'Blue Bloods' lets Bridget Moynahan keep loving New York

Bridget Moynahan feels lucky to keep doing shows in New York City -- where she has a home -- and it all started with someone named Mr. Big.

The model turned actress returns to weekly work as an assistant district attorney in a law-and-order family in "Blue Bloods," a new CBS series on Fridays this fall. She appreciates working with Tom Selleck and Donnie Wahlberg now, but she still shows lots of love to the Big Apple-based "Sex and the City," which provided one of her first notable acting roles as Natasha ... Mr. Big's wife pre-Carrie.

"I kind of got that and [the 2000 movie] 'Coyote Ugly' at the same time," Moynahan tells Zap2it. "The 'Sex and the City' job was supposed to be literally one episode. I think my line was, 'Hi! Nice to meet you!' Most of the time, I never even spoke in the series. I think the idea of Natasha was much bigger than the actual, physical being.

"For me, it became this gem of an opportunity," Moynahan adds. "It pushed me in a direction that, without it, I'm not sure certain doors would have been opened."

One of those doors led Moynahan into another series, ABC's short-lived "Six Degrees." Another took her into a co-starring role opposite Disney Channel favorite Selena Gomez in the feature film "Ramona and Beezus," opening Friday (July 23).

On "Blue Bloods," Moynahan plays a single parent, and she also is one in real life (her son's father is New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady). She admits she has to do some work to do on balancing career and motherhood, both on-camera and off.

"I remember wondering, on 'Six Degrees,' how [co-star] Hope Davis did it on a daily basis. We were working long hours, and she has two kids. You just make it work. The way I'm seeing the stories going, I'll probably have more time off on this. I think the ensemble nature of it will give everybody some breathing room. With 'Six Degrees,' it somehow all ended up in my [character's] office."

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