Here's The Thing - 7. Sarah Jessica Parker/Ian Schrager

HERE'S THE THING - 7. SARAH JESSICA PARKER/IAN SCHRAGER (320kbs-m4a/131mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 5th April 2021

Alec Baldwin explores the lives of the actress, Sarah Jessica Parker, and New York's Studio 54 nightclub founder, Ian Schrager.

Award-winning actor Alec Baldwin gives the listener unique entrée into the lives of artists, policy makers and performers. Alec sidesteps the predictable by taking listeners inside the dressing rooms, apartments, and offices.

After shooting the pilot for Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker told HBO she didn't want to go through with the project. But after the first day's taping, she says, she "didn't want to be anywhere else."

Ian Schrager is in the hospitality business. Hotels or nightclubs, uptown or downtown, Miami or Manhattan, Schrager defines luxury and leisure. In 1977, he co-founded Studio 54, which quickly became the epitome of the disco era.

Here's the Thing has its roots in public radio. In 2009, Alec joined with producers Lu Olkowski, Trey Kay, Kathie Russo, and Emily Botein to find fresh ways to engage in conversation on the radio. The group developed the idea of a new show that at its heart would look at what makes interesting people tick and create a platform for new and emerging ideas to be presented.

From WNYC Studios, New York. First heard in the USA in 2016.