Pierce Brosnan was charged with two counts of trespassing at Yellowstone National Park, specifically for walking on thermal springs in a restricted area. And how was he found out? Thanks to a photo posted to @touronsofyellowstone, wherein Tourist + Moron = Touron. The Instagram page is run by a Wyoming resident who is continually dumbfounded by the behavior of visitors to the park. It’s a chronicle of people getting too close to the animals (usually to take selfies), walking on land instead of designated boardwalks, bringing household pets that are not permitted, and so on. So that’s how James Bond was snapped standing atop snow-covered thermal springs in Yellowstone, where he was most definitely not licensed to chill. Now he’s pleaded not guilty:
Brosnan pleads not guilty: Pierce Brosnan has pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges after he was cited for hiking off-trail in November around the Mammoth Terraces area of Yellowstone National Park. The “GoldenEye” actor, 70, was charged with violating travel restrictions near the thermal feature, according to the documents filed in the US District Court in Wyoming. Despite seemingly being pictured standing in the protected area at the time of the alleged violation, Brosnan entered a not-guilty plea, Cowboy State Daily reported citing documents filed on Jan. 4. The “Mamma Mia” star could face time in jail, a fine, or be banned from the area if he is found guilty.
Even though there’s a photo: The Irish actor was visiting the national park for pleasure rather than business as previously reported, the US Attorney’s Office for Wyoming has said. The alleged violations took place on Nov 1, 2023. Brosnan received two citations; one for walking into a restricted thermal area, and the other for wandering into Mammoth Terraces. A photo uploaded to “Tourons of Yellowstone” Instagram account, which exposes tourists who allegedly violate the park’s laws, appears to show the actor posing on the snow-encrusted springs. He is seen throwing up a peace sign in the image.
Precautions are there for a reason: The thermal areas of Yellowstone have “delicate, breakable crusts that can sit atop scalding water,” according to the park’s website. Park guests are to use specific boardwalks and trails to navigate around Yellowstone’s thermal areas. Other safety precautions include staying away from water in the hot springs as they can cause severe or fatal burns. At least five people have been injured in Yellowstone’s thermal areas in recent years, and at least 22 people have died from burns sustained from the park’s geysers, according to the park’s official website.
Generally speaking, the equation holds true that the greater the congregation, the greater the potential for stupid. I cite Tourons of Yellowstone as my evidence. One post that got to me was about “Limpy the Coyote.” Limpy earned his nickname thanks to being hit by a car, and he was heading out towards the cars because he knew tourons would give him food! The post acknowledges that some people believe the story to be a fiction, and claim that Limpy fakes his ailment when he has an audience. Whether it’s true or not, his head (if not his body) has still been utterly messed with by our species. And we all know the job of taunting coyotes belongs to road runners.
As for Pierce, I’ll say this for him: going with “not guilty” when they’ve got a photo of him at the site is a bold choice. It appears he’s neither shaken nor stirred about being caught. What’s the legal strategy? Why wouldn’t he just want to pay the fine and make it go away? Or maybe he plans to charm his way out of a conviction, a la Thomas Crowne. We’ll see when he has a virtual hearing on February 20, so stay tuned. Personally I’m hoping for a video of Mr. James Bond entering his plea as “Guilty. Not Guilty.”
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Getty Images for Netflix and via Instagram
Hopefully, he’ll get a nice juicy fine which can be applied to park needs and others can learn from his lesson.
That’s it right there. When people do stuff like this & get themselves into trouble, who has to get them out of trouble? The National Park Service. And that’s just the Search & Rescue people, that’s not counting the rehab work that may needed for the environmental degradation caused by ignoring signs. All of which costs $$.
Maybe NPS can call his “environmentalist” corresondent wife as a hostile witness. She can testify to the damage.
Yes, exactly. I always feel idiot people who wander up mountains without proper gear or skill, and then get the emergency services to attend and endanger themselves in doing so, should commit donations to what is often a voluntary service. Simply out of gratitude.
Why on earth would he plead not guilty?!!
Although rich/famous people get all kinds of VIP access, he must be pretty confident he has some kind of evidence of correspondence or a guide allowing him access?
Seems like a pretty stupid plea. Just admit you did wrong, pay the fine, move on and obey signage in National Parks going forwards?
I hope CB keeps covering the next steps because Pierce is either a completely entitled obnoxiously rich touron or there’s some real drama behind the scenes of his visit to the park that day??
From a legal standpoint, a plea of not guilty doesn’t equate to innocent. It just forces prosecutors to prove their case.
That said, it doesn’t sound like it should be hard to prove in this case…
Sure, but…this is a case of ignoring ‘don’t walk here’ signs. Guilty means paying a paltry fine. This isn’t him pleading guilty to hit & run or anything. It’s guilty to being stupid & arrogant. Pleading ‘not guilty’ just makes him look even more stupid & arrogant.
100% @beaniebean it’s like dude you forked up, and now you’re taking court resources to fight this? IDK the specifics of where he was and assume remediation is too dangerous but park staff often have to use more resources to repair damage by tourons. People have already wasted resources because you wanted a cool picture Pierce.
Shouldn’t he know better because his wife is/was an environmental reporter (not blaming her in any way for his behaviour but maybe he should have learned some things from her over the years)?
I don’t know…they had Robert Kraft (NE Patriots owner) ON VIDEO at a brothel/massage parlor and his very expensive attorney managed to get him off (no pun intended).
I know the pun wasn’t intended, DaveW, but you made me smile!
wow, this reeks of rich old white man privilege, Pierce. of course rules don’t apply to him /s
Gross.
@davew important difference being that Kraft’s was an actual criminal offense and that there was a giant media sh*tstorm about it. Pretty sure trespassing in the park is a fine. And pretty limited reputational damage if Pierce would have said whoops I screwed up sorry about that here’s the fine payment.
We spent 3 days in Yellowstone and the Stupid Humsn Tricks were as riveting as the glorious scenery and fascinating wildlife
I too have witnessed the tourons being tourons at our National Parks. I once saw a women in high heels pushing a baby carriage like 2 miles down a trail at Grand Canyon! Just chiming in here to say this was funny. Loved the James Bond references.
Oh, me, too! I’ve worked for National Parks & I’ve visited many, many more. In Theodore Roosevelt NP there are ‘please don’t stop’ and ‘please don’t get out of your cars’ signs along the road, along with ‘buffalo can run faster than you’, and what did I see as I drove through? People stopped along the road, people out of their cars, all trying to get better pictures of the buffalo. Sigh.
Or at the Grand Canyon, people completely ignoring the ‘do not go beyond this sign’ just to get that much closer to the rim to get a better picture. I swear, I saw somebody taking their dog past one of these signs for a picture & I thought, fine, you risk going over the edge but not your dog!
Brosnan was in a B disaster film in the late 90s called Dante’s Peak, which begins with some stupid teenagers dying because they were lounging in a thermal pool which suddenly started boiling ! It made quite an impression on me at the time. He really behaved like an idiot and I didn’t know how he can plead not guilty.
I live somewhere with access to seven different National Parks within a five hour driving radius. Touron antics are incredibly dangerous for wildlife and people. Giant “bear jams” of vehicles on twisty two lane highways, careless behaviour with garbage at campsites, and unbelievable risks taken for a single photograph.
It was a few decades ago but I still think about the tourist to Banff park who was gored by an elk during the rut. The dude was trying to get a photo with his two children each hanging off the elk’s rack of antlers. Truly astounding behaviour.
OMG! It’s one thing to put yourself at risk (and the people who have to rescue you), but your children???
That’s exactly what I always thought when I heard that story or thought about it @beaniebean. When I heard the story, which was a long time ago!, I only ever heard of the dad getting hurt but you can’t imagine how traumatic that would be for the children to witness. And I believe in the townsite where help and a hospital was close by.
We met a family a couple years ago where their guide on a cruise walking excursion in Alaska had been horrifically mauled by a grizzly. The wife had such terrible PTSD it was really, really sad to see how traumatized she was. And yet, somehow the family ended up on another wildlife tour (appeared to be husband’s choice?!). We couldn’t figure out why she was screaming about elephants when all of the rest of us were so excited to see an elephant. Took a couple of days to unpack that and understand what they had been through as a family.
@ Noo, that poor woman! And her husband sounds like a real @#$. Why would he make her go on another trip like that after what she experienced?
I grew up in a similar place. It is absolutely horrifying how tourists’ entitlement (IMO, thats what it is, less than stupidity) can endanger so many people, animals, and the land itself.
One time, my town was completely shut down, roads blocked both ways, for days. The town was begging tourists not to come ski for at least a week. But oh no, their ski vacation was more important than locals having enough food.
Not only is there a photo of him, but the restricted areas are very plainly marked. I fail to see how anyone could claim ignorance of the rules. My favorites are the tourons who approach buffalo, acting like they are Labs on steroids. You can’t fix stupid.
He could claim ignorance but ignorance is usually not a defense under the law!
Too bad, he has always seemed like a decent guy to me, but I guess he’s just another wealthy entitled d-bag, especially his posing like that in a clearly restricted area! He is lucky he didn’t fall through the crust and end up dead or horrifically burned. I live near a national park where there are bears and it’s quite common to see tourons jamming up traffic so they can get out of their cars and approach the bears, often with children in tow. You can shout to them, “that’s a cub, there is probably a mama nearby, get back in your car!” And the tourons will just look at you like you are speaking an unknown language and keep walking closer to the bear.
He can still be a decent guy and be a moron at a national park – the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
How so?
A “decent guy” would have respect for nature, natural resources, not feel the need to tromp all over a unique feature, possibly damaging it. A “decent guy” would have had respect for the people who work hard every day to preserve those resources and who are the ones who have to deal with the rescue / cleanup when tourons get into trouble by ignoring the Danger: don’t do this stupid thing signs. HE may not have cared about the possibility of falling in but if that mineral deposit collapsed and dropped him into liquid that was too hot, caustic for safe human contact (or whatever the particular danger was there) he apparently gave no thought to the NPS employees, rescue and other personnel who would wind up dealing with the aftermath.
Here here @northofboston time to stop making excuses for entitled rich white men. Where else have we heard the “decent man” defense? (still so disappointed in RBG for that!)
We came upon a baby grizzly bear while biking in the mountains. We immediately turned around. When we told people who were coming the other way, they said “Thanks for the tip!” We were like, “No, we’re warning you. It’s not a tip”. They ignored us and kept going.
First time I went to Yellowstone in the 80s, a guy tried to sit his kid on an elk for the photo op. Fortunately for him, the elk shot him a ‘you’re a moron’ look and walked away.
Having grown up in the Rockies (and being an animal fact nerd) I have a healthy respect for nature and what it can do to you.
The rules are there for the safety of people and to maintain the parks for everyone. If you have a chance watch the documentary on American Buffalo on PBS; and it talks about how it took a series of newspaper articles pointing out that the taxpayers & Americans own the national parks & that when poachers killed wildlife or destroyed the environment they were stealing from taxpayers, to get the fines and penalties. Prior to that people were even more destructive.
Yep. It’s not just a matter of putting yourself in danger, but you could be damaging a delicate ecosystem.
Buffalo out there doing Darwin’s work. I will never understand people who want to get up close and personal with wildlife.
I love visiting National Parks and climbing (in designated climbing areas) is so much fun but it’s not hard to respect the boundaries set.
There’s a photo of it happening. If I were him I’d plead guilty, say “I’m so sorry, it was a mistake but I am responsible for my actions”, pay the fine, and then make a nice donation to the National Parks on top of it.
Just cackling at the “shaken not stirred” pun. Top tier 👏🏻
Dude was in “Dante’s Peak”, he should know the dangers of thermal pools! 😳
I’m disappointed in Pierce for all of this.
He seems a pretty decent guy, he did some Save the Oceans foundation stuff, IIRC.
Why not just pay the fine? Maybe make a donation to help Parks and b3 done with it.
Also, follow the rules for everybody, signs.
I saw the Rangers taking a guy into custody who did not stop pestering the elk at Mammouth.
They gave him two warnings and then – they bundled him into their car and off they went.
I also saw a tiny little woman with a tiny little camera leaving her car to wander over to the rather not tiny buffalo. I did not wait to see what happened; maybe the beasts thought: “Not pretty enough”, which would have been her luck.
I have loved Pierce a long time, but this is disappointing. He was being stupid, arrogant, and entitled. I hope he gets fined heavily.
I saw limpy last time I was at Yellowstone. He absolutely has a leg injury, but he exaggerates it around tourists.
I remember visiting Yellowstone and reading a placard about a hot spring that no longer works because tourists threw things in it and clogged it up, and that was in the 20-30s. The National Park system is one of the few good ideas America came up with, and yet some people are too dumb to appreciate what we have.