The author of Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell, has revealed that she will receive no royalties from the recent deal with Netflix to air all six seasons of the hit HBO adaptation.
The series Sex and the City, which starred Sarah Jessica Parker as protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, alongside Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon as her group of best friends, ran from 1998 to 2004. Bushnell was only paid $100,000 for the screen rights to her book, which was adapted into a franchise that spawned two films and grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. On the other side of the coin, it’s reported that Parker earned roughly $50 million for the first three seasons.
As well as securing a new Netflix deal, the franchise is continuing with the third season of its prequel, …And Just Like That, which follows the lives of Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda. Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha, opted out of any reunion due to the well-publicised feud between her and Parker.
Regarding receiving no royalties from the new Netflix deal, Bushnell revealed all in a wide-reaching interview with The Times, which covered everything from her former friendship with Donald Trump to why older men are “randy”.
Busnhell explained that she’s displeased that the Netflix deal won’t “financially affect” her. “All of these men who are in charge of things, they just keep moving these cards around to make money because every time they move the cards around somebody’s skimming,” she continued. “The way men do business is a Ponzi scheme.”
The author added: “The percentage of women in the 1 per cent who made their own money is about 3.5 per cent, and that’s shocking.”
Elsewhere, Bushnell is taking her stage show and autobiography, True Tales of Success and Sex and the City on the road.
