HUGH’S GOT A CRUSH!
ROMANCE RUMOURS RESURFACE AS HUGH JOINS SATC REBOOT
Before eternal bachelor Hugh Grant settled down with a wife and kids, there was a woman he always rued as “the one who got away” – his favourite co-star, Sarah Jessica Parker.
So it’s probably with a bittersweet tinge that he’s preparing to accept what we’re told is a seven-figure offer to join the cast of the eagerly awaited Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That.
According to sources close to the troubled production, which has already seen Kim Cattrall drop out and Chris Noth refuse to commit to the script, SJP wanted a “major, major” male lead to come on board. “In her mind, there’s no-one
funnier, more handsome or more perfect for a rom-com than her dear friend, Hugh Grant,” dishes a source. “She jokes that she owes the world to Nicole Kidman for dragging him out of retirement for The Undoing, so that she can now make her own move on him.”
Hugh, 62, is apparently “jumping at the chance” to join the latest instalment of the popular franchise, and friends believe his enthusiasm has everything to do with its leading lady.
“Hugh just loves Sarah Jessica,” reveals a source.
The pair have been close friends for decades and first worked together on the 1996 thriller, Extreme Measures. Rumour has it that they may have briefly dated, but neither star has ever confirmed a romance.
However, Hugh reportedly says that the best time he ever had on a movie set was when he and SJP escaped to New Mexico to film their second movie together, Did You Hear About The Morgans?, in 2009.
“They had their own in-jokes and secret language that drove the cast and crew slightly nuts,” tells the source. “You could tell he had developed real feelings for her, but she was very much off the market.”
At the time, SJP and her husband, Matthew Broderick, were in the process of welcoming their now 11-year-old twin daughters via a surrogate.
“Sarah Jessica and Matthew have had a fairly rocky marriage and often spend time apart,” says a source. “But she is a one-man woman and has never looked at anyone else beyond a little flirtation – which she certainly enjoyed with Hugh. But he’s a gentleman and never overstepped her boundaries.”
Now, with it looking increasingly likely that SJP, 56, and Hugh are reuniting on-screen, the insider says Matthew, 59, has made his feelings known.
“He knows Hugh is harmless, especially now he has a wife and kids of his own, but he did tell Sarah Jessica he’ll be keeping an eye on things,” says a source. “He and Sarah Jessica are in a really good place right now and he was joking, but there was probably a little underlying warning that Hugh should take seriously.”