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Andrew McCarthy

McCarthy and Price on Jungle.Photo Courtesy NBC

This has been a big week so far: a huge Super Bowl surprise and today there will certainly be a lot of excitement, if not surprises, as much of the nation votes. Much of the day tomorrow will be spent examining and analyzing today’s results. But what happens Thursday, when the country comes down from its dizzying highs? What will keep us going? Lipstick Jungle, that’s what. In case you weren’t thinking of taking Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City 2.0 very seriously, actor Andrew McCarthy has taken to the keyboard to explain just what a weighty enterprise the new series is. McCarthy, who plays “Joe Bennett — the billionaire who has the world by the tail” (though, duh, you know him better as Blaine from Pretty in Pink and various other Brat Pack roles), has a new blog week-long diary on Slate.com. (Best moment: During the first reading, Candace Bushnell looks McCarthy over and says, “I wouldn’t fuck you in those shoes.”) Below, we’ve selected some of his words of wisdom about his difficult craft.

• “The vanities of film and television acting — and more specifically, my inability to let them go, to get past them — I continue to find very disquieting. But there is not an actor I know, male or female, who is not at the mirror’s mercy.”
• “When we shot the pilot, [Lipstick love interest and former 90210 star Lindsay Price] and I discovered that we had an easy, workable chemistry, which is something you have no idea of until you’re on the spot.”

• “After a brief introduction by Tim, the large cast, crammed close at tables cluttered with scripts and coffee, launches in. Perhaps it’s the relief of finally beginning after such a long and uncertain path, but there is a gathering momentum in the room as the pages turn.”
• “As an actor, you know when a character suits you well, and the truth is, no part has fit me this well since I did St. Elmo’s Fire 20 years ago. The ideal meeting of actor and role does not come along that often, and so when it does, you want to grab at it.”
• “The thing that most directors fail to realize is that during the time between ‘action’ and ‘cut,’ the actor is in a vulnerable state.”

Dude, this is a show where in the first episode a stud in his twenties writes his phone number on a protagonist’s inner thighs. Can’t we just talk about the sex scenes? Or, like, the shoes?

Making Lipstick Jungle [Slate]
Related: ‘Cashmere Mafia’ vs. ‘Lipstick Jungle’: The Official Obsessed Matchup

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