MR. BIG VS. THE PRESS

Celebrity reporters encountered a spirited Chris Noth — aka Mr. Big in “Sex and the City,” and that detective guy on “Law & Order” — who showed at Saturday’s red carpet opening for “Peepshow” at Planet Hollywood.

Noth was talking to me, a writer from People and a woman for another publication. The other two were asking about the “Sex and the City” sequel. At first, Noth was just saying there is no script yet, but there will be one, and “no one knows what it is.”

Then, he started joking/supposing what kind of sequel he’d like to see, a fantasy along the lines of “Mr. Big goes diving” … “Mr. Big and Carrie take a safari.” Suddenly, Noth started talking like the New Yorker he is:

“That’s what I’d like it to be. But then you guys will twist it and say that’s what it’s gonna be, because you’re journalism is bullshit. Sorry. Don’t twist it and say that. But that’s what I’d like it to be.”

Noth was smiling, but he wasn’t playing West Coast laid-back in this exchange:

A reporter (not me) asked what it’s like getting back with the cast, and mentioned the show began in the 1990s.
Noth: “No, we did the movie a year ago.”
Reporter: “Yeah but I mean the series …”
Noth: “What about the series?”
The reporter said something about season one.
Noth: “Yeah?”
Reporter: “So what’s it like being back with the cast?”
Noth: “Well, I already did that a year ago. I was with them all.”
The reporter asked again about getting back with the cast for the sequel.
Noth: “I don’t know how to answer that question. I haven’t seen them since the movie.”

As you may imagine, this was pretty awesome. I asked him to elaborate on how he thinks the press “twists” things.

“I think celebrity press shouldn’t try to make headlines. They should just say it as we say it,” Noth said. “No really, come on, you know it’s true, right? You look for that headline and all that stuff. I understand. My mother was a journalist back in the sixties.”

He said working on the “Sex and the City” movie was “the most fun you’ll ever have on a movie set,” and “the only little problem” is the press and others try to scout out the plot before the movie is released.

So during previous filming, he was the guy who spread the false word that Mr. Big was going to die of a heart attack.

“You don’t want to spoil it [storylines] for everybody or yourselves. I would always say something like, ‘Big just had a heart attack and he dies.’ They’re like whaaaa? I’m just foolin’ around. I don’t know why everyone takes it so seriously. It’s really just a lot of fun.”

There you go. Mr. Big laid down the law and order.