Tom Colicchio: 'Sex And The City' Producers Cast Me In The Pilot

Tom Colicchio recently revealed that he came within a few proverbial inches of appearing in the pilot for HBO's "Sex in the City" way back in 1998.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the celebrity chef said that the producers of the show wanted to film a scene of that first episode in his New York restaurant, the Gramercy Tavern, in which he would have appeared in a cameo. At the time, the Gramercy Tavern was one of the best-regarded restaurants in the city, but Colicchio himself wasn't well known. His appearance on the show probably would have catapulted him to fame years before he ended up gaining wide public recognition as a judge on Bravo's "Top Chef."

Alas, it wasn't to be. As Colicchio explains:

It was shot in my restaurant when I had Gramercy Tavern, and they wanted me by the grill. Two things happened: I screwed up my leg, so I was on crutches, and we had a fire in the restaurant the night before, so we couldn’t light the grill.

Colicchio is already something of an icon in the gay community -- imagine how much of one he'd be if he hadn't screwed up his leg at such an inopportune time!

(h/t Grub Street)