Ms. Nixon was born here in New York City but truth be told is perhaps not as promotable a brand for New York’s fashion industry as is Sarah Jessica Parker. Cynthia may make you think more, Sarah will help you sell more clothes. While one can understand the rationale from a branding standpoint to push forth the notion of a certain individual(s) being quintessential New Yorkers, real New Yorkers recognize who the other real New Yorkers are. Perpetuating fiction may help you sell some more schmatte to unsuspecting out of towner’s, who want to do all they can to “be so New York”, but let’s be clear, it is not going to fool anyone here.
In that regard, my advice to the fashion industry in New York is to stop trying to recapture or repackage Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City or holding up and glorifying Sarah Jessica Parker as some icon worth emulating. While she is presumably a fine citizen, the incessant sale of that caricature of an individual in a caricature of our town is not some mystical brand, instead it rings hollow to real New Yorkers, many whom in truth can likely identify more with so called reality stars, the girl next door who probably genuinely had to work it to break through the media bubble to achieve independent success. In that regard, Whitney Port of The Hills and The City fame, who has already to date had an interesting career, working as a publicist with the People’s Revolution, modeling and designing her own clothing line, is more New York than Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City or Sarah Jessica Parker. Her seemingly glamorous rise with bumps in the road is something that women in all five boroughs can more easily relate to.