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I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but a friend of mine and I were talking about it and wondered,
"How much would Sarah Jessica Parker have had to make a year to live like that?"
-She lives in a decently sized apartment in a nice part of Manhattan: the most expensive part of the most expensive city in the US.
-She goes out to eat for at least one meal an episode at expensive looking restaurants.
-She buys expensive clothing frequently.
-Does not invest in any securities of any kind.
She lives like that on the salary of a journalist?
We all know that Sex and the City is a completely unrealistic view of what living in New York is like, but how unrealistic? Since we don't live in New York, we thought we would ask people who actually live in the city to give estimates.
Last edited by Chicago_Guy312; 05-28-2012 at 08:52 PM..
Reason: Grammer
Her lifestyle is completly ridiculous on her salary. A drink in most nice places are 12-15 a pop. Yea you can find specials at neighbor hood bars but not upscale lounges.
Her apartments probably cost excess of a million alone
Her lifestyle is completly ridiculous on her salary. A drink in most nice places are 12-15 a pop. Yea you can find specials at neighbor hood bars but not upscale lounges.
Her apartments probably cost excess of a million alone
She didn't pay for her apartments, she suckered men into doing it.
Carrie lived in a Rent Stabilized apartment. She was a well known columnist for a popular newspaper (in tv land) so she probably made a decent penny as opposed to a freelance journalist. Based on a bit of research, I'd assume her salary for that 90's era was roughly 35-40k. She was single/childfree, no car or car insurance payments. I think her salary may have accomodated her lavish lifestyle and outrageous shoe purchases. She also dated alot so many of those meals were paid for . I think the show depicted a realistic scenario. It was the 90s after all and don't think rent was so out of control. Later in the show she landed a job at Vogue magazine so the big bucks probably rolled in after that and she purchased a condo.
The show was not realistic and if Carrie was real she would have never been able to afford the clothes, shoes, purses, and lifestyle of Sex and the fake city on her salary. She wrote for small newspaper not the NYTIMES or WWD......... and back then they use to pay writers by the word about .50cents on the HIGH per a word not a lot of money for a small advise column that was published once a week.
UNLESS Carrie was secretly working as a Escort and that part is on the cutting floor .......... then she could have lived Fake Sex and the Fake City!
She lives like that on the salary of a journalist?
Some years ago, I ran across an article about some girl living in an award-winning loft in San Francisco. Near the end of the article, they casually mentioned that she had an entry-level job right out of college. I sat there staring at the page--she's making next to nothing, yet she bought a loft that's costing her thousands of dollars a month?
It turned out that Daddy was paying for everything. So maybe that's the answer to your question. Anyone can afford any lifestyle they choose...so long as someone else is footing the bill!
I am not an expert on the show, but what I have picked up from osmosis from women I know who watched it, and the perhaps 30 minutes (of the entire series) that I have seen, there's no way she could have afforded her shoes on $40k income, much less the rest of her life, as a freelanceer for a small paper. If she were supporting herself, i.e., not a kept woman for a wealthy benefactor, and not living off parents' money, she would have needed upwards of $300k (gross) to have that lifestyle. And, that salary figure is dependent as to whether or not she bought designer pret-a-porter or haute couture. Given that Patricia Field was the costumer, the clothes tended to be more high-end that were represented on the show, so that would make it less likely that the Carrie character could have afforded a outfits with four-and-five-digit price tags, plus bags, shoes, jewelry, etc. with a less than robust salary as her character was purported to earn.
I also believe that the apartment was supposed to be in the E70s, steps off of Madison, toward Park. The E70s between Park and Madison is not exactly inexpensive, even for a bizarre shoebox of an apartment, in which I do not believe the character lived. I recall an apartment that looked like a decent 1BR on the UES in the series, though I am not sure which character lived in which apartment. Was hers the one that seemed to be shades of white? She was not old enough to have a rent controlled apartment, and stabilization would also be unlikely because the apartment would easily have fetched over $2k when the show was filmed. I doubt she would have been able to pull off an illegal sublet, given the profile of her lifestyle, and if it was a smaller building, even more reason that someone running around in $3k outfits would be noticed. She also did not strike me as one who economized, so I hardly think she would have negotiated a lease, just signed and began to live her unrealistic lifestyle, unless she had a $5M+ trust fund that was in the pre-history of the show, and left out of production.
__________________
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
And for a guy, walking around in Manholo Blahniks is NO PICNIC.
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. I think the show depicted a realistic scenario. It was the 90s after all and don't think rent was so out of control. Later in the show she landed a job at Vogue magazine so the big bucks probably rolled in after that and she purchased a condo.
