‘The Way Men Do Business Is a Ponzi Scheme’

Candace Bushnell, the author whose bestselling anthology led to the creation of Sex and the City, won’t receive any compensation following a Netflix deal that will add the show to the streamer’s offerings. Warner Bros. Discovery announced in January that it had licensed Sex and the City (SATC) to Netflix. Revealing that the deal won’t “financially affect” her, Bushnell told The Sunday Times:

“All of these men who are in charge of things, they just keep moving these cards around to make money because every time they move the cards around somebody’s skimming. The way men do business is a Ponzi scheme.”

In the mid 1990s, Bushnell wrote a column for The New Yorker Observer that she later adapted into the Sex and the City anthology. She later received $100,000 from HBO for the rights to SATC. Created by Darren Star for HBO, SATC premiered in 1998, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon. The show starred Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw (who is based on Bushnell), Kristin Davis as Charlotte York, Samantha Catrall as Samantha Jones, and Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes. Viewers became enthralled by the series’ distinctly different core characters, their friendship, fashion choices, and romantic relationships.

Sex and the City’s Longevity

Following the show’s conclusion in 2004, two movies followed. In 2021, a spinoff series, And Just Like That… (AJLT) welcomed audiences back into the lives of Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda, now in their 50s. Catrall did not return to the series, following a publicized feud with Parker, but did return for a very brief cameo during the season two finale.

While the second season of AJLT fared better with fans than its poorly received first season, the show has failed to meet the success of SATC. Interestingly, although beloved, SATC received criticism for its lack of diversity, while AJLT is getting slammed for the exact opposite reason, with some calling the show too “woke.” Others argue that the show is lacking the dynamic that Samantha brough to the series; despite the hopes of loyal fans of the original series, Catrall said that her long-awaited cameo was “as far” as she would go.

Bushnell is currently on tour performing the one-woman live show True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City. According to the author’s site, the show “takes the audience on whirlwind tour of New York City, from Studio 54 to the Lipstick Jungle and beyond, sharing her remarkable stories of fashion, literature and sex while pouring cosmos in Manolos.”

The streamer’s addition of the beloved 1990s show follows other HBO series like Six Feet Under, Insecure, Band of Brothers, and Ballers. It is unknown how much the streamer paid to license SATC.