Sarah Jessica Parker lands the cover of Vogue May 2010; talks Sex and the City, Halston and Studio 54

I’m getting the feeling of déjà vu. When the first Sex and the City movie was released, Sarah Jessica Parker graced the cover of US Vogue. Now, the Sex and the City 2 movie is about to be released, SJP is on the cover again, this time to celebrate “Great American Women” as part of the the upcoming exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute, “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity.”

Shot by Mario Testino over two days in Jersey City, the accompanying editorial features Christian Dior couture pieces – pulled specifically by Anna Wintour “as only Anna can do,” SJP remarked).

Inside she talks briefly about how the characters in Sex and the City are getting older:

“We’re still playing—uh, I don’t know how old Carrie is! Is she about 42 now? I think Carrie’s younger than I [Parker is 45], and Miranda and Charlotte are younger than they are in real life. Samantha was always the older lady, so she’s 52 now and talks a lot about what comes with that. In the movie. Talks about menopause. Comedically.”

Well of course they do. Do we expect the SATC girls to approach things like menopause without some comedy involved? Then of course to squash rumours that the four co-stars don’t get a long, there is the obligatory gushing of how friendly everyone was:

“We four women, despite I guess what a lot of people hope, have never been better. This movie—and maybe it’s because we actually lived together—it was the best! We were together all day long, at night, in the restaurants, in our hotels. It was wonderful.”

Ah the gushing was to be expected, it is hardly a surprise SJP is back on the magazine covers just a month or so out from the release of Sex and the City 2 movie, it’s a well trodden path that reads like a worn screenplay. But then SJP revealed a little more about herself and talked about her first experience with the movie’s fifth character, New York City.

“I came to New York originally in 1976, and then I got this part in Annie around the corner from Studio 54. I was a little girl, and for some reason they always invited the cast of Annie to Studio 54, so there I was at thirteen and fourteen, and the doorman would usher us in, literally underneath his arms. And it was 1977 in New York City, and you couldn’t be alive and not know the name Halston.”

It was the start of a beautiful friendship, with SJP now a creative advisor to the American fashion brand. Though she admitted that “there was every reason to say no” to the opportunity. But “there were very compelling reasons to say yes… It’s an exciting time at that company. It has had some false starts that are well documented and it is relaunching itself. It has a wonderful legacy, and I couldn’t say no.”

Read the full interview on Vogue.com.

Behind the scenes of the Sarah Jessica Parker May 2010 Vogue cover shoot

Some photos from Sarah Jessica Parker’s May 2010 Vogue shoot

* * * Watch the Sex and the City 2 movie trailer here * * *