Carrie Bradshaw Runner-Up Comes Forward To Talk Sex And The City

There’s an alternate version of reality that’s very different from our own, and one that nearly happened. We’re talking earth-shattering, world-shaking events much larger than the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings in China and causing a tornado in Kansas.

We’re talking about, of course, when the role of Carrie Bradshaw was nearly played by a different actress than Sarah Jessica Parker.

Series creator Darren Star has been vocal about how he would have ended the Sex and the City differently. In his Amazon Kindle interview, he also said that there was another actress ready to go in case Parker decided the role wasn’t right for her.

Now that actress, Lisa Edelstein, has come forward and confirmed Star’s assertion.

"It wasn't a rumor," Edelstein told Access Hollywood. "That actually happened."

Edelstein said that she was ready to take on the role, but that Parker had the final say.

"My contract was complete," Edelstein told Access Hollywood. "I was waiting."

Everything worked out. Edelstein went on to star in House and The West Wing and is now the lead role in Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, the network’s first scripted series. And Parker, of course, made Carrie Bradshaw the iconic figure she is today.

But we can’t help but wonder what might have been different had Edelstein taken the Bradshaw role. Would she have been as approval-seeking as Parker? Would she have toughened Carrie up? We think her true persona would have dulled some of Carrie’s neuroses and made her a little more of a force to be reckoned with. But we’re not sure. One person that never quite got over the possible difference is Edelstein.

"Yeah, I didn't really watch [Sex and the City]," she told Access Hollywood. "It was too painful."