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‘Sex and the City’ author visits ‘exciting’ D.C., says Selena Gomez could be good fit for prequel films

Laura Donovan Contributor
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Candace Bushnell, the woman behind the iconic Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City,” says Washington, D.C. is a fun place. Though perhaps incomparable to the Big Apple, the tireless city where the exciting books and films take place, the nation’s capital can be both thrilling and stylish.

“D.C. is an exciting city as well [as New York City], but it’s more spaced out,” Bushnell told The Daily Caller during a D.C. book party for her new novel, “Summer and the City,” a “Sex and the City” prequel following “The Carrie Diaries,” which takes readers through Bradshaw’s senior year of high school.

Bushnell, whose new book was released in late April, says the nation’s capital is more of a “driving city” than the concrete jungle.

“In New York, when you’re in a taxi going down a street, there are tons of people on the sidewalks and…it’s more of a driving city here, but it’s always exciting to be here,” Bushnell said.

Additionally, D.C. residents dress well, Bushnell said.

“The fashion is great, and I think years ago, probably maybe fifteen years ago, I think people maybe thought that the fashion was much more conservative in D.C., but I think the fashion is great. Everyone seems to look very stylish. It’s Michelle Obama,” Bushnell said of the first lady, who has been known to wear clothing by designers Alexander McQueen, Michael Kors, and Jason Wu. (Kim Cattrall not sure about third ‘Sex and the City’ movie)

Bushnell came to D.C. for the launch of Residences on The Avenue and to promote “Summer and the City,” a second prequel to SATC that chronicles Bradshaw’s uncertain beginning days in New York City.

Bradshaw, whose character eventually becomes a sex columnist, first comes to New York as a small town, unsophisticated “sparrow,” as seasoned city sucker Samantha Jones describes her. “Summer and the City” follows Bradshaw’s transformation from homely Connecticut girl who misses her late mother to leading independent lady in NYC. In the book, Bradshaw gets to know cynical but lovable Miranda Hobbes and wild woman Samantha Jones, who is several years older than Bradshaw and engaged to be married.

When asked if Bushnell could foresee “Carrie Diaries” and/or “Summer and the City” film adaptations, the author said she could “definitely see something on the screen.”

“Definitely something on the screen,” Bushnell said. “Big or small screen.”

Though Bushnell did not confirm nor deny the rumor that perpetually chipper blond Blake Lively is a top pick to portray Bradshaw for a possible “Carrie Diaries” movie, Bushnell did have a particular actress in mind for Charlotte York’s goody two shoes brunette character.

“You know, I don’t know…Casting is like kismet. I’m going to get into trouble for this, but I was looking at some pictures of Selena Gomez today and thinking ‘she’d make a really good young Charlotte,'” Bushnell said. “She’s so pretty. I was like…gosh, wouldn’t she be great? Am I right or wrong? I’m not good at this. If I say something like that, then the next thing I know, people are like, no!”

Though she didn’t participate in the SATC films, Bushnell is a fan of them both.

“Love ’em,” Bushnell said. “I wasn’t involved with the movies, but Michael Patrick King, who wrote and directed a lot of episodes of ‘Sex and the City,’ he wrote and directed the movies and he’s fantastic.”

In “Summer and the City,” the women aren’t as self assured or savvy as their older “Sex and the City” counterparts.

“‘Sex and the City’ was always very specifically about thirty-something women, and in this, the women would be in their late teens, maybe early twenties and they wouldn’t be as confident and they wouldn’t have everything figured out the way the characters do in ‘Sex and the City’ because they’ve been around for longer,” Bushnell said.

Like most young folks, the “Summer and the City” girls seem to believe they have everything together as teenagers and twenty-somethings when they actually have a lot to learn.

“But of course they would think they had everything figured out,” Bushnell said.

Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

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