Lex and the Pity too

Okay, so it’s not the greatest wordplay title ever and ‘lex’ isn’t even a real word – even if lexis was Greek for ‘word’. Although it does give me the opportunity to reference the excellent Mslexia magazine.

I watched Sex and the City 2 last night. I enjoyed the first film and the series had brilliant dialogue threading through it like veins of gold. But part deux…. Well, let me tell you a little story first.

Back in the day, I went to see the first Bridget Jones film – me, Anne, a friend of ours and a friend of hers over from Germany. At the risk of generalising, I’d say I was the only guy watching screen one and I was probably also the only one not laughing. The German woman sat one side of me leaned over and said, “I am watching this film and I see that other people are laughing, but you are not laughing and I am wondering why this is?” I took a deep breath and explained that I’d broken my nose when I was thirteen and in comparison that experience was funnier.

I’ve revised my opinion since then, I should add, both about the Bridget Jones films and breaking my nose. Believe me, there’s nothing funny about finding cartilage in your mouth unexpectedly.

Sex & the City 2, however, managed to offend me twice. And I’m pretty hard to offend.

The first offence was the way that Carrie Bradshaw was portrayed as a writer. Yes, of course I know it’s fiction and meant to be entertaining, but it still got my goat. There she is, her sing-song voice merrily tweeting away about some article she needs to write – fortunately she has an unused apartment she can stay in undisturbed for a couple of days to do her literary stuff, as all writers do.

Come on, I hear you whisper, it’s just a first offence – let it go.

Wait, I haven’t told you about the second, more heinous offence. She’s a writer, right? So when she pens an article entitled The Terrible Twos, you wouldn’t expect to see an apostrophe in among those three words at the top of the page? Rent the DVD and check it out though.

Yes, my friends, unlawful use of an apostrophe: bang to rights. That's got to be worth two years in solitary confinement - ample time to write Sex & the City 3.