More stories from the naked city

"I think Sex And The City was an expression of something that people had been thinking but no one said," she begins, looking back on the show's six-year run. "We were just ahead of the curve. Women were right about to say it, and we just opened the door; we got to make fun of sex, and make sex fun. I also think the single woman was an audience that had no spokesperson. Everything was being made for the married women and the guys. There was no-one standing up for the choice, drama or pain of being single, so it was a perfect representation of a huge section of people."

Those people, she says, found in the four main characters four different facets of their own personalities. The show was drawn from the writings of Candace Bushnell, who in 1994 started a weekly column in the New York Observer, recounting her and her friends' sexual escapades. In 1997 she published a book of the same name and, one year later, the TV show first aired on HBO. It ran for six successful seasons, ending in 2004. Now, four years later, the girls are gathering together for one more outing in Sex And The City, the movie.

"I think the Sex And The City characters continue to prove popular because they are archetypal," continues the 43-year-old actress, "and this allows women to connect with one character or another at different times. The book was a little harder and a bit bleaker, but in the show we see the women all as facets of one person. There's a side that's very demonstrative and confident, like Samantha, and then there's the dreamy Charlotte side, and then the Miranda character, which is cerebral and pragmatic. So they all reflect something that women often wish they were."

Aspiration is of course a key ingredient in the recipe for the show's success; millions of female viewers aspire to the glamorous world of high fashion and sexual adventure inhabited by this coterie of female companions. Indeed, the show was developed on the back of a philosophy that directly connects with female audiences, Carrie's dual role as neurotic protagonist and narrative hub follows a tradition of American television comedy, from I Love Lucy through to Roseanne. The feisty columnist also evokes the leads in classic battle-of-the-sexes films such as Adam's Rib and Pillow Talk, offering viewers a comfortable familiarity in the way Carrie and co's problems play out.

Such was the show's popularity, the network TV channels battled for syndication rights the moment that it finished its run on HBO. In the US, the "cocoa time women" (a phrase coined by the show's creator and the director of the movie, Michael Patrick King) still lap up the bowdlerised reruns on cosy nights in, while the success of HBO's international marketing strategies - the channel's programming screens in 150 countries world-wide - and the sales of umpteen million DVDs, have ensured that Sex And The City has evolved into a global phenomenon.

The producers, keen to cash in on the fervour slated a film adaptation for 2004, just after the show's sixth season came to an end, but the project was put on hold when actress Kim Cattrall, who plays sexually liberated publicist Samantha Jones, discovered that her father had been diagnosed with dementia, prompting her to move back to her family home in Canada. In 2006, meanwhile, Cynthia Nixon, who stars as red-haired lawyer Miranda Hobbes, was diagnosed with breast cancer. When Cattrall then fell out with the production, arguing over demands for something approaching fiscal parity with Parker, the movie seemed dead in the water. Now that the wrangling has been resolved, rumour has it that Parker will earn $10 million for her performance, $5 million for being a producer, while Cattrall will collect $6 million.

"There is no problem between any of the girls," Parker says, "and now that things are all sorted out, it's been fortuitous. Had we done a movie on the heels of the show, and two years later had nostalgic feelings and wanted to pursue it again, it probably wouldn't have been right. Also, by waiting this long, the girls are now at different stages of their lives; we're older and everybody has different expectations. The story takes an unexpected turn. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I think it's the only road to have taken. To try and go back in time and to tell a story of good times and whimsy didn't feel appropriate. It has a stronger dramatic arc. Honestly, I believe we got to tell a better story this time round."

M Y first meeting with Parker comes at New York's Steiner Studios in late 2007 when she is filming a key scene from the forthcoming film. Tucked away in the depths of Brooklyn Naval Yard, the studio is today recreating New York Fashion Week and the inside of the cavernous studio complex has been fitted with catwalks and grandstands, while hundreds of extras, all clad in designer clobber, file in to fill the auditorium. The four girls are the last to arrive and, as they approach, Parker looks astonishing. Her slim form is enveloped by an extravagant, puffy white dress, which, to my sartorially ignorant eye, resembles a bunch of feathers scooped up in a net. From a distance, with her knee-length white pixie boots matching her outfit, she reminds me of a fledgling owl.

She settles into her seat, nestling into place next to Cattrall and Nixon and the girls chatter happily as the assistant director - "Bullhorn Betty", so called because of her deafening voice - bellows through her loudhailer, ordering the extras into place. As the music starts, all eyes focus on the catwalk as a procession of tall, willowy models parade the Autumn 2008 Vivienne Westwood collection to enthusiastic applause. Apparently, New York Fashion Week plays host to a major reunion in the film; at this point, Carrie has suffered what Parker describes as "a major loss" and her friends have gathered round. The fashion show marks her first return to the social circuit after a period of mourning.

"I love the fashion, it's a fantasy," coos Parker when she joins me at the end of the day. She has swapped her feathery frock for blue jeans and T-shirt and, while clearly tired from a long day - as a producer she must invest time in more than just the acting - her face lights up when I mention the downy outfit she was wearing for the scene. "I know," she laughs, "well, it is a very demonstrative way of dressing. I enjoy putting it on but I have to say that it's nothing you would do in real life, unless you're a real narcissist. My own style is not at all similar to Carrie's." She pauses for a moment. "For a start, I'm generally covered. And in no way do I consider myself a fashion icon. That's Carrie, not me."

In truth, ever since the show ended its run on HBO, Parker has sought to distance herself from her character, and she points to a career that stretches back to 1977, 21 years before Sex And The City was even born. At the age of 12, Parker secured a part in the Broadway production of Annie, before taking on the lead role two years later. In 1982 she was cast as the co-lead in children's sitcom Square Pegs, and while the show only lasted one season, her performance as the fiery Patty Green attracted attention in Hollywood, leading to parts in Footloose and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. By the early 1990s her career began to blossom and she followed a supporting role in Steve Martin's LA Story with a starring role opposite Nic Cage in Honeymoon In Vegas. She has twice worked with Tim Burton - alongside Johnny Depp in Ed Wood and with an all-star cast in Mars Attacks! - and has enjoyed a number of hits on-stage, winning glowing reviews for her performance in the off-Broadway play Sylvia and the Tony Award-nominated Once Upon A Mattress.

In the aftermath of Sex And The City, however, her cinema career seems to have stuttered. Her bid to find characters a long way removed from Carrie saw her star in critical misses The Family Stone and Failure To Launch - although the latter performed admirably at the box office, taking almost $130 million in worldwide ticket sales - while her most recent outing, Smart People, a kooky offbeat comedy with Dennis Quaid, opened this month to feeble reviews. Parker, nonetheless, remains defiant.

"Maybe I live in a delusional world, but I've done so much since the show ended that I haven't felt any negative association from being attached to the character," she states. "It hasn't struck that way. I don't think that opportunities have diminished, or that people have only thought of me in that way. The Family Stone was very different from Failure To Launch, which is very different from Sex And The City. I am proud of both of those films, and of Smart People too. Anyway, you shouldn't let how other people perceive you diminish what you want to do."

EVEN when seeking to monetise her status as a Carrie-inspired style icon, she has "positioned herself away from the high-end glitz and glamour more favoured by her character. She has lent her name to a range of mid-market fragrances, Lovely and Covet, while her fashion line, Bitten, is aimed at being "more affordable". Her foray into fashion and beauty advertising, meanwhile, saw her lend her hair to household name Garnier and her face to high-street chain Gap (she was then peremptorily dumped for Joss Stone). "And that is plenty," she smiles. "Along with being an actor, it's more than I can handle. I'm very satisfied. I don't need to dominate the world."

When I catch up again with Parker this spring, she actually looks as though she does want to dominate the world. Sporting a charcoal grey Halston jacket and Versace silk dress, she looks elegant yet businesslike, emanating the self-same assurance more normally associated with Carrie. "I know I said I don't dress like this normally, and I don't," she smiles. "I've just got a lot of Sex And The City stuff to do today." The majesty of being a cultural icon, it seems, is tempered somewhat by a very crowded schedule.

That majesty is also tempered by media sniping, and American men's magazine Maxim last year voted the actress "The Unsexiest Woman Alive". The publication might not rank on Parker's reading list - she prefers the New Yorker or New York Magazine - but the insult still hurt. "I can see the stress on your face while you're asking me," laughs Parker, "so picture mine when I found out.

"Anyway, who are the judges and what is the criteria there? Do I have big fake boobs, Botox, collagen and big lips? No. Do I fit the ideals and standards of some white men writing a men's magazine? Maybe not. Am I sorry that they made public proclamations in a way that was hurtful to all women? Yes. Am I really The Unsexiest Woman Alive'? Wow! Thankfully, somebody thinks I'm palatable, to some degree."

That somebody is her husband of 11 years, actor Matthew Broderick. The couple married in 1997 - Parker had previously endured a tempestuous relationship with a drug-addled Robert Downey Jr - after being introduced by one of Parker's brothers. The pair shared oddly similar lives when they were young. Both came from theatre families, with fathers who were actors, and both played iconic children's characters - Broderick was Ferris Bueller, Parker was Patty Green. They also share a mixed Jewish heritage and both are confirmed bibliophiles with a keen interest in Victorian literature. They named their five-year-old son James Wilkie after The Moonstone author Wilkie Collins.

Parker says that she feels "privileged" to be in the relationship; the US gossip sheets, meanwhile, suggest that the marriage is not as cosy as it seems. Parker herself unexpectedly fuelled the more scurrilous speculation when admitting recently that most of her husband's friends are gay. "I can't say that you should only marry for love; lots of marriages work for strange and wonderful reasons and my reasons can't be everyone else's," she offers. "Our marriage works and that's down to compromise. It's still a treat to be in a relationship if that's the person you want to be with. We have our arguments, of course, and there will be occasions when sometimes he probably won't want to be with me, but that's normal." The couple live in the heart of Manhattan, wanting their son to grow up "as normally as possible". Their home is literally just around the corner from where Carrie is said to live.

"It's funny, I walk by it every single day," Parker smiles, "so I guess that Carrie will always be with me." The pile of letters waiting on her manager's desk attests to the self-same fact.

Sex And The City goes on general release on Wednesday