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Marriage to Jennifer Garner behind him, Scott Foley tries out single life—and Broadway
Scott Foley knew he was kind of famous—the kind where your auto insurance rates go up because, as he quotes his agent, “People are going to look to hit you now.” And, he adds, “everyone is willing to get you a Diet Coke whenever you want it.” But when his four-year stint playing college dreamboat Noel Crane on the WB drama Felicity ended with the series finale in 2002, he figured he’d just be another TV guy quietly looking to land his next gig. Until this April, when his 2 ½-year marriage to Golden Globe-winning Alias star Jennifer Garner also came to an end—and the news hit the headlines. “I had no idea I was famous,” he says jokingly, “until I got divorced.”
Seven months later, the paparazzi are chasing after Garner, 31 and her new beau, Alias costar Michael Vartan. And Foley, 31, is free once again to enjoy what he calls “semi-fame”—free, in other words, to walk his Maltese Charlie Rose and beagle mix Maggie May (whom he got custody of in the not-yet-final divorce) in Central Park unmolested, free to casually date (he is coy when asked about rumors of romance with 24 star Sarah Wynter) and free to make some bold career moves. Fresh from a well-received guest turn on NBC’s Scrubs, Foley moved from L.A. to Manhattan to make his Broadway debut as tempestuous writer in The Violet Hour, a new comedy-drama written by Tony winner Richard Greenberg, although “we worked on bratting him up—he’s the least brattish guy I ever met.” While “doing a play terrified me,” Foley admits, he found common ground with his exuberant character: “Like him, I know the world is a fantastic place to be, even though it can suck sometimes.”
Like this spring, when his marriage fell apart. He and Garner, who met on the Felicity set in 1998, remain friends, he says: “Just because you decide it’s best not to be married doesn’t mean you hate each other.” Still, he doesn’t pretend the split was easy—or that her leap to superstardom in the past year (boosted by her part in Daredevil) didn’t factor in. “Forget me in the equation. What Jennifer went through was a one in a million thing. We were up against pretty insurmountable odds,” he says. “It was a tough year. You deal with it the best you can.”
For Foley, that meant change. For starters, he learned to lean on friends. “That’s a hard thing to do for a man,” he says. “We always say we can handle it ourselves.” Moving cross-country was easier for the son of banker Hugh Foley, 68 (his mother, Connie, died of cancer in 1988), who grew up in Kansas City, Kans., Tokyo, Sydney and St. Louis. Now renting an apartment near Central Park, “I love the subway,” he says. “I can sit and read and play video poker on my phone and miss stops for hours.” When Violet Hour closes in December, Foley plans to return to L.A. for another stint on Scrubs. He might even hook up, as he has in Manhattan, for a late-night drink with Wynter, 32. “She’s such a sweetheart,” he says. Still, he’s not looking for commitment—in romance, work or even real estate. “I have no permanent residence anywhere,” he says. “It’s sort of freeing. If I end up in New York, great. L.A., great. North Dakota, let’s see,” he says. “Interesting.”
KAREN S. SCHNEIDER
Liza Hamm in New York City