Maybe Dubai is onto something. Sarah Jessica Parker had hoped to give “Sex and the City 2” a different kind of cosmopolitan twist by setting the girlie gabfest in the Middle Eastern metropolis, but despite months of concerted effort the Arab emirate wasn’t, as they say, having it. –KA

The Atlantic:

According the films [sic] producers, they worked for half a year trying to gain shooting permits in Dubai but were denied because the film’s title had the word “sex” in it. One producer told ABC News, “Half the story was originally set around Dubai,” he said. “Ski Dubai was in, the Dubai Creek was in … it was all about Dubai. They wanted the girls to be in a rich, modern Arab city.”

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