• by Kelly Samardak , May 27, 2010

Sex And The City Party With Tremor Media, Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, New York
May 26, 2010

You know that nightmare where you get an invitation to a party -- and it's a theme party where everyone will be in costume, so you go to Forever 21 and cry in the dressing room because everything makes you look like an overweight eight year old? And then you nearly wrestle for the last polka-dot dress in your size at Filene's Basement and then agonize over shoes, and then 80% convince your friend to go in sexy pjs as her costume, only to find out that it looks like you're the only one that got THAT memo?  Yeah.  Want to talk about last night?

A week or so ago I got an invitation to attend the first screening party for "Sex and The City 2" from Tremor Media.  The invitation said to be your best "Mr. Big" or Carrie Bradshaw, with prized being awarded for the most fabulous costumes.  Now, if you know me in person I'm not necessarily a theme dresser and I like to use the fact that I'm covering the party, so I can't really be part of it like that, as my excuse.  I'm also a realist and the girls from SATC on the small screen were alright by me, but on the big screen they make me cranky with their self-centeredness and overall girlie idiocy (Miranda is usually the light exception).  I know, how annoying am I to take to the movies -- I struggle with suspending reality.  But, for whatever reason, maybe the delicious summer heat, I decided to work my best Charlotte York, the character furthest from my real self.

Approaching the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas with a line of perspiration snaking down my spine, Buddy Media's Jenean Chapman and I noticed that the crowd gathering inside wasn't costumed.   We deduced that they must be part of another party or movie.  It's always a bad sign when the people checking you in at a costume party aren't in costume.  My big floppy Charlotte hat matted my hair against my head with sweat from the nonexistent air conditioning, but I'm fairly certain it was anxiety that was heating my head the most, because NO ONE WAS DRESSED UP.

In line for a plastic cup of wine, I met three dudes who weren't in costume, but something tells me every day is a spinoff for them anyway.  They were Dwayne Milan, artist and entertainer most easily found on Facebook, Claudio Maddox (or just Maddox), also an entertainer -- most easily found on YouTube.com/cmaddoxbiitch (this is not a misspelling and I haven't prescreened, so nope, no idea what you're getting into), and Keo Nozari, a DJ and recording artist who also worked as an extra during the wedding scene in SATC2.  I also met Danielle Brannigan and Milly Bernard in line and no, I have no idea what they do career-wise.

While trying to hide inside my hat and thanking every deity imaginable for Jenean's last-minute decision NOT to go as fever-stricken Samantha (silk pjs, Fanta NyQuil smoothie), I saw a big, beautiful swath of green emerge from a side door.  It was none other than the fabulous, sharp-tongued, camptastic drag queen extraordinaire, Hedda Lettuce.  That voice, that hair.  Amazing.  Hedda stalked through the room on stems to beat the feet off of every other guest male or female, making guests divulge which character they embodied, zinging them with a smattering of "so you're an uptight bitch" and "so you're a dirty ho" at their revelations.

Upstairs in the pre-party area, more fancy boys with long legs and tiny booties could be found (and average-statured as well, but obviously not as noticeable) as well as cupcakes from The Cupcake Stop and bags of chips for your all that from PopChips.   Also upstairs? A conversation with myself.  The night was a little confusing.  I kept asking myself, "wait, is this a Tremor Party or a party that Tremor was also invited to?" because there were tons of non-industry people.  And did I mention no one else was in costume? Oh, OK, just making sure.

I met two architects.  After running into them, I made it my goal to meet two astronauts to round out the coolest job titles.  I spotted two sets of bangs texting against a wall.  These bangs belonged to restaurant-manager-for hire Katie Rooney and stage actress Rachel Cantor.  I also met Caroline Woods and Pamela Lin from Thomas Reuters and ran into a bunch of Tremor people like Montana Triplett, Elizabeth Wellington and some Ph.Ds like Nathan Brendal and Sarah Giannantonio.

Yes, yes, it was unfortunate that I was the only one besides the drag queens who was visibly in costume, but I find that unfortunate circumstances lead to the best stories (at least in my head).  Jenean actually won a raffle (see: random, not planned, not a media ploy) and squirreled away a sweet pair of high-heeled saddle shoes from Bass, I got to eat popcorn for dinner, I walked away confident in my floppy-hat purchase, AND Tremor rented out a private theatre so it was really the best-case movie watching scenario -- no screaming babies or obscene mouth noises.

Thank you, Tremor Media, for including me -- and thank you, Hedda Lettuce, for being born.

Photos are up on Flickr!