Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed late last week that Sex and the City is officially dead and that a long-rumoured third film is off.

“It’s not halted – it’s over,” Parker said on the red carpet at a New York City Ballet gala. “We’re not doing it.”

Instead of the comments drawing a curtain gracefully down on a beloved franchise, they sparked a she-said, she-said war of words between Parker and her co-star Kim Cattrall, who felt she was being blamed for the project’s failure to launch.

“I don’t know what her issue is,” said Cattrall of Parker. “I never have.”

Call it Manolos at 20 paces – and no huge surprise to Hollywood insiders.

As E! News put it: “The co-stars have spent more time denying rumours of any animosity than actually playing Carrie Bradshaw and Samantha Jones.”

A source told People: “It’s no secret that the women have had their issues over the years.

“They are all very talented. But I don’t think it’s ever been easy.”

Things kicked off this time when Parker admitted to Extra at the ballet that a “beautiful, funny, heartbreaking” script and story for Sex and the City 3 does exist.

But it won’t come to life because of real-life drama around the protracted cast negotiations.

“It’s not just disappointing that we don’t get to tell the story and have that experience, but more so for that audience that has been so vocal in wanting another movie,” said Parker.

The villain of the piece? Alleged holdout Cattrall, who claims her answer to studio approaches about the third movie “was always no, and a respectful, firm no”.

Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker in happier times. Photo: Getty

Parker, 52, didn’t explicitly name Cattrall, 61, but the British actress was still stung enough to be prodded into action.

On Friday, she posted on Twitter that she first told producers in 2016 she “didn’t want to do a third film”.

She also re-shared a tweet: “Person: *applauds SATC for showing empowered women, in control of their own lives* Same person: *insults @KimCattrall for not doing SATC3*” Added Cattrall, “Amen…”

Three days later, Cattrall used an appearance on UK TV show Life Stories to set the record straight.

“This is really where I take to task the people from Sex and the City and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker in that I think she could have been nicer,” she said.

She slammed claims by DailyMailTV that the proposed movie was shelved because of her “outrageous demands” to the studio to produce other movies she had in development.

“It’s quite extraordinary to get any kind of negative press about something that I’ve been saying for almost a year,” said Cattrall.

“I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects,” she added.

“To be thought of as some kind of diva is absolutely ridiculous.”

But a second insider told People: “Kim is trying to distract from what this is about – which is this: Kim killed the movie.”

Regular cast member Willie Garson (Carrie’s BFF Stanford Blatch) had his say, posting a now-deleted tweet: “And that, is that. And sadly, the reasons are true. Period.”