GEORGE WAYNE Q & A

VANITIES

The Devil and Kim Cattrall

Kim Cattrall, who plays the role of the sexually liberated Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, is about to bring her act into the literary world. This month she publishes her first book, Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm (written with her husband, Mark Levinson). Below she shares some of her trade secrets, and also discusses spider veins, her British roots, and doing Streetcar in New York.

George Wayne: We hear that this season Samantha explores sodomy.

Kim Cattrall: Oh God! What hasn't she explored?

G.W.Isn’t hetero-sodomy supposed to he chic these days?

K.C. I think that topic was explored in a conversation in the back of a taxicab during our first season. And I think there have been other anal-fixated characters, but I don’t think that I’ve had to deal with that too much.

G.W.So what's in store for her this season? Let’s talk about the Devil in Miss Jones.

K.C. She gets involved with one amour for six episodes, and you really see what emotional intimacy does to her.

G.W.So she has a relationship that lasts for more than one night.

K.C. She’s very well matched with him. He is very sexually experienced and he likes to experiment. And she falls for him, and he falls for her, and they try to see if they can, indeed, have a relationship. He’s also, to make matters more complicated, her boss.

G.W.What's the biggest difference between Samantha Jones and Kim Cattrall?

K.C. I think that I was never really on the hunt. I was always very much involved in one relationship, one boyfriend at a time. I never really hung out on the dating scene. It would take me much longer emotionally to get over a love alTair, and that’s one of the things I love about her. She has such incredible self-confidence that whatever the challenge she seems to rise to it.... She’s a modern-day Mae West.

G.W.A lot of people don’t realize that you are English.

K.C. From Liverpool. I think Liverpudlians have a great sense of humor. My parents came from a lower-middle-class background. And you really had to have your wits about you, and your sense of humor, because times were hard. It’s a survival technique.

G.W.You like to say you were reared on the stage, but your theater career is not particularly noteworthy.

K.C. They arc working on a November 2002 A Streetcar Named Desire for me to play Blanche on Broadway.

G.W.Does it upset you that your salary doesn't even come close to Sarah Jessica Parker’s?

K.C. Well, you know, I always say that Sarah is our headliner and she works harder than anybody. She has the longest hours of the four of us, and I think that we all deserve what we get paid.

G.W.Oh, that has to be a bone of contention—n’est-ce pas?

K.C. No, it’s really not. I’m in my middle 40s, and I feel that 1 have one of the best parts that I’ve ever been involved with, and had a real hand in creating it. And I get paid really well for it. And that feels good.

G.W.So what’s your latest beauty secret, princess?

K.C. Lots of sleep.

G.W.Still no signs of cellulite or spider veins? K.C. Not yet.

G.W.Well, you certainly have a fabulous rack and booty—for a woman approaching 50.

K.C. I’ve worked out for years, and exercised for years. If I watch what I eat, and I exercise a couple of times a week,

I’ll be fine. I cat only organic vegetables and fruit.

G.W.What's one luxury that you have afforded yourself as a result of your newfound fame?

K.C. I will never pump my own gas again. Never ever. I always go up to the full-service. I can’t stand the smell of gasoline.

G.W.What about children?

K.C. It’s too late, way too late. I think that to be a mom you definitely have to give up at least five years of your life. And I’m having a great time. I don’t want to really change nappies right now. It’s not where I’m at. Motherhood is a life’s work.

G.W.Who is the celebrity, in your estimation, that all the girls want to be like, and all the guys want to be with?

K.C. Cameron Diaz—she’s kinda tomboy-like, but a girl's girl. Jennifer Lopez is incredibly sexy.

G.W.Catty Patty, who is the most overrated A-list actress in Hollywood?

K.C. Who are the A-list actresses?

G.W.Anyone who makes more than $10 million per movie. Sandra Bullock would be my answer.

K.C. Well, if you’re making that much money, you should at least choose better material.

G.W.Your TV creation Samantha Jones is applauded as a postfeminist icon. What does that mean to you?

K.C. Well, you gotta have broad shoulders. I think it’s great, I think it’s fantastic. A character like this would not have existed, even on cable, four or five years ago. It’s raised the bar for honesty about women and their sexuality and how they feel about it and communicate it.

And what female relationships are really all about. G.W.All right, Venus flytrap. Thank you very much.