Baryshnikov's balletic bafflement, from Newsday via the AP:

When he was invited to play a role on "Sex and the City," Mikhail Baryshnikov says he had two questions: "Which sex, and which city?" The legendary dancer told an audience at The New Yorker Festival that until then he'd never seen the HBO series, because he only watched news and golf on TV. So the producers sent him a few episodes to watch.

"I was kind of amused, and shocked," Baryshnikov said Saturday of the racy series, which ended early last year. "At first I was watching it with my children. Then I said 'Children, OUT!'"

Baryshnikov played a self-involved artist named Aleksandr, a love interest of Carrie Bradshaw, played by series star Sarah Jessica Parker.

Baryshnikov's latest project is the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a new home for various art forms that will open in November on Manhattan's West Side.