'Sex And The Shiksa' Billboard Campaign Deemed Too Hot For Israeli Sensibilities

A mere ten days away from the big screen return of Carrie Bradshaw and her coven of archetypal besties, we think it's safe to say that the world is gripped by a severe case of Sex and the City fever. It's an epidemic from which virtually no crevice of the globe is immune, with everyone from Peruvian goat herders to Bangladeshi rug merchants clinking Cosmos and debating which of Carrie & Co. most closely aligns with their own personalities. ("I don't know, Paramjeet—you're more of a Miranda than a Charlotte if you ask me.") Yes, even Israelis can identify with the prickly-on-the-outside, sweet-and -desperately- lonely-on- the-inside nature of the series's protagonists—but try telling that to the ultra-Orthodox residents of Jerusalem, who have demanded its billboards be taken down for its offensive use the word "Sex." (To say nothing of its star's obscenely naked head, completely bereft of a round-challah-shaped wig with a doily bobby pinned to it.) The AP reports:

"We told them, the way you don't remove the word "Coca" from "Coca-Cola" and just leave "Cola," we can't do it in this case," [Arye Barak, the film's Israeli distributor] said. "It's ludicrous."