City Slickers Make Room for Daddy

Next month, when David Eigenberg reappears on Sex and the City as Steve, the father of Miranda's unborn baby, don't be surprised — he'll be surprised enough for all of us. "I've been constantly amazed," he tells TV Guide Online, "that I've been brought in and out and back in again."

In fact, after Miranda first told Steve 'sayonara,' Eigenberg was so certain that he was history that he said his own farewells. "When I got down to my last episode, I went up to say goodbye to [boss] Darren Star, and he said, 'Well, you never know,' and I said, 'If I can be of service, great. If not, there's no sour grapes.'"

Now, Eigenberg finds himself all but umbilically tied to the series — and, specifically, to Cynthia Nixon, who plays his on-again/off-again lover. Luckily, the two don't get along like real-life exes. "We don't hang out off the set or anything, but our relationship is really easy," he says. "There's no crap that goes on with us."

Even when their characters have gotten horizontal, Eigenberg and Nixon have handled any problems that have, uh, come up. "My first sex scene was actually with Cynthia — it was the first scene we ever shot, too," he recalls. "I had never been half naked in bed with somebody, laying on top of them and grinding around. It was very sweet, but precarious."

For rules of conduct, the late-blooming leading man took a cue from an old pro. "Michael Caine once said that he apologizes to every actress that he works with in case something does happen and they're offended, and if nothing happens and they're offended," he concludes, "because, with a guy, you never know."