Samantha’s AJLT Comeback Involved Another Sex & The City Cameo We Didn’t Expect
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OBVIOUSLY spoilers ahead for And Just Like That season two. After months of speculation, And Just Like That delivered its Samantha cameo. But if you watched the season two finale and haven’t watched the original series, you were left wondering who is Annabelle Bronstein and why that moment resonated so much with Sex and the City fans.
And Just Like That—whose full title is And Just Like That…A New Chapter in Sex and the City—is a reboot of HBO’s comedy series, Sex and the City, which ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2004. The show, which was based on Candace Bushnell’s 1997 book of the same title, followed four women in their 30s and 40s—Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis)—and their sex lives in New York City. The show went on to win four Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001) and release two movies, Sex and the City: The Movie in 2008 and Sex and the City 2 in 2010.
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In an interview with Piers Morgan in October 2017, Cattrall insisted she would never play Samantha again. “Not for me. That was part of turning 60. That was a very clear moment of, how many years do I have left and what do I want to do with it? What haven’t I done? I feel that the show was the best when it was the series and the bonus was the two movies,” she said. She explained that she rejected the offer for a third Sex and the City movie because she wanted to move on to a new “chapter” in her life. But fans were delighted to see her beloved character return in the season two finale of And Just Like That.
Who is Annabelle Bronstein?
Who is Annabelle Bronstein? Annabelle Bronstein is Samantha Jones’ fake British alter-ego and its origins date back to season 6, episode 10 of the original Sex and the City series.
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In the episode titled “Boy, Interrupted”, the New York City summer heat is driving Samantha crazy, but equally frustrating is her inability to be granted access to SoHo, an exclusive club that features a fabulous swimming pool, per HBO.
Upon entering the washroom, however, a staff member asks if Sam had left her membership card on the sink and “since they didn’t seem to know who she was at the SoHo house, she figured she could be Annabelle Bronstein,” Carrie narrates. “The next day, Samantha tested the waters with her fake ID.”
It goes swimmingly for a while, but then a SoHo employee blows the lid off the deception while the foursome is enjoying an afternoon by the pool. When Samantha insists that she is Annabelle Bronstein, the staff member replies: “Well, that’s impossible. Ms. Bronstein is in London for the week… and she’s British,” he says in response to her American accent, to which Samantha alters the way she speaks. “I venture to guess you are not in fact from the UK,” he says. “Well, that’s true. I was raised in Inja.” Carrie narrates: “On any given day, there are a lot of versions of crazy right here in New York. Today, Annabelle Bronstein had multiple personalities and at least two accents.”
Samantha’s absence in And Just Like That was explained by her living in London and having a fallout with Carrie over being her publicist. But in the season two finale of And Just Like That, Carrie prepares to bid farewell to her famous apartment that has been the site of so many relationships and significant life moments.
In an unexpected moment, Samantha calls Carrie from the car on her way to Heathrow airport—she was going to surprise her old friend by attending her Last Supper, but due to flight delays, she wouldn’t make it in time. Instead, she asks Carrie to put her on speaker so she can say: “Thank you for everything you f—king fabulous flat,” she declares. “Samantha, do you have a British accent?” Carrie observes. “Who’s Samantha? This is Annabelle Bronstein. I’m from Inja!” Samantha replies. “Ta and cheerio. And have a great night.” In a moment that wasn’t in the script, Samantha then kisses the phone after she hangs up.
The Daily Mail confirmed in November 2021 that Samantha wasn’t killed off in And Just Like That and had a fallout with Carrie. “We get into her absence very quickly,” a source told the newspaper at the time. “Viewers will learn that Samantha and Carrie have fallen out over Carrie firing Samantha as her publicist and that they no longer talk. This effectively ends their personal relationship. You’ll see as the series progresses over the 10 episodes that Carrie misses her friend and wants to repair the relationship. In the words of Oscar Wilde, life imitates art.”
The insider explained that And Just Like That decided to not kill off Samantha in case Cattrall wanted to return for the reboot for season 2. “We’ll announce eventually that the show will have a second season. This isn’t a one-off, this will be a series,” the insider said.
“It will be quite a while between the first and second series as Sarah Jessica Parker has a busy schedule and we have a lot of work to do to get Kim Cattrall back.” The source continued, “We all miss Kim and we hope she comes back for the second season—the door will never close on her, she is an important part of the franchise…On set, Kim has been missed by everyone. The cast and crew love her and hope she returns.”
Variety reported in May 2023 that Cattrall filmed one scene on March 22 in New York City without seeing or speaking to any of her co-stars or showrunner Michael Patrick King.
A source told The New York Post at the time that crew members on And Just Like That were “shocked” by Cattrall’s “hush-hush” cameo. “[We were] definitely shocked, very intrigued on how they’re gonna write this in—and very excited,” a source told The New York Post. “She said she’d never do it! She said she’d never come back.”
The insider reported that Cattrall’s “completely” secretive scene was filmed in a town car in a parking garage near Silvercup Studios in Queens, New York City, where interior scenes for And Just Like That are filmed. The source also told The New York Post that Cattrall arrived in an SUV with blacked-out windows to hide her from onlookers.
And Just Like That is available to stream on MAX. Here’s how to watch it for free.
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