After their marriage was recently rocked by rumors of infidelity, Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick took a getaway with their son James Wilkie. According to Fame, the family is vacationing in Ireland where they have a cottage. Supposedly the two don’t really have a “conventional” marriage, and some rumors make it sound more like they’re now friends that are raising their son together.
She’s had a hit summer movie (Sex and the City) and a brush with scandal, and Sarah Jessica Parker is leaving it all behind with a trip to Ireland.
The Carrie Bradshaw actress was spotted along with her 5-year-old son James Wilkie and husband Matthew Broderick on holiday at Muckros, County Donegal, Ireland where they own a cottage.
Parker looked to be having a marvelous time, sporting a blue scoopneck top and brown trousers as she frolicked in the beautiful Irish countryside, far away from the tabloid rumors of her husband’s affair.
Recently, Broderick’s rep refused to address the unfounded claims that he’d had an affair with a woman 21 years his junior, telling press, “There will be no comment.”
[From the Gossip Girls]
They’ve definitely stuck to that “no comment” rule. Which is driving me absolutely bonkers. But to their credit it seems to be working – when I googled the pair almost nothing new comes up since the affair rumor at the beginning of the month. It probably helps that they’ve gone overseas and away from the New York paparazzi, who were already following Parker with stalker-like zeal before the affair rumors. Here’s Sarah Jessica, James Wilkie and Matthew Broderick today in Ireland. Images thanks to Fame.
I’m amazed that he would go back to Ireland as a vacation spot. Didn’t he kill a couple of people there, driving on the wrong side of the road? If I were Irish, I wouldn’t be especially eager to welcome him.
Ireland doesn’t get much famous people so I don’t think we love seeing people like them come, and it was a long time ago
Mairead, is that what it looks like where you live?
I am sooooo jealous, it’s breathtaking.
Daisy, this is the north west coast and it IS stunning. I come from the west coast but the entire Atlantic stretch, north to south, is awesome and a lot of it is still relatively untouched. I’ll admit I’m biased but it really is!
Mairead-land! My mother is a duelie, Irish and American – I ended up dual English and American, strange but true. Anywy, she went there last year fopr a few months to a cooking school at a castle in the South West of Ireland I think it was, Ballymaloe or somrthing like that. She said the roads to drive through Ireland are some of the legendarily worst in the world, that car rental agencies don’t even give you the option to buy insurance ’cause the probability’s so high that you’re somehow gonna f**k the rental car up, anyway, driving those crazy roads.
But my first memories as a toddler come from Ireland, I lived with my mother in a tiny tiny village called Moneyreague, which is still tiny tiny to this day, I think, ’cause I can never locate Moneyreague on any map. Beautiful, beautiful Ireland…
Oh – and Geronimo, I didn’t know you were Irish as well! I mean IRISH Irish, living in Eire and all… I thought Mairead was the only one.
CandyKay, I think since it was back in 1987, they may have forgiven him for the accident by now:
On August 5, 1987, Broderick was in Northern Ireland, vacationing with his then-girlfriend, “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey, when tragedy occurred. As they drove in a rented BMW along a country road in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Broderick inexplicably veered into the opposite lane. He smashed head-on into the car driven by Anna Gallagher, 30, with her 63-year-old mom, Margaret Doherty, as a passenger.
The actor, who had not been drinking, spent four weeks in a Belfast hospital with a fractured leg and ribs, collapsed lung and concussion. Grey escaped with minor injuries. Both women in the other car were killed instantly.
Broderick told authorities he had no recollection of the crash and didn’t know why he was in the wrong lane. “I don’t remember the day. I don’t remember even getting up in the morning. I don’t remember making my bed. What I first remember is waking up in the hospital, with a very strange feeling going on in my leg,” he said at the time.
Broderick was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced up to five years behind bars. He was later convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined just $175 – which had the victims’ stunned family calling the case “a travesty of justice.”
Broderick has recently agreed to meet with the family of the mother and daughter in a dramatic bid to ease the longtime pain of both sides.
“She said the roads to drive through Ireland are some of the legendarily worst in the world, that car rental agencies don’t even give you the option to buy insurance ’cause the probability’s so high that you’re somehow gonna f**k the rental car up, anyway, driving those crazy roads.”
Not to mention that pesky driving on the “wrong” side of the road!
I’d love to see Ireland.
snowblood, living in London now but go home every couple of months. Miss the sea more than anything. Sigh….
So……….we have a place to stay when us Yankees come out there????
Wow, paparazzi in Ireland, there’s a first?
I wish people would stop thinking of Ireland as a crappy little island were people come to die we have a life to and it’s a beautiful country.
My fiance & I would LOVE to visit Ireland!
I think Sarah jessica & Matthew are just a regular old boring married couple. And more power to ’em!
Ireland is definitely a must go!
I totally recommend it!!!!!!!!!!
i’m going to ireland at the end of next week. any recommendations?
Arragh sure those two are often here – that’s not news at all. What IS news is that it looks like the sun is about to break through in those photos! 😯
Snowball – your mum went to the Ballymaloe school of cookery in east Cork, run by the legend that is. From what I can see Moneyreague is in West Cork – which is gorgeous. It’s probably a townland rather than a village which is why it’s difficult to find on a map.
http://www.archaeology.ie/smrmapviewer/mapviewer.aspx
This is a really handy website – you select the county you want and then the townland and it’ll show you aerial photos and maps. 😀
Syko – you HAVE to have insurance when you rent a car. They won’t give you the keys otherwise. 😉 And our roads have improved a good bit over the past decade. Still not wonderful, but better than the strips of lunar landscape we had in the 1980s 😆
You’re from the Wesht as well geronimo (for some reason I thought you were from Cork)? And I know what you mean about the sea – being landlocked is very unsettling 😮
I remember that car accident Matthew had back in 1987, and thought it was brushed under the carpet. It bothered me, that he never publicly talked about it. I know it was an accident, but he took the life of 2 innocent people.
I’ve always wondered, if he was on drugs or drinking. He was on the other side of the road, clearly he was totally at fault. By him not talking about, it just made it worse, IMO, at least, acknowledge it and say you’re sorry. But because he was famous, had money, it was all very neatly, taken care of.
Geronimo, I thought you were English, for some reason.
I got an MA at UCD, but that was in the early 90s, before the Celtic tiger. From what I hear, I wouldn’t recognize Dublin now. My favorite place of all (besides Bewley’s) was Glendalough. So peaceful and only a short ride out of town. Had some great times in West Cork and Kerry, too.
And speaking of the paparazzi in Ireland, when I was there, the big kerfuffle was over Julia Roberts running away from her engagement to Keifer Sutherland. (Yes, I am old.) Anyway, the gossip was that she was holed up at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin, but I never saw any paps there looking for her. 🙂
I doubt paps followed them to Donegal. I’d say mabye people just saw them and took photographs.
Mairead, thanks so much for that link. I’ve been fascinated with it, I’ve gotta send this link to my mother, she’ll love it too. Oh – but my name here’s Snowblood, you called me Snowball which is a super-cute nickname for sure, kind of like a kitten’s name, but Snowblood is an online monniker I picked for myself a couple years ago ’cause I loved the story of Lady Snowblood, the wronged young woman who takes terrible revenge upon the people who destroyed her family. It’s an old Japanese movie. Tarantino was inspired by Lady Snowblood to fashion the character Lucy Liu plays in his Kill Bill movies, she’s a modern Lady Snowblood in those films.
All of you visiting Ireland or having gotten to visit/live there are SO, SO LUCKY!! I wish I could afford a trip back to Ireland, country of my mother and my first memories. Someday…
@ Laura – you know, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if papparazzi foloowed these two to the wild Irish countryside, I mean the papz go to some great lenghts to try and get photos they can sell. Remember last month, the papparazzi in southern France? Those DO look like pap shots, made super-beautiful by the backdrop of the Irish landscape.
She can find some high quality oats and grass there.
😆 Dante! Too funny, leave it to you to come up with a perfect one-liner. 😆 Too much!
“You’re from the Wesht as well geronimo”
Oh yeah. 100% culchie here!
😆 glad we’ve clear that up – you’re being subjected to the most scurrilous remarks on your character otherwise
(unless of course there’s a Corkonian reading this, in which case Cork is the most wonderful place in the world and it would be the best thing to happen to geronimo to come from there; there is no need for you to spend hours and hours persuading me! 😯 )
Oh advice for those visiting soon – bring rain-gear;
Get out of Dublin – I love Dublin, but there’s more to Ireland.
remember it takes much longer to drive anywhere than you’d think;
if you’re visiting the Aran Islands off Galway or the Sceilligs off the coast of Kerry wear sunblock even if it’s cloudy as the reflected light can burn;
take the plane out the the Aran Islands – if there’s any wind at all it’s 7 minutes of hilarity.
If you’re planning on visiting a lot of National Monuments and visitor centres, it would be a good idea to get the OPW Heritage Card. It’s about €24, but you’ll save in the long run.
Visit Glendalough and the Vale of Avoca. There’s a lovely café in Woodford. Also try to visit Powerscourt Co. Wicklow – part of The Count of Monte Cristo was filmed there.
Heritage Week is on from the 24th – 31st August, so there’s likely to be free events going on no matter where you go.
Oh yes and the main thing…
bring lots and lots and lots of money 😉
I’ve been to Ireland a few times and I can assure you that the side roads are nuts. The main thing is that they have these very narrow roads that are bumpy, often wet, full of potholes and twisty in spots and lined with hedges that make oncoming traffic difficult to see. That much I could handle, but I couldn’t handle the fact that the speed limit on those types of roads was 100 km/hour in many spots – and people were doing the limit! Crazy!
thanks for the advice mairead!
i’m staying in dublin but definitely want to go out and see countryside, trees and sheep. planning on taking day trips for that. there’s not enough nature here in nyc. also the irish accent is my favorite in the world.
There are lots of accents here, you know. 😉
Wicklow is very accessible from Dublin – but try to avoid the N7 and especially the Red Cow Roundabout (known as the Mad Cow, natch) at anything approaching peak-time. There are some great museums and galleries in Dublin – there’s also a wonderful art collection in Russborough, Co. Wicklow (Goyas, Vermeers etc)… when they;re not being stolen 😆
Also a daytrip to Newgrange and Knowth in Co. Meath north of Dublin is a must. You drive to the beautiful village of Slane (where they hold these iconic concerts some years) and then head towards Drogheda to the Brú na Bóinne Centre. These huge Megalithic tombs pre-date Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
By train, you could visit Kilkenny or Waterford city. Kilkenny is an especially lovely city dominated by a castle with gorgeous grounds. It’s about 2 hours by train.
Or travel further and stay overnight in Galway or Mayo. Or drive to Mayo and Westport. Drive west past Westport to the most gorgeous scenery anywhere. If you’re there, drive a little further north to Newport and visit the huge ROman Catholic church there. It has some of the best examples of stained glass.
If you do drive to Mayo or Sligo, take a little detour to Corlea in Co. Longford where there’s an Iron Age timber road. There’s also Strokestown House in Roscommon The tickets are expensive, but the gardens are lovely.
Or head to Northern Ireland – again nice people, gorgeous scenery including the Giants Causeway. But apart from bringing lots of money – remember we drive on the “correct” side of the road 😛
mairead – thanks for all the fantastic advice!
unfortunately, i won’t have a car. but am currently trying to figure out alternate methods of transportation to the areas you mentioned.
i’m gonna stop by the library tomorrow morning before leaving for the airport – to get some joyce to read on the plane 😀
Oh you’re coming tomorrow?…. bring a boat. 😯
in response to laura 14th august:
i dont think paps followed them, but it wasnt just random people photographing them either. Id guess paps were employed by irish agencies and then the pictures were sold aborad.
This makes me miss home really badly. I’ll be going back next month though. 😀
mairead – just got back. your advice was great, though unfortunately, being without car, i couldn’t take most of it. however, co.wiklow was amazing – thanks for recommending it. i saw glendelough, avoca, greystones, bray. i also saw blarney castle, malahide castle, and howth. all very lovely. the people are incredibly nice and the grey clouds didn’t bother me much – it actually makes the scenery more particular and more beautiful.
Heh, people commenting on the roads in Ireland, funny. Can I just say; there is absolutely nothing wrong with the roads in Ireland, just the idiots who may drive on them!
If you want poor road build quality, check out Malaysia. Pot holes? No. Craters, yes!
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