Men who prefer an airbrushed woman to a real one are "common" according to Sarah Jessica Parker who tops Maxim's Unsexiest Woman list. The actress, who won the title at the end of last year, is finally biting back saying: "My impression is that what they find sexy doesn't make them interesting or unusual or special. "That makes them common."
Parker, 42, also says she is not offended by being told she is not sexy.
When she first found out she had won the title the Sex and the City actress thought: "My God - I'm the unsexiest woman in the world.
"My instinct was that it felt personal. It was really about: 'We don't like her'.
"Who were the judges and critics? I would like to ask them: 'What exactly is it that you personally find not sexy about me?'
" 'Is it my figure? Is it my brain that bothers you?'"
But Parker insists that she is not worried about the title. In fact the woman who dated heartthrobs John F Kennedy JR and Robert Downey JR, says she practically invites it saying: "That's the beauty of this country [America] - we can have different opinions and coexist and be amused by each other and hurt and offended."
Sarah Jessica Parker - or SJP as she is known among Sex and the City fans - is seen as a style icon among some women.
Before the role of Carrie Bradshaw and the success of the TV series, the actress says she wasn't cast as the pretty or sexy girls in films.
She tells US magazine Allure: "For so long, I didn't play the object of attention or affection. "It wasn't until LA Story [in which she played one of Steve Martin's love interests] that anyone cast me in a role that had my sexuality as a point of interest or focus or operation.
"I just wasn't examined in the same way that a 'pretty girl' would be."
Being wealthy was something else that Parker had to get used to because, as a child, poverty was the more familiar feeling. One of eight, she grew up in Cincinnati with her mother, stepfather and seven siblings.
Money was short and sometimes the family went without electricity or phones or celebrating birthdays. "We definitely were not a house of privilege," says the actress, who lives in New York with actor husband Matthew Broderick and their son, James Wilkie.
The 'style icon' was also not the head of the pack when it came to fashion. Parker says: "We didn't have most of the things that our peer groups had. "I won't pretend I didn't notice. But now I'm really grateful that that was my upbringing, and it's one of the things that makes me nervous about being the parent that I am."
Referring to her own child she says: "I feel like he's at a strange disadvantage being a child of privilege."
If being poor is an advantage or, at the very least, a worthy life lesson, Parker has used it well.
She recently launched Bitten, her budget-conscious clothing line. Every piece is under $20 and her motto is "fashion shouldn't be a luxury and quality shouldn't be a privilege."
Parker says: "You know, we all have to leave the house with clothes on. Some of us care a lot about it, and some of us dress because it's required by law.
"Just because people don't have money doesn't mean they don't desire the same thing. They should have it, and it should be good."
What her mother couldn't give her in terms of material things, she made up for by lavishing her with an appreciation of the arts.
Barbara Forste - Parker's mother - took all her children to see the opera, hear the symphony and enrolled them in ballet, music and theatre classes. "We weren't allowed to watch television, sadly," Parker says.
"We weren't allowed to listen to Top 40 radio. But we listened to Broadway musicals all the time."
In the late 1970s Sarah Jessica and her brother Toby landed roles in the Broadway play, The Innocents, after their mother took them to New York to audition. When she was 14, the actress won the lead of Annie in the musical of the same name.
Despite her early success, criticism about her looks was not uncommon in the industry. Parker says: "There were some not-terribly-veiled conversations."
The star was encouraged to change her appearance. She says: "Anything from as silly as plucking my eyebrows to getting my nose fixed. Nothing that stayed in my brain for very long."
It didn't seem to matter to Parker because she aimed to be an actor, not a glamour queen. She says: "I've always been an actor. That's my job. I can be anything you want me to be.
"I didn't think I was going to be a person who other people knew, whose name was recognisable.
"The most vulgar thing about my long-term plans is that my dream was to win a Tony award. I didn't know any of this existed. Thank God."
Sex and the City changed that and two Emmys and four Golden Globe awards later she is one of the most recognisable actresses of her generation.
A keen reader of the New York Times, Parker didn't appreciate how popular the TV series had become until 2000 when columnist Maureen Dowd first mentioned it in the world-renowned paper.
The actress says: "I thought: 'Wow, this show is getting under someone's skin.
"You just know that the show has left an impression, or it's creating one, or it's been provocative enough that people are having conversations."
Now in the middle of filming Sex and the City, the movie version, Parker looks back at one of her recent projects - romantic comedy Smart People co-starring Dennis Quaid.
Giving a glimpse into the mindset of her character, a doctor who has a crush on her former college professor, she says:
"My character has a kind of unpleasant darkness in that movie, a bleak outlook.
"It was different from anything anyone had asked me to do."
But whether she's playing Carrie Bradshaw or commenting on her role as the "unsexiest woman in the world', there's one person the actress likes being best - herself.
The married mum-of-one says: "I strangely feel better before I go through hair and makeup.
"Maybe that's just because I feel like me."
By Marissa Charles, Jan 15 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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