NEW YORK ? Sarah Jessica Parker certainly didn?t allow herself to be upstaged by her ?Sex and the City 2? co-stars one recent afternoon.

The last to be interviewed among the cast, Sarah made quite an entrance in a provocative black dress, turning around to show her back which was sheathed in see-through lace. The actress? pink bra stood out under the lace while her color-block shoes seemed like an architectural feat.

She gladly rattled off the talents behind this scene-stealing look: ?I?m wearing an old, archived Christian Lacroix dress. The shoes are by a new designer in the UK whom I love, Nicholas Kirkwood. The bra, by Deborah Marquit, is an equally important part of the piece.?

In the second movie outing of the four Manhattan women, writer-director Michael Patrick King sends them off to vacation in Abu Dhabi where plot devices prompt displays of fashion, of course, and musings about career, marriage and, surprise, even a brief side story about overseas workers in the Middle East.

Asian subplot

This subplot involves an Asian butler of Sarah?s character Carrie Bradshaw in the opulent hotel where the gang of trendy ladies is staying. We told Sarah that it was nice of the film to touch, however briefly, on the presence of overseas workers in places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and about how many of them, including OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers), are separated from their families for long periods.

?When Michael went to Dubai for research, he met butlers who shared their stories with him,? Sarah explained how the subplot about overseas workers came about. ?Michael was really moved. I?ve always been interested in people elsewhere. We live in such a rarefied world. If you go farther out, people are working really hard. The rewards are tiny. But these people nonetheless have fulfilling lives that are important to their community. I love that we get to make that observation. In fact, there was more of it in the script that we didn?t even get to shoot because we couldn?t afford to keep telling that particular story.?

SJP to her fans, Sarah added: ?When I first read the script, there was this beautiful, cinematic scene that I fell in love with and which was very hard to let go. It was just an image of when Carrie and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) first go to the souk. Michael wrote this beautiful scene inspired by his research in Dubai. No words are said as Carrie stands on a boat, seeing all these working people and a lot of older people who are still working. It really affects her as she travels from the new to the old section of Abu Dhabi, from her past to the future ? in the opposite direction. I?m glad that you could see a little bit of it. I wish we could have shown you more. We simply weren?t able to, but I love that part of the story.?

This is not a documentary about the OFWs, of course. ?Sex and the City 2? uses Abu Dhabi (actually Morocco) as a backdrop for the ladies to strut in high fashion even in the desert heat, to the beat of a soundtrack that features songs by artists from Erykah Badu, Leona Lewis, Jennifer Hudson to Cyndi Lauper.

?It?s just an embarrassment of riches,? Sarah, who is also the film?s producer, said of the clothes [some are precious vintage items] that were lent by fashion houses. ?We?ve been so fortunate that people have been so generous with the loan of clothes and accessories. I?ve been likening it to a library. It?s an honor system. If we are so privileged to borrow a dress, it?s incumbent for us to return it in the fashion in which we got it. If we return a dress, we get to borrow more.?

Sentimental favorites

Of the ensembles that she gets to wear, Sarah enthused: ?There are things in this movie that are now my sentimental favorites, especially the outfit that I wear when I run into Aidan (John Corbett) in the souk. I love that because it?s (costume designer) Patricia Field at her finest. The ensemble is so archetypically Carrie ? old and new, vintage and important couture pieces. There?s the big purple skirt ? it?s the underpinnings of a Zac Posen dress that was hanging. We saw it and I thought, let me put that on for a second. It?s really acting as a crinoline and I love that we were trying to be observant of the culture and cover our shoulders. I love the way it came together. Those Manolos that the wonderful actor in Morocco examines with such curiosity were made for the movie.?

Sarah disclosed that ?there are occasions when a designer said, ?You keep it.? So the dress goes in an archive that I?ve been working on. I?m proud of this archive which is like a storage area. It?s beneath sea level.?

The star claimed that she has a small wardrobe space in the New York brownstone she shares with her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, son James Wilkie and twin daughters Loretta and Tabitha. She said, ?I have a very small closet because space is a premium in New York. I don?t keep anything that?s pretty important in there. In my closet, I have a lot of the past, anything that?s sentimentally meaningful to me. I have a lot of clothes that are good for being a mother. I have a lot of jeans, corduroys and sweaters that children can spit up on. I have T-shirts that I can wipe a nose with ? things like that.?

Asked to describe her home, Sarah answered: ?Our house has the colors of fall. We?ve had the same furniture for years, brought from house to house. The house has a lot of art. A lot of photographs.? Referring with a smile to an issue in the movie involving Carrie, Mr. Big (Chris Noth) and a flat screen TV, Sarah added, ?We do have a television in the bedroom. It was a debate but thanks to ?House Hunters International? (her favorite show now), I no longer complained. We have a lot of books. We have a lot of candy in little white buckets on almost every floor. They?re for James and me. I figured something out, though. If you don?t deprive a child of candy, he is not that interested.?

Parent first

?I love the fact that I got to be a mother,? the 45-year-old fashion icon said. ?It was something I always wanted to do and be. I?m one of eight children. I love the environment of a crowded, chaotic house. I thought it was really important that my son has siblings. I thought he was a child of privilege and he should learn to share and have a larger community than his own.?

?I?m a parent first and a wife second,? she stressed. ?Frankly, that?s the way I look at my role now in life. I get to be a working person because a career is still important to me. It makes me a better mother. I like to go out in the world and have experiences. I?ve already enjoyed sharing them with my son. He has traveled to places and met interesting, extraordinary people. He?s met people from all walks of life and colors, shapes, sizes and ages. He?s seen cultures that are so different from his own and that?s a byproduct of the work that I get to do.?

Sarah said that her daughters would also have an opportunity to see women and young children all over the globe. ?As the world gets smaller, it?s important that I do that as a parent and I do the best I can. Are there days that I fall short? Absolutely, as any woman who works out of the house will tell you the same thing.?

On the challenges of having twins, who were born to a surrogate, Sarah said: ?If you?re holding one, you?re immediately feeling lousy about the fact that you?re not holding the other one. The minute you hold one, the other crawls right up on you and finds a way to get the other one out of your arms. They?re very clever. The biggest challenge really is to not compare them, like ?Tabitha is standing. Why isn?t Loretta standing?? They are individuals.?

Sarah recounted: ?The other night I was home alone with them. They both started sobbing hysterically. My husband was out. I woke James Wilkie up and he helped me. Then Matthew came in like a white knight. They immediately quieted down. They were no longer inconsolable when they saw their father walk in the door.?

She described the girls: ?Physically, they are as different as they could be. They do not even look related. Temperamentally, they?re also completely different. They don?t in any way act like blood relatives. It?s hilarious but I?m so grateful for that. I think it?s going to be good for them to be so different.?

Like James, the girls will have to cope with the paparazzi camping out in front of their house when they start going to school. ?Strangely, it has gotten worse,? Sarah said of the paparazzi. ?There?s far more outside the house every morning. They follow us to school. Some are somewhat civilized.?

She feels the intrusion when she?s with her kids. ?What?s more upsetting than their presence is the hostility that you feel and the provocative things they say in front of your children to hope for some response, whether it?s physical or verbal reaction from you,? she said. ?There?s the ever-present video camera now, the flip cameras that are desperate to get a nasty word out of you. It?s a really antagonistic relationship.?

About her son, Sarah said: ?He?s pretty level-headed about it. On a few occasions I?ve lost my temper or said something like, ?What must your mother think of you?? Those hard-hitting things (laughing). My son counsels me that it doesn?t make a bit of difference so why do I even bother. He?s pretty wise about it. I?m sure he wishes it weren?t happening. As an actor, you?re supposed to be able to have an opportunity to sit and observe the world. I love grocery shopping. I love the subway. I love walking my son to school but it [paparazzi presence] just changes the whole experience and it doesn?t give you a real way of living.?

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com.