Maggie Gyllenhaal Talks Brooklyn

Is there anything more fascinating than observing celebrities taking on domestic life in Brooklyn? There is, but here we are again. NYMag has a profile on Maggie Gyllenhaal's life in the borough, which they got to witness first hand on a recent visit to her Park Slope brownstone that she shares with hubby Peter Sarsgaard and their 3-year-old, Ramona.

Gyllenhaal points out that the grass isn't always greener, however, noting, “I had no idea what I was taking on: a brownstone that hadn’t been touched since the seventies. We made huge mistakes. At first, when we got bids on work, we said, ‘Of course we’ll take the cheapest bid.’ Which I would not do anymore at all.” (Norah Jones, are you listening?)

Add a child to the mix, and forget about it! The actress says "life becomes impossible if you’re not organized. Like, to take the subway with a huge diaper bag full of all sorts of shit is awful.” For housekeeping tips, she says she's currently reading Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House... though apparently she hasn't gotten to the part about how buying a coffee maker can help save money and face at the local coffee shop. The couple recently called up Gorilla to order 20 to-go cups of coffee, but she says they were "a little tough. I mean, we go there every day. And they were like, ‘Uh, I don’t think so.’"

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on December 28, 2009 5:55 PM

Comments [rss]

sluggo

Gorilla refused to make 20 cups of coffee for her party? Screw them! What the heck are they there for, to judge customers? There's a limit on how much brewed coffee you can buy? I'll never go there again, dumb twats.

jgray

YEAH, maggie had no idea what she was taking on like the fact that there are black ppl in BK...everytime I see that chick she looks at me like Im about to pick her pocket (and i'ma friggin girl)...please stay on your side of flatbush.. please, I and many others, CANNOT STAND YOU- better yet leave my boro...

Think2wice

Coffee Maker?...Coffee...Maker...?

sexisicilian

Who orders 20 cups of coffee? They bought a fucking brownstone but can't buy a coffee machine? Who gives a flying fuck about these two? I live in Brooklyn also you can write about me & my commute on the subway, like when I shop too much can't carry all my bags home ...

Earthdog

Who's Maggie Gyllenhaal and why should we give a fuck?

wingedearth

She's the sister of that gay cowboy from that movie.

iamdmg

Its weird that MrManhattan finds the fact that they had a kid to be the worst part of that story.

silly "breeders"...Don't you know all NYer's come from other places and are not born here! I am pretty sure I was fashioned from clay back during the 1800's in the 5 Corners. Ahhhh...life was tough there but I managed to squeak out a meager existence. You want to talk about wars? Try living here after WW1...all the doughboys movin' home and they had the nerve to take up jobs other than writing, art OR music...shameful!

idiot

MrManhattan

I'm one of those "fucking people from other places" who fell in love with this city the first time I visited it in the '60's, and clawed my way in while virtually everyone born here was leaving in the '70's, stayed through the 80's when Reagan tried to crush us, built a life, a career, and yes, I now resent how some came here after the war was over and pretend that paying 3,000 a month for a studio makes them a de-facto "New Yorker"

So, Yes, I guess I am one of those people who "changed New York from the slum paradise it was in the 70's"

I'm almost regretting having played a part in it now. ALMOST.

matty

What's it like being 300 years old?

MrManhattan

That was a response to asscobra, but having said that, a week doesn't go by when I meet some newcomer, and I think: that guy/girl would make it if I could give them a corner in my 1000 sqft loft in Soho when I was paying a grand a month back in '86. Now they don't have that chance.

If you're coming to write, make music or art, please try and stick with it. Newcomers are our lifeblood.

If you want to make babies, move to Greenwich. (the town I abanoned in the '70's) I know lot's of "breeders" there and they're quite happy.

asscobra

I feel sorry for being an asshole about it now, but let me say that New York isn't a hard city to make it in if you come for the right reasons, it just gets lonely around christmas.

I was just voicing my irritation over the select few who do not realize that, without outsiders, NY would really just be a bigger Philly...

asscobra

and now it's snowing outside :)

MrManhattan

Clueless American breeders coming to New York? Nothing new. I'm just glad they've ghettoized themselves to Park Slope.

asscobra

Are you a "born and bred New Yorker" who has nothing else to talk about other than how you are "born and bred in New York" (fucking people from other places that came in and changed New York from the slum paradise it was in the 70's, when was New York ever about coming in from the outside?)?

Or are you just the rare Brooklyn-hating-hipster?

marcasm

I'm sure the "housekeeping" and "huge diaper bags" are dealt with by the Dominican maid and Filipino nanny. It's "tough" when a business doesn't want to give you things because you buy a cup of coffee there everyday ? Welcome to Sesame Street.

books

too funny.

Kevin Walsh

"Picking out her cheese plate at Larder, Gyllenhaal already knows she wants Petit Agour and Stichelton. Vacherin Mont d’Or is too “holiday season; they’re very sophisticated, my friends.” She dislikes a particularly earthy-tasting Pecorino Gregoriano she tries, but decides to get it anyway: “My husband will love that kind of dirty-whore cheese.”

I like the Kraft Singles, myself.

www.forgotten-ny.com

chorosch

Kevin, you are better than this. Your website is such an inspiration to so many people... don't worry about this stuff. It cheapens your work.

Kevin Walsh

What, I'm not supposed to comment when I see pretentious stuff like this? Maggie can get on a FNY tour anytime she wants.

www.forgotten-ny.com