This week's cover: Inside 'Sex and the City 2'

You’ve seen the trailers, but what’s really going on in Sex and the City 2 (in theaters May 27)? The splashy sequel to 2008’s worldwide blockbuster picks up two years after Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) finally tied the knot in a low-key city-hall ceremony, and finds the gals dealing with their share of grown-up concerns: Carrie is settling into marriage, Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is struggling with motherhood, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has a boss from hell, and Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is fighting menopause. So when a wealthy potential client of Samantha’s offers to whisk them off on an all-expenses paid, five-star vacation in exotic Abu Dhabi, the gals pack their designer bags and hit the jet-setting road. Parker and her costars all rave about shooting in Morocco (which doubles for Abu Dhabi) — as does John Corbett, the only male cast member to shoot in North Africa. Corbett reprised his role as Carrie’s tenderhearted ex-fiancé Aidan, and needless to say, the other actors were envious that only he got to make the trip abroad. Playing up their on-screen rivalry, Nothand Corbetthad plenty to say about the matter:

“I had [the series finale in] Paris, but I was still really f—ing pissed! Corbett gets to go? I said, ‘If there’s another one, Carrie and Big are going on a worldwide f—ing tour because we need to spruce things up before her first baby or something.’ I don’t know. I’m making it up.” — Chris Noth

“I love it, because I was ultra-jealous of those guys when they got to be in the first movie. I called Noth on his birthday while I was there. I passed the phone around. I couldn’t wait to rub it in, ­because he was really bummed out that he couldn’t come. I like creating jealousy.” — John Corbett

For more on Sex and the City 2, including an oral history and writer-director Michael Patrick King’s stab at a sci-fi sequel, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, May 14.