Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking speaks with Sarah Jessica Parker. Audio / Newstalk ZB
Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking speaks to Sarah Jessica Parker about her busier than ever life and latest venture into New Zealand wine.
Most of us still think of her as Carrie Bradshaw: the quick witted, fabulously dressed, central character and last single gal of the beloved Sex andthe City series.
But from theatre to television to establishing a home in Ireland and taking up a partnership with New Zealand's Invivo wines, SJP, with a reported net worth of US $100 million, has perhaps never had so much on her plate.
It's a point to which Hosking asks, "Do you need to be this busy?"
Her response, "No I don't need to," is preceded by that famously coy giggle.
"I certainly like saying yes to opportunities that I might never have imagined ever happening. Especially when you're working with people who are so good at what they do, who have experience and are so well thought of. So, I don't need to be but it's wonderful to want to be [busy]."
When deciding to add another spinning plate to her act, Hosking asks what the "criteria" might be for SJP to sign onto a new venture.
"The idea of doing something new, that asks something different of me, that challenges me in new ways. But I think most importantly it has to be something that I'm genuinely enthusiastic about, interested in, and can authentically talk about it with consumers and customers... "
Following the success of Graham Norton's collaboration with New Zealand's Invivo wine, SJP is the latest celebrity to produce a sauvignon blanc with winemakers Rob Cameron and Tim Lightbourne. Her drop, "Invivo X", is about to hit stores and offers notes of "grapefruit, honey suckle flower, passionfruit and citrus zest."
Was she barefoot in the barrels squashing grapes? Not quite.
"I was invited to participate, but I wasn't able to come," she tells Hosking. Instead, samples from several sub-regions of Marlborough were harvested in April and whisked to New York where SJP worked with Cameron and Lightbourne to create her signature blend.
"I've been wonderfully involved, because that's how I prefer it. Then I can talk about the product in just a more genuine way," she says, adding that she's learned a lot from Cameron's vast knowledge and experience as a wine maker.
To which Hosking takes the opportunity to point out: "You realise sauvignon blanc is what made our New Zealand wine industry famous and it's gone to the world and it's been a fantastically successful story. And Marlborough sauvignon blanc - as you would well understand now - nothing tastes like Marlborough sauvignon blanc."
SJP tells Hosking she "could not agree with you more".
"To say that our grapes are from the Marlborough region, that this is a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, this is the crème de la crème ... I'm well aware of that. That makes this endeavour sweeter and more meaningful to me ... it's a total fricken thrill".
