In his best-selling new memoir, famed New York City restaurateur Keith McNally reveals that he had a steamy love affair with a famous Hollywood actress in the late 1990s. But he only refers to her as “X” in his pages.
Page Six did some sleuthing and announced on Tuesday that “X” appears to be Gillian Anderson — who was then popular for playing FBI agent Dana Scully in “The X Files.”
The New York Post gossip page based this conclusion on some of the references that McNally made in his book, “I Regret Almost Everything,” about the timing, location and circumstances of the tryst. Page Six also said that McNally, owner of the celebrity hotspot Balthazar, once publicly admitted to having a brief romance with Anderson. But for some reason, he’s eager to not mention her name in his memoir.
Restaurateur Keith McNally poses at an undisclosed location on Jan. 26, 2009. McNally bought and revived Minetta Tavern in 2009. Photographer: James Hamilton/Minetta Tavern via BloombergEDITOR’S NOTE: NO SALES. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
McNally wrote that he first met “X” after he was featured in Vanity Fair in 1998. The story looked at the boyishly handsome, British-born former actor-turned restaurateur, who had founded some of the era’s most iconic dining and gathering spots, including Nell’s, Cafe Luxembourg and his “must-be-seen-at brasserie, Balthazar.”
McNally wrote that “X” got in touch with him via a mutual friend, according to Page Six. For his part, he said he didn’t know who “X” was, even though she was currently starring in a TV show “watched by millions.”
Starting in 1993, Anderson co-starred alongside David Duchovny in the “The X-Files,” a sci-fi drama on Fox. “The X-Files” soon gained a cult following by depicting the adventures of Anderson’s Scully and Duchovny’s Fox Mulder, as FBI agents investigating top-secret encounters with extraterrestrial life and the paranormal.
McNally said that he and the Los Angeles-based “X” first got to know each other over the phone, Page Six reported. “X” then said she’d come visit him in New York and surprised him by deciding to stay in his SOHO walk-up rather than a hotel.
During the visit, they went to see a Broadway play called “Art,” which dates “X’s” visit to anytime between Feb. 12, 1998 and Aug. 8, 1999. McNally also mentioned in his book that a photo of them appeared in the local media. The Page Six reporter found a photo of McNally and Anderson together in a Daily News gossip column, which described how “‘X-Files’ star Gillian Anderson had a cozy dinner with British restaurateur Keith McNally on Saturday.”
“Where’d they eat?” the column continued. “Where else but McNally’s still-white-hot celebreteria Balthazar. McNally, who delivered the sexy redhead to her hotel after dinner, vouches that, ‘She’s only a friend. Really, we would have gone out the back way if anything was happening.’”
Page Six reported that McNally tried to downplay any romance with Anderson at the time because he was in an on-off relationship with his future wife, Alina Johnson. McNally wrote in his book that Johnson was furious to see a photo of him with “X” in a gossip column. At one point, McNally also revealed that Johnson had once asked him to ban Anderson from his restaurants.
McNally wrote that he and Anderson didn’t have sex the first night “X” was in New York.
“I thought spending the night together and not having sex meant the end of the relationship,” he wrote. “No one told me that nothing turns women on more than not having sex.”
The next night, McNally wrote that he took “X” to dinner to his Balthazar. They then went to his apartment.
“Few things impress a date more than taking her to a restaurant you happen to own,” McNally wrote. “Within 10 minutes [of getting home] I was lying next to X’s naked body.”
But even though McNally got intimate with this famous and desirable Hollywood star, he said the fling made him miss Johnson all the more. He and Johnson eventually reunited while he ended things with “X,” who didn’t take the news too well.
“A day after she left New York I called (“X”) and told her point-blank that though I liked her a lot, I wanted our relationship to be simply platonic,” McNally wrote, according to Page Six. “Without missing a beat, she screamed ‘(Expletive) off!’ and hung up the phone.”