The character “Big” — made famous by Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and the City” — is based on me. And I don’t think I need to tell you exactly what “big” refers to. Let’s just say … it ain’t my nose and it ain’t my biceps, although they’re not puny either. Now, I know what you’re thinking as you desperately try to get tickets for a showing of the movie — ANY showing! — this first weekend of its theatrical release. You’re thinking, “But Gov! Big is WHITE. And he’s a FINANCIER. WTF you talking ’bout?” And what I’m talking ’bout is this. Many years ago, long before she was a smash success, I had a fling with Candace Bushnell, the brains behind “SATC” and the woman who gave Carrie life. And when she hit it BIG, she called to tell me she’d be basing one of the characters on me. She said she just couldn’t get me out of her head. That no man she’d been with since had even come close. I didn’t mind at all, of course — I just hoped I wasn’t about to have another stalker on my hands. Then I saw the episode in which “Big” made his first appearance. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last time I checked, I was a handsome black man enjoying a nice glass of Courvoissier. Immediately I called Candace. She felt terrible — she’d so wanted to maintain the integrity of my identity and the experience she had with me. But even at HBO, bastion of liberalness, “they” hadn’t been comfortable depicting the love of a white main character’s life as a man who was, well, not white. So John Preston, aka Big, was born. You keep that in mind as you watch the girls sipping their Cosmos and shove Junior Mints into your face. I’m Big.
Tags: Candace Bushnell, Carrie Bradshaw, SATC, Sex and the City
