5:48 pm - 03/07/2010
Sarah Jessica Parker has witch ancestors
Sarah Jessica Parker always looks spellbinding, and now we know why - her ancestor was a witch.
The Sex and the City star - who played a witch in 1993 film Hocus Pocus - broke down when she found out on a TV show that her tenth-great-grandmother Esther Elwell faced the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 for casting spells on a woman who died.
Twenty were executed in the witch hunt, sparked when girls began accusing neighbours of sorcery.
Mom-of-three Sarah, 44, was told about her aunt's part in the historic hearings in the US version of Who Do You Think You Are?, which is broadcast this weekend in the US and later in Britain.
As Sarah examined Esther's records, she became upset, saying: "I hope she's not an accuser. If she was I would want to fix it. This was a moment in history that brought out the worst of us."
Then she breathed a huge sigh of relief when told how Esther - who emigrated from Bridport, Dorset, in 1658 - and two others were the last to be arrested and were eventually set free.
SJP, who was so moved she gave her twin baby girls her newly discovered family names Elwell and Hodge, said: "I didn't think I was connected to anything historical."
Source
Hocus Pocus is, bar none, my favourite Disney movie ever. And say what you will about SJP, but she was hot in that movie:
THIS IS A HOCUS POCUS POST (sort of)
Sarah Jessica Parker always looks spellbinding, and now we know why - her ancestor was a witch.
The Sex and the City star - who played a witch in 1993 film Hocus Pocus - broke down when she found out on a TV show that her tenth-great-grandmother Esther Elwell faced the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 for casting spells on a woman who died.
Twenty were executed in the witch hunt, sparked when girls began accusing neighbours of sorcery.
Mom-of-three Sarah, 44, was told about her aunt's part in the historic hearings in the US version of Who Do You Think You Are?, which is broadcast this weekend in the US and later in Britain.
As Sarah examined Esther's records, she became upset, saying: "I hope she's not an accuser. If she was I would want to fix it. This was a moment in history that brought out the worst of us."
Then she breathed a huge sigh of relief when told how Esther - who emigrated from Bridport, Dorset, in 1658 - and two others were the last to be arrested and were eventually set free.
SJP, who was so moved she gave her twin baby girls her newly discovered family names Elwell and Hodge, said: "I didn't think I was connected to anything historical."
Source
Hocus Pocus is, bar none, my favourite Disney movie ever. And say what you will about SJP, but she was hot in that movie:
I suddenly feel old.
My favorite is when Wiccans claim that witches were burnt at the stake.