SJP is Golden! It's a SATC Reunion!

basically a Lifetime Achievement Award in comedy. And then also Dame Helen Mirren was getting this Cecil B. Demill Award, which is basically a lifetime Achievement Award in film. So they did a whole special dinner, a special evening for these two awards and we got to have a bit of a reunion. We were missing Cynthia because she's on Broadway. But it was really really fun, completely nerve wracking because I had to speak and I was very scared, but

it was an incredible evening. I'm really still processing it. It was really intense. There were tears, there was a lot of laughter. It was really really fun. My big obstacles to the evening. Number one was that I really felt so much kind of pressure, but in a good way, pressure to speak about Sarah Jessica because I love her so much, as you guys know, but also I'm just when I look at her entire career, I'm just in

awe and blown away. And as you know, I'm rewatching the show, and every time I watch an episode, I'm just like, she's so brilliant. Oh my gosh, Like I didn't even know how brilliant she was at the time. I mean, I knew she was brilliant, but every time I rewatched, I'm even more impressed. So I really wanted to convey that. But I also wanted to convey what an incredible person she was, but that's really hard to do. So they sent me a speech, and I don't know,

if you guys know, I'm sober. I've been sober a really long time. They sent me a speech basically about Cosmopolitans.

So I was a little confused. I guess that there's you know, you're kind of toasting the winners during the evening, and so they did give everyone a Cosmopolitan on the table, and luckily Colemyan Domingo stuffed in to toast Sarah Jessica with the Cosmo because it was just really I was like, I don't think that's the job for me to discuss the Cosmopolitan and toast with it since I don't actually

drink it. And they were of course very understanding, and so I wrote my own speech, which I felt like I needed to do so that it could be you know what I want to say from my heart to her, because it's so rare. It's so rare that you get to stand up on a stage and talk about one of your friends, Cory. So my whole challenge the whole night was trying to get through without crying. And then I had gone to rehearse, and you know how they put those cards up with the pictures of the actors

and people that are going to be there. Who is directly in front of the microphone but Harrison Ford. So I was like, Okay, now I've met Harrison before. He's lovely, but he is still Harrison Ford. There is nothing that can change that, right, So I have to not be completely shut down by the fact that Harrison Ford is sitting there looking at me. So luckily Sara Jessica was at the other table right in front of me. So my goal, and I do think I was able to

do this, was to look at her. Obviously I've been in many work situations with her and you know, tune into her, talk to her. But also, you know, remember that I'm talking to the bigger audience about her. And I do feel like I did well. I did what I wanted to do, and I know this because she had to get a tissue out, which is very very rare, you guys, very very rare. But then I also had

a moment of panic. Am I actually going to be able to finish if she now has a tissue out and I can see her being moved and I am still having to talk. So that was challenging. But I did it. I did it, And part of the reason that I was able to do it is because so many friends were in the audience, basically all of HBO. Came Casey Bloyd, who I love so much, Carolyn Strauss, our original head of original programming at HBO when we made the show. Incredible to see STRAUSSI as we call her,

Amy Harris, one of our writers. You know, I could just go on and on, Kevin Huvain, who's been Sarah's agent for thirty years, who we love so so desperately, people who have been in her life in my life for such a long time and were such a pep squad to me at the table. So basically we go in luckily. So first I got there, Okay, first I couldn't decide what to wear. I'll take you through the whole thing because I haven't been on a red carpet in a while, and I also haven't been working in

a while, so I'm just in mommy mode. My nails are a mess, I don't have a fake tan, like so many things people, it's so much work I can't even tell you. So I've been in a bit of a low grade stress place because also it's just basically right after the holidays, right, so you're in holiday mode, and then all of a sudden you're in like red carpet mode, very challenging. I have a wonderful stylist, Samantha McMillan,

and she got me two gorgeous, gorgeous dresses. It was really hard to figure out what to wear because we couldn't exactly understand what the event was because they've never filmed it to make a TV special of it before, so that was odd, and I wasn't one hundred percent

sure what Sarah was going to wear. My goal is usually not necessarily to know exactly what she's wearing, but I don't want to clash with her, so I usually try to check in with her or Alyssa, who works with her, and just say like, hey, I've got a brown dress, I've got a black dress. Is there anything I should think about? They're always like, whatever you want. But I knew that she was going to wear something sparkly. I had a head to toe brown sequin dress that

I loved, loved very much. Then I had the dress I ended up wearing, which was very beautiful black, simple dress by Saint John with that kind of almost like a necklace halter top, so it was super easy to wear. Both of them were super easy to wear, and I couldn't decide till the very last minute. So I had my hair Marcus Francis, who I love so much, my makeup Heather Curry, who I love so much. They came over, Samantha came over, everybody conferred, and because I had already

gone to rehearse. I had filmed the room at the time, and the room was kind of gold and purple, beautiful flowers. They did a really beautiful job to me, much more beautiful than the room that we actually did the Golden Globes in which has like this semi hideous carpet unless they've changed it. But that room is really huge and overwhelming in terms of the number of people, but also just the number of famous faces. It's like fully overwhelming. This was a more intimate room, but still a lot

of famous faces. Still overwhelming, but in a more intimate way. So when we looked at the footage of the room, we decided to go with a black and I'm glad I did because I was more complimentary to Sir Jessica. I definitely felt that I was there to support Sir Jessica, you know, which is like you have to really navigate that. You know, you want to look good, but you don't want to be you know, I'm not getting an award, She's getting an award. I feel like that's important, So

I'm happy to be there in a support element. And I loved my Saint John dress, and they gave me a little jacket because I was really worried I was going to be freezing. And then I got some gorgeous earrings and you know, my hair was down, so I felt less less naked. But then I got to the red carpet a little bit early because there's construction all around the Beverly Hilton, and I was really worried I would be late, so I got there a little bit early.

Nobody was there yet. I saw these pictures of me in the red carpet and I look really mad, and I did not feel really mad. But I feel like being on a red carpet with a bunch of photographers is just never really that comfortable. You know. People sometimes are like, why is she making that face? Why is she posing like that? About me, but also about everybody else, because it's just very odd, you know, it's a very odd thing. So the first pictures I saw, I was like, oh, no,

I look really mad. But then Evan came and he brought his daughter, Sophia. He plays Harry For anyone who doesn't know, it was such a joy to see him. David Eigenberg came and brought his daughter, then Sarah Jessica and Matthew her husband, Matthew Broderick, who I love and know obviously very well, and their son James Wilkie, who I've been talking to since he was, you know, in the womb. They came, and then I felt super great, and then I looked fine for the rest of the

evening and not so mad, which was good. So they came. It was amazing, It was so much fun. I didn't know that everyone was going to bring their children. I'm sure my daughter is going to be mad that she wasn't there. And then all of our friends came, as I was saying, which was really great. So then we go into the room. A lot of fun, fun people came. Viola Davis came to give Helen Mihr and her award. Love Viola so so so much. Tessa Thompson came to

give Helen Mirren the award. I'd never met her, but she's incredible, and we chatted a lot. It was really really fun, so many great people. Ted Dance and Mary Steinberg and his wife, incredible Harrison Ford, as I already mentioned. Then I look across the room and I see my friend Walton Guggins, and I'm so excited. I've known Walton a long time because our kids went to school together. And you know, he's an incredible actor and he's been

acting forever. But of course he was on the White Lotus did an unbelievable job and blew up, as you guys all know. And I have been so excited, and we've been texting each other intermittently, you know, just watching him go on S and L. I mean, all of the things he's been doing. He's just been doing such a great job. And that really is who he is, Like, he's just an incredibly fascinating guy. He's always been hot

like that. I just don't think that people knew. I remember I had I had someone ask me before the show had come on, like, you know, is he hot? And I was like, yes, are you kidding? And I think now everyone knows that he is in fact hot. But there was this one thing that was always feeling a little worried for him because he's across the room, He's not sitting near us, and I just saw him surrounded by these women. There were a lot of women around him. They were all touching him. I know him,

and I know his wife Nadia. I love Naughty very much, and I was like, I need to go over there and help Bolton out of this situation. And there was this one woman who's just like, you're so hot, You're so hot. She just kept telling him over and I was like, okay, like back off, and she's like, and your wife too, and I was like okay. And of course Walton can handle himself. I'm sure he was fine, but there was a gaggle. There was a gaggle at

one point, and I felt worried for him. So I did go over and I get to have a really great chat with him, and I just, you know, of course, told him again how thrilled I am for him, and he's having a great time, which is nice. So that was really really nice. It's good to see people that you haven't seen in a while. That's kind of the best part of going to these big award shows is you just get to just see everybody and chat and

connect and it's fun. You know, it's very overwhelming, Like I did not sleep last night at all, Like you cannot calm down. And I remember back in the olden days when we went to these things a lot, I just didn't sleep. I mean we would go out, of course to the different HBO parties or whatever. It wasn't that type of night last night, thank god, because I don't know if I could have handled it. But like, it's just kind of like a sensory overload in a way, so I had to speak. I was very nervous. I

didn't know the run of show. They hadn't explained to me exactly the run of show, so I just knew

that I was in the first half hour. They fed us first, which was great, but I had a little trouble eating because I was so nervous, and I just didn't quite know what time when I would go right or even I knew that Coleman was giving the toast and then they would pass to me and I would have to get up and wind my way through this very crowded audience up to the stage, and I was just hoping I could get up there, which I did. So I was nervous. I couldn't relax, couldn't relax, couldn't relax.

Then the show starts and Matthew started the show. And Matthew rarely rarely talks intimately about Sara Juska, so I know that he was very nervous, and he did such a great job he got up, he opened the show, and then he got up again to actually present her with her award. And it was so great because he talked about so many details. He talked about what she was wearing when he met her, what he remembers about when he met her, which is just so incredible to

think about. He remembers when they got the script for the pilot of Sex and the City and what he thought, and so he told us what he thought, and then he told us what he said to her, which is interesting. I know she knew everything he was thinking that he thinks he didn't say, but it was really funny to hear.

And she, when she accepted her reward, told so many great just stories about her beginning love for performing, and there was a story that I didn't actually know all of which is so crazy because so if you don't know Sarah, Jessica has been acting since she was a child. I think roughly ten, I want to say, and when she was I want to say, twelve, twelve or thirteen,

she was in Annie on Broadway. And when I was young, I was in South Carolina, but I loved theater and I loved acting already, and my parents took me to see Annie on Broadway, and I saw Sarah Jessica play an orphan in Annie on Broadway when we were in our tweens, which is insane, but even crazier than that. After I got out of college, I went to college as an actor BFA in acting. I thought I would just do regional theater, and I was praying to God

I might get a Broadway show. One day, I went to Cincinnati, where Sarah was born and where she was raised in her young years, and I did a play Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, a beautiful theater up on a hill in Cincinnati. I did not know that Sarah Jessica's mother met Sarah Jessica's father at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and all of her siblings went to the rehearsals where their parents, not her biological father, but her father who raised her,

met and performed. And at one point the director said to the cast, those kids know this score of Once Upon a Mattress, which I'll get to in a second, better than you guys do, meaning the cast meaning Sarah and her brothers and sisters knew the score better. And was that director not right, and like press in what he was saying about those kids, Yes he was. Now. The other crazy connection is that Sarah Jessica was getting

the Carol Burnett Award. Carol Burnett originated the role in Once Upon a Mattress on Broadway, And when I met Sarah for Sex and the City, she was on Broadway playing the lead role in Once Upon a Mattress and I saw her. Is that not so many connections? Can you even believe that? And I didn't even know this story about her parents' meeting and doing a play Once Upon a Mattress at Cinctanti Playhouse in the Park. I mean, it's really insane. So anyway, it was a full circle

moment in so many ways, a full circle evening. It was insane. Sarah and I did discuss that she is too young to beginning a Lifetime Achievement award. It is weird, you know, like how did this happen? What is going on? But on the other hand, for me, I'm just thrilled that there are honoring her. I'm thrilled that they're you know, recognizing her contributions through her whole entire career. Like once they started playing the clips of all of her different performances.

I mean, it's just so much fun to watch La story if you guys haven't seen it, incredible Honeymoon in Vegas. I mean, she's done so much Family Stone, I'm sure you've seen. I mean, so so so many things where you're like, oh, And I mean, of course, then they showed they had a whole package of sex and the City, which of course is always fun to watch, as we all know because we're rewatching it. But it was a

really really fun evening, a really fun evening. And I mean, it's just such a rare, rare thing to have this kind of experience in life where we have gotten to do something that we love so much for so long, and that now we're being like recognized and I'm able to be there and help honor her. It boggles the mind. I'm just so lucky and I'm gonna crack. But anyway, it was good, good evening. Yeah I'm still not over it. Yeah it was a lot, but it was good. Anyway.

We're gonna show you guys the pictures. And it was happy. Don't let my tears fool you. It was all happy. But it really it means all right, that's it. Also, I got to talk a lot about heated rivalry. I find that the weirdest title I always want to say. At the Hockey Show, I got to talk to a lot of people about the Hockey Show yesterday. I got to talk about all our HBO peeps, and I just congratulated them on buying that show, because man, is it something. And I got to work on trying to get Connor

on the podcast. You guys, I'm just trying all the ways, all the ways, okay, so cross your fingers. I mean, look, any of them. I'd like to talk to any of them. But Connor seems to be living in lay in around and I know people who know him. So I'm working on it, guys. I'm working on it, okay. And if you haven't watched it, definitely watch he did Rivalry on HBO and get back to me about it. Okay, all right, thanks for listening to everybody. Pipe