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Bar sues ''Sex and the City'' over drug allegations. New York nightspot wants to prevent the airing of an episode that portrays the club as a drug den

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Bar sues ''Sex and the City'' over drug allegations | 161845__sex_l

DRUG BUST Is ''Sex'' (costarring Cattrall) sullying a New York bar's rep?

All About

Sex and the City

By Gary Susman

This Sunday's episode of ''Sex and the City'' could be nipped in the bud. Lawyers for Down the Hatch, a bar in New York City's Greenwich Village, are fuming over the episode, in which one of the characters buys marijuana at the nightspot. The lawyers insist that Down the Hatch is not that kind of joint, and they've written a letter to HBO threatening to seek a temporary restraining order to keep the show from airing, the New York Post reports.

Producers did not film at Down the Hatch, a tiny room that's below sidewalk level, but at another downtown bar. Still, the script not only identifies the drug den as Down the Hatch but calls it ''smelly'' and ''a dump'' as well, according to New York's WABC-TV. Of course, it's not just being called ''smelly'' that's causing lawyer Arnold Weiss to raise a stink, but the notion that the bar is a drug den. ''This can cause enormous damage to the bar's reputation,'' Weiss told the Post. ''The police could start hounding us. The owners could suddenly have problems if they apply for future liquor licenses.''

While Weiss would like to see HBO either alter or yank the episode, the channel hasn't commented on his complaint. But one Down the Hatch bartender apparently believes the clientele is smart enough not to confuse ''Sex'' with reality. ''It's a TV show," bartender Jennifer Kay told the Post. "They're always doing outlandish things.''