Did Sarah Jessica Parker unwittingly become fashion roadkill at the New York premiere of "Sex and the City: The Movie"? Turns out the strapless, liquid-metal-like Nina Ricci gown the sartorially fearless actress donned for the May 27 media extravaganza had been worn to another high-profile event just three weeks before.

We know, we know: Horrors!

Red carpet rerun: Lauren Santo Domingo on May 5 and Sarah Jessica Parker on May 27.

Parker explains to the New York Times that she was told the dress, designed by Olivier Theyskens, had yet to grace the red carpet and had only been photographed for magazine shoots (Lindsay Lohan posed in it for Harper's Bazaar).

But, the day after the premiere, she was less than thrilled to discover that socialite Lauren Santo Domingo had sported the frock to the Met's annual Costume Institute gala, which she attended on the arm of Theyskens.

"In the big picture, this is not important, but there is a relationship between the entertainment industry and fashion," the erstwhile Carrie Bradshaw conceded to the paper. "We've watched sales dwindle and we've watched people be less inclined to spend money on clothes."

As the paper points out, "wearing a dress on the red carpet is business ... The actress is lending her name and glamour to the dress, and the fashion company is reaping the publicity to sell other products."

To SJP, whose couture- and Manolo Blahnik-crammed "Sex" flick burned up the box office last weekend, what the design house did amounts to a haute couture hoodwinking.

"Look, my affection for the dress hasn't changed, but what they did was so short-sighted," says the star, who has her own successful, low-priced fashion line, Bitten. "It's just unethical and disappointing that they would allow the dress to be worn again."

Parker says that during the fitting, Theyskens personally assured her the gown had never been worn.

"He didn't say, 'Well, actually I just escorted Lauren down the red carpet at the Met,'" recalls Parker. "I just wish it had been handled differently and they had been straight about it."

Responds Mario Grauso, head of Nina Ricci's parent company, "I'm upset that she's upset."

Sarah Jessica isn't the first big name to get a hand-me-down gown. Reese Witherspoon accepted her Golden Globe for "Walk the Line" wearing what she thought was vintage Chanel.

In reality, it wasn't so much vintage as recycled: Kirsten Dunst had worn the same newish cocktail dress to the awards ceremony three years before.

Funnily enough, Nina Ricci soon became Reese's go-to designer on the red carpet.

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