It’s only her today,†a production assistant told a pedestrian on East 21st Street on the warm morning of May 21. The her in question needed no clarification because a few steps away, Sarah Jessica Parker had just made her way up the stoop at 3 Gramercy Park West, over and over, in take after take of a moment from season three of And Just Like That … (Presumably, the PA was referring to the core Carrie-Charlotte-Miranda lineup because Aidan, a.k.a. John Corbett, appeared on the set soon thereafter. His character’s good-bye at the end of season two seems not to have stuck.) In Carrie’s scene, she held an animated conversation with an actor in coveralls. A van parked at the house suggests that he’s an exterminator. Does Carrie Bradshaw have rats? Is this whole season an Eric Adams psyop? We don’t know, and we won’t until And Just Like That … returns sometime in 2025.
Sex and the City–spotting has become familiar, almost cozy, after 115 episodes (and counting) and two movies over 26 years. Encountering the show is not quite as common as running into the Law & Order universe, but it’s hardly exotic, partly because fictional Carrie, like real-life Sarah, is an out-and-about New Yorker. On this day, about 25 fans stood quietly at the corner of Gramercy Park West and 21st Street, taking pictures and videos. One passerby (named Sarah herself) said that she lives close by and had been surprised to see Carrie pop up in her neighborhood. “But it’s fun,†she said, adding that she follows Parker on Instagram. You could spot most of the fans texting friends, likely with a variation on “Guess who I just saw.â€
Shortly after noon, the shot was complete, and the crew began resettling the camera crane and everything around it. Another PA made a polite announcement to the onlookers: “This next shot, we’re going to be facing this direction,†he said, “so we’re going to have to have you move.†And just like that, they dispersed.