Medina Gossip #3509

Hot from the Marrakesh Medina.

Back in August, The View from Fez reported that the cast and crew of Sex and the City were going to film in Morocco. At the time, Katey Rich, writing for the website Cinema blend.com said, "There are some obvious explanations for what would bring the shoot to Morocco - Carrie and Big take a honeymoon there, or someone wants to adopt a kid and Morocco stands in for a war-torn African country. But while we're speculating, why not have some fun with it? Maybe someone mistakes Carrie for a legitimate journalist and sends her to cover something in a war zone. Morocco has stood in for the Middle East multiple times, like Body of Lies and Babel. Or maybe Miranda, in a fit of do-gooder-ism, goes to offer legal services to oppressed minorities or women, or Doctors Without Borders, for all I know. Or maybe Samantha moves her PR business to Dubai! Anything is possible!"

Well, while we can only speculate on the plot lines, we can report that the filming is taking place in Marrakesh. What is very pleasing to also report is that the cast and crew have taken local cultural sensitivities into account and have been dressing in a more restrained way than one might have expected! Our own fashion maven, Doris, says that while she found SJP's tee shirt a bit "naf", she particularly liked the white outfit and hat worn by Cynthia Nixon.

Sarah Jessica Parker (above) and Cynthia Nixon (below)

At this time there seems no possibility of seeing the crew in Fez, but we hear that as well as Marrakech, the SATC crew are expected to film in Erfoud and Rabat. We would love some pics from Erfoud.


Australians behaving badly?

Almost every responsible tourism organisation and guide book makes a point of stressing that while it is not necessary for women to cover their heads in Morocco, or for men to avoid wearing shorts (because they look to Moroccans like you just wandered out of the hammam), they do suggest "dressing modestly". As we saw in our previous story about Sex and the City, the cast and crew have indeed been dressing appropriately. It would appear that the same can not be said of a certain Australian on holiday in Agadir.

(Health warning: the following story comes from the UK tabloid, The Sun)

Aussie beauty Natalie Imbruglia was recently spotted wearing a skimpy orange swimsuit as she soaked up the sun while on a holiday in Morocco.

The singer-cum-model-cum-actress has left Britain for a week relaxing by the beach in Morocco.

Resting her stomach on the lounger, Natalie gave quite an eyeful of her assets to the world, reports The Sun.

And later, the ‘Neighbours’ star removed her bikini top for some more soaking up.

Oh dear. There are some photographs and out of respect to our readers we won't show them and we respectfully ask that our readers DO NOT supply any more photos! Doris, our fashion guru says that the bikini was a good fit and that our Natalie accessorised with a black Chanel handbag, Ray-Bans and some gold earrings. Very tasteful.

Hasna wins ‘Best Moroccan Artist’


Moroccan pop singer Hasna El Maghribia has accepted an award as the ‘best Moroccan artist’ in a ceremony presented by the Tunisian Cultural Ministry at a celebration sponsored by the Tunisian “Republic Newspaper.”

“There is nothing better for someone than to be awarded for the success she has accomplished, and I happy to be among the awarded stars,” said Hasna as she accepted the award.


Banzi blitzes World Music Awards



While we are in the world of music our final story comes from the 2009 Peoples Grammy Awards, where the Moroccan American Tarik Banzi,took home the award for the Best World Music Song of 2009.

The Oud player, composer and founder of the Al-Andalus Ensemble saw his music rise to the top of over 560,000 songs entered from 163 countries around the world in what is the world's largest Independent Music Awards.

The winning song, title track from the album "Alchemy" features Tarik's oud his wife, Julia Banzi, on guitar.