Big Night For "Sex And The City"

(CBS)  New York may be one of the stars of "Sex and the City," but the movie premiered across the ocean in London on Monday night. The movie opens in the U.S. May 30.

The four lead actresses lit up London's Leicester Square for the world premiere of the cinematic sequel to their New York TV adventures, delighting fans with the glamorous - and sometimes quirky - outfits that helped make the show an international hit.

Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays columnist Carrie Bradshaw, stole the show. CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that Parker looked radiant and was as thrilled with her fans as they were with her - and with her heels and soaring Philip Treacy hat.

"I think we all thought about what we were going to wear," Parker said, "and I was very excited about wearing a British designer."

Parker's hat, bearing flowers, grasses and a butterfly, was complemented by a pale green dress by Alexander McQueen - an outfit Carrie would have loved.

She was joined by co-stars Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, known on screen as Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte respectively. Catrall's short red dress was by another British designer, red Vivienne Westwood, who reportedly designed the bridal gown that Parker wears in the movie.

Nixon was in a low-cut floor length black pleated Calvin Klein gown. Davis wore a more modest vintage fuschia dress.

The stars, who were thirtysomethings when the HBO series started
In 1998, are now in their 40s and 50s. The characters in the New Line Cinema movie also have moved on with stubbornly single Carrie at least apparently headed for the altar.

The TV show was a runaway hit, following the four glamorous New York women who were preoccupied with style, success - and sex. The series has been off the air for four years, but Catrall says getting back together for the movie seemed perfectly natural.

"It was like falling off of a log," she said. "It was like being in a swing. It was so easy and so effortless, so fun."

At the premiere, the four were eager to gloss over the reported problems that delayed the film's production - and chat instead of the boost the series has given their careers.

"Professionally it's been the best 10 years of my life. I wouldn't have wanted to have done it any differently with any different women or any different men," Parker said. "So it's been glorious."

There had been some controversy over the decision to hold the premiere in London rather than New York, the city showcased so beautifully in the series. But Nixon said Monday's premiere was just a build up to the main event in New York.

"We're having a kind of smallish premiere here (and) we're having a smallish premiere in Berlin. We're building to the New York premiere which is enormous and happens just before the film opens worldwide," she said.

The New York premiere is May 27.