I’m not sure if anyone else will be interested in this, but it amused me. Page Six has a story about Sarah Jessica Parker turning up for jury duty, just like Carrie did in that Sex & the City episode. But instead of spending her jury duty time reading or writing a column, the real SJP chose to complain loudly (according to eyewitnesses) about how she was simply too busy to do her civic duty. Just for the record – I’ve never been called up for jury duty (I think my foreign-sounding name must immediately disqualify me here in the sweaty armpit of the South), but if I was called up, I would have no problems complaining loudly and trying to get out of it too. What I’m finding amusing about this SJP story is that she used two different contradictory excuses for why she shouldn’t be on a jury (her kid was sick AND she had somewhere else to be on business), and SJP spoke to the NY Post directly to try to brighten up her image:

She had her excuses as ready as a pair of Manolos. Sarah Jessica Parker got called for jury duty yesterday, but didn’t appear eager to serve. The Post overheard the “Sex and the City” star griping to another prospective panelist about the better things she had to do than cool her heels in Manhattan federal court.

“My daughter is at home sick,” said the actress, who has three children with actor-hubby Matthew Broderick. Parker, 46, also noted that she had an “international flight” tomorrow and fretted aloud that the fraud case being tried might last more than two days.

She then flipped out at a reporter and photographer outside the courthouse during a break, screaming, “Leave me alone!”

As it turned out, the jury box got filled before Parker was summoned for questioning, and she was discharged after being sent back down to the central jury room. In a phone interview afterward with The Post’s Bruce Golding, Parker denied having travel plans tomorrow and insisted she had been “ready, willing and able to serve.”

She confirmed that one of her twin daughters was home with a fever, but said she had hired a sitter to take care of the tot while she took the subway to court, arriving early at 8:40 a.m. And while other panelists offered an array of flimsy reasons why they couldn’t do their duty, Parker said, “I never once raised my hand. I don’t shirk any of my civic responsibilities.

[From Page Six]

Is this blown out of proportion? Probably. I don’t think anyone would blame SJP for griping about jury duty to anyone who would listen, just because everyone there probably wanted to gripe about it, as is our right. But I think it’s funny that SJP had to give an interview about it afterwards and deny that she was complaining. Seriously, SJP, we can handle it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.