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‘Sex And The City’ Author Takes Carrie On A Journey Of Teen Angst

Candace Bushnell explains what’s different, and essentially the same, in ‘The Carrie Diaries.’ By Sabrina Rojas Weiss Candace Bushnell Photo: MTV News “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell has made a pretty good career out of writing books about grown women with strong identities and complex lives. So why, for her sixth novel, would she decide to go back and tackle that confusing, angsty age of 17? And why do it with Carrie Bradshaw, a character many readers feel like they know better than their best friends? ” ‘The Carrie Diaries’ is the book I wish I had written when I was 17,” Bushnell told MTV News earlier this week, when the young adult novel hit shelves. “I’ve always wanted to tell the story of a young woman who comes to New York. It’s my story. I grew up in a pretty small town and I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was 8. And I came to NY when I was 19. I was very young and very determined. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to write about and I thought, ‘Who better to take on that journey than Carrie Bradshaw?’ ” To make the book feel right for a younger audience, Bushnell chose to write in the first person, present tense. Other than that, she said, “I actually didn’t make a lot of changes to my tone or style. “I really tried to capture emotionally what it’s like to be a teenager,” said the author, who described finding her own journal from her teen years. “Everything is so big [at that age]. You feel like you’re in a tree and all you can see is that one tree, you can’t see the whole forest.” And while “The Carrie Diaries” does bring back familiar elements of the funny, fashionable character Bushnell created her mid-’90s columns for the New York Observer, die-hard fans of the book, TV show and movies are going to notice a few big differences. For instance, in the new novel, Carrie’s mother died when she was young, and she lives with two spunky young sisters and an absent-minded rocket-scientist dad. In the original “SATC,” Carrie visits both parents for a weekend, and if she ever had sisters in the book or TV show, we’d surely have heard from them during one Big crisis or another, right? After vaguely answering that these changes just “feel right,” Bushnell explained how this new family shapes the strong woman we’re more familiar with. “She’s the leader of her little family,” she said. “That’s something that she carries forth in her relationships with her friends and in her future relationships with women. She comes from a very female-centric family, which seems right to me. This is not a girl who grew up saying, ‘I want to get married. Boys are this way and girls are another.’ ” So, while she sits down to write more about 1980 for “The Carrie Diaries 2,” what’s it like to sit back and watch the ladies’ 2010 adventures in “Sex and the City 2”? “Michael Patrick King does an absolutely fantastic job, so for me, honestly, it’s so much fun,” she said. “It’s amazing. I’m always, in a way, flattered by it.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Sex and the City 2.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com .

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‘Sex And The City’ Author Takes Carrie On A Journey Of Teen Angst

Drake Says Jay-Z Wasn’t Immediately Sold On ‘Over’

Jay likened the Thank Me Later single to a girl who isn’t the cutest but is still sexy. By Jayson Rodriguez Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images Drake’s breakout mixtape, So Far Gone, set the bar pretty high for his upcoming debut album, Thank Me Later. His first offering, “Over,” was intensely debated, but DJs co-signed the single almost immediately. One critic, however, wasn’t as quick to deliver praise. According to Drake, Jay-Z had to warm up to the record. “I got a funny e-mail today from Jay-Z about [‘Over’],” Drake said during a conference call for DJs . The Toronto lyricist said Jay offered an analogy to describe the way the track grew on him. He compared the song to “the girl you see at the club, she’s not the cutest,” Drake explained. “But then you speak to her and realize that she’s one of the sexiest women of all time.” Drake premiered his follow-up to “Over” early Thursday morning (April 29), the Kanye West-produced “Find Your Love.” He recently shot a video for the track in Jamaica, and images from the set have leaked online. Two other Thank Me Later tracks, “Fireworks” and “Shut It Down” (featuring The-Dream), have sprung up online. Drake also revealed during the call that he might have a bonus track on his debut album featuring Lupe Fiasco and upstart MC J. Cole. “I think that would be a special moment for hip-hop fans,” he said, before adding a joke. “For people that are disappointed when I drop songs like ‘Find Your Love,’ I think they would appreciate that. Hopefully they’re both willing.” Do you want to hear Drake’s collabo with Lupe and J. Cole? Let us know in the comments! Related Artists Drake Jay-Z

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Drake Says Jay-Z Wasn’t Immediately Sold On ‘Over’