Ford Denies Boyle Romance

November 9, 2000 -- Harrison Ford, who announced this week that he was separating from wife Melissa Mathison, is denying reports linking him romantically to actress Lara Flynn Boyle.

The actor's publicist called tabloid reports of a romance with the 30-year-old Boyle "false and inaccurate."

The basis for the reports seems to be the photos The National Enquirer ran of Ford and Boyle chatting closely over cocktails at a Manhattan, N.Y., nightclub in October. Ford's manager and publicist, Patricia McQueeney, said there was nothing romantic going on between the two, then or now.

"That's silly. He met her at that event that they were at, and he never saw her again," said McQueeney. "I don't know how they invent those things."

Sources for People magazine say that the chat looked strictly platonic.

As to the Enquirer's report that the Presumed Innocent star and the Practice actress shared a romantic carriage ride in Central Park, McQueeney told People magazine, "Harrison wouldn't be caught dead in a hansom cab."

She also denied that any third party was involved in the breakup of the Fords' marriage, adding, "This whole thing with Lara Flynn Boyle is ludicrous."

When questioned about the purported romance in the current issue of US Weekly, Boyle dismissed the reports as "pure poppycock." She tells the magazine, "I'm terribly sorry I sat next to him for a few minutes." Boyle was coy about whether she's still seeing her on-again, off-again beau, Jack Nicholson.

Ford and Mathison chose to go public with their separation because of "a number of false and inaccurate media reports that have recently appeared in the tabloid press," McQueeney told Reuters.