'Sex and the City' Replaces Mac with PC -- For a Price

Fans of 'Sex and the City' have come to expect certain things from the hit TV series-turned blockbuster movie franchise, and seeing the ladies wear and use brand name, big label products is one of them. We all know the girls love to strut around Manhattan in Manolo Blahnik shoes, eat at the fanciest restaurants in New York City and wear only top designers like Dior, Chanel and Roberto Cavalli. And we're certainly used to seeing our heroine, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), typing her newspaper columns and books on her Mac laptop -- you know, the one she left on her bed for Charlotte (Kristi Davis) to find when she left for Paris, the one she returned to when she came back to her beloved New York.

Carrie's Mac made an appearance in just about every episode and was prominently featured in the first movie, but you won't be seeing it in 'Sex and the City 2.' Because of a partnership with Hewlett-Packard, only HP computers will be featured in the forthcoming sequel.

According to the New York Post, "Every aspect of Carrie's life is reduced to a vignette that can be monetized: Going to the Gym (sip on Lipton Sparkling diet green tea, an official sponsor of the new movie!), Having Cocktails with Girlfriends (try a specialized cocktail from Skyy, the movie's 'official vodka'!), Getting Married (Swarovski paid to be featured prominently in the film) and, of course, Working On Laptop, Staring Wistfully Out the Window (Hewlett-Packard partnered with the movie so its laptops would be featured, and SJP will appear in the computer company's ads, of course)."



But fans of the show know that Carrie and Mac were made for each other. The Guardian UK sums it up best, noting, "Carrie is a professional homeworking journalist ... Macs were invented for them: people without IT support, with no skills or office training, with very little likelihood of ever accruing any knowledge or expertise, with no backbone or basic housekeeping procedures."

That's Carrie Bradshaw in a nutshell; she didn't even have a cell phone until the shows final season in 2004.

Carrie's Mac was even a subplot for a season four episode -- 'My Motherboard My Self' -- in which her computer, overloaded from years and years of use (and no backing up!), crashes when she goes to save one of her columns. Aidan (John Corbet), just trying to help, buys her a new iMac, which quickly becomes a symbol for change that Carrie simply isn't comfortable with.



Similarly, in the two-part series finale, a Macbook serves as a symbol of what Carrie is willing to leave behind -- i.e. herself -- to move from New York to Paris to support her artist boyfriend Alesandr Petrovsky.

Charlotte is quick to notice, too. Shocked, she tells the girls at the coffee shop, "And her computer was just sitting there on the bed," just before Mr. Big (Chris Noth) enters to ask for their permission to jet off to Paris to tell Carrie he loves her.

(Careful, there is a curse word or two in the video below.)



As PopEater previously reported, the fashion house Halston, of which Parker is a chief creative officer and has an equity stake, is also featured prominently in the film. The Post notes that of the 41 different looks sported by Parker in the sequel, five of them are Halston. The films reported wardrobe budget: $10 million. And the actresses -- Parker, Davis, Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon -- got to keep most of the clothes!

Fans of the show know that expensive fashions and chichi cocktails are par for the course when it comes to 'SATC,' and frankly, that's part of the allure -- seeing all that fancy stuff you could never possibly afford is half the fun. Given the consumerism the show and movies trade in, it's not particularly surprising to see products being shilled. But the computer switch up feels particularly inorganic, if not downright jarring. To borrow from Carrie Bradshaw herself, "I couldn't help but wonder, where's the line between a film and an extended commercial?"