In an attempt to keep secret the sale of an East Hampton property to Steven Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director chose to place the deed for the 3-acre plot under the name of an area in southeastern Ireland -- County Wexford -- sources tell RealLI.
Why County Wexford? It may have something to do with Spielberg’s 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan.” The movie won five Academy Awards, including one for Spielberg as best director. The epic opening scenes of the D-Day landing were actually filmed on a beach in Wexford. Spielberg is said to have proclaimed, “I have found my Normandy!” when he first saw the beach.
The Irish press reported at the time that Spielberg was so taken with the area that he vowed to return one day to direct a film about the 1798 Rising in Wexford. That may have been a bit of Blarney as the film has never been made.
As Newsday reported yesterday, Spielberg closed on the purchase of the Georgica Pond property, close to several tracts that he already owns. The Apaquogue Road home sold for a cool $20 million, slightly higher than the asking price of $19.95 million.
The sellers were the three children (and their spouses) of Connecticut newspaperman Lionel Stewart Jackson, Sr. Jackson, who died in 1999, was former publisher of the New Haven Register and Journal-Courier Newspapers. Jackson’s son-in-law, John Cartier of Manhattan, would not identify Spielberg as the purchaser of the property, but told Newsday that the sale closed Jan. 4.