In 2001, Cameron Diaz played Tom Cruise's violently unstable hookup in Vanilla Sky. In 2010, the tables turned with Cruise as a charming yet unstable kidnapper opposite his blond muse in Knight and Day. New York magazine says Knight and Day may be an allegory for the public's strained relationship with the actor, with Diaz standing in for the skeptical but eventually complicit audience. Cruise may be banking on tried-and-true chemistry (or Stockholm Syndrome) to win us over, but given the tepid response to Vanilla Sky, he may want to try out a new leading lady next time.
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"In a twisted way, it's like kissing a family member," Leonardo DiCaprio said of romancing his co-star Kate Winslet at the London premiere of their film Revolutionary Road in 2009. The pair have been friends since Titanic rocketed the then-twentysomething stars to fame 12 years ago. In Revolutionary Road, their characters were older, wiser, and even more tortured than the doomed Jack and Kate. Their friendship even lasted longer than Winslet's marriage to director Sam Mendes, with the English actress reportedly leaning on her co-star during her divorce.
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Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are one of America's favorite—and most bankable—onscreen couples. Sparks first flew in Joe Versus the Volcano in 1990, and then their relationship took an easy, breezy, and banter-heavy turn in Sleepless in Seattle in 1993. They partnered for a third time in 1998 in the now adorably outdated You've Got Mail. "Hanks meshes the boyish charm of Jimmy Stewart with the earthy integrity of Spencer Tracy, and Ryan blends Kate Hepburn's determined sensibility with the infectious ebullience of a Jean Arthur," Variety wrote about the duo, one of the few couples able to bring a classic feeling to a modern-day romance.
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One of Hollywood's greatest real-life couples met on the set of Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not in 1944. At 45, Humphrey Bogart was already an established star, and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall was just getting her start. Despite Bogie's status as a married man—and Bacall's mother's disapproval—the couple began an affair. They married in 1945 and went on to star in three other classics together: The Big Sleep in 1946, Key Largo in 1948, and Dark Passage in 1947. "The man had an incredible personality," Bacall said in 2005. "Wherever he was, people were laughing, always… He had every quality that… I never thought of before in any man." Decades later, it still doesn't get much better than Bogie and Baby.
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Julia Roberts and Richard Gere scored box-office gold with Pretty Woman in 1990, but that magic fizzled out when they re-teamed for Runaway Bride nearly a decade later. Garry Marshall, who directed both films, was counting on his leading man and woman. "If the two stars have chemistry, you can shoot it many different ways, but if the two stars don't have chemistry, they can take their clothes off, run around naked, and people won't stay [to watch]," he said. Or maybe the audience, like Julia's onscreen bride, just got cold feet.
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Audiences "want us to hook up, but they don't want us to hook up," Matthew McConaughey told Glamour, in an attempt to explain the popularity of his pairing with fellow blond beauty Kate Hudson. "We're always courting. It's a constant flirting courtship, which keeps it really alive. We never dated. But we can still be attracted." The duo co-starred in the romantic comedies How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days in 2003 and Fool's Gold in 2008, and got to know each other very well in the process. "I know all your different style kisses," Hudson said in their shared interview. "If I were walking down a street and some guy came up and slapped my ass, if it were you, I would know it was you." McConaughey replied, "Well you know what? If I were blindfolded and told to walk over and slap 10 asses, I would know which one was your ass."
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Before Judd Apatow's stable of stoners delighted audiences by getting women way out of their league, there was scrawny, neurotic Woody Allen, wooing gorgeous ladies all over Manhattan. Allen paired himself with Diane Keaton in the play Play It Again, Sam in the late 1960s, and their on-stage courtship turned into a real-life romance. They stayed together for just a year—separating when the show closed in 1970—but Allen cast Keaton in many of his films, including the film adaptation of Play It Again, Sam in 1972, Sleeper in 1973, Love and Death in 1975, Manhattan in 1979, Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993 and, of course, their most famous pairing—1977's Annie Hall. The film is reportedly based on the pair's relationship, and it won Keaton an Academy Award. Allen even felt the need to clarify that his latest leading lady, Scarlett Johansson, is not his muse. "I'm grateful when they call her my muse, but it isn't true," Allen said. "With Diane Keaton it was different. We made eight or nine movies together and had a special connection."
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Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler's first film together, The Wedding Singer, was a "suburban fairy tale" in which Sandler gave an unexpectedly sincere performance. "Sandler is particularly touching in his scenes with Barrymore," wrote Salon. "But then, she seems to bring out the sweetness in everybody she works with." That connection was so nice they tried it twice. In 2004's 50 First Dates the pair had "goo-goo chemistry that's hard to resist," largely thanks to Barrymore's " anarchic loopiness," " giggly sweet smirk," and " sly good humor." Barrymore again proved to be the perfect counterpart to her coarse co-star.
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Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke memorably starred in 1986's erotic cult classic 9½ Weeks—and then managed not to see each other for 23 years. They reunited on the red carpet in 2009 while promoting their film The Informers, which they both starred in but didn't share any scenes. Prior to filming, Basinger wrote him a letter after seeing him in The Wrestler, saying she always felt a connection between them. Rourke said her note "brought me to tears, actually." They brought that emotion to the red carpet, where photographers captured their reunion.
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Hugh Grant is typically a mainstay in romantic comedies, but he stepped outside his comfort zone and managed to team up with Sarah Jessica Parker for the 1996 thriller Extreme Measures. Parker later claimed to have seen every romantic comedy Grant ever made, and said "I love Hugh Grant… anyone who works in romantic comedy would want to do a movie with him." Her dreams finally came true in 2009. They starred together in Did You Hear About the Morgans,, but perhaps should have stuck to thrillers— Morgans was a critical and box-office dud.
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Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn perfected the art of screwball comedies in their four films together: 1940's The Philadelphia Story, 1938's Bringing Up Baby and Holiday, and Sylvia Scarlett in 1935. Hepburn was considered a "whip-smart, cunning, sexy comedienne." "[S]he was something else. She seemed to glow from within, suggesting that while the exterior was crisp and cool, the interior was white-hot. No wonder that she became, and remained, the only woman who could overpower Cary Grant." That's still up for debate, but one fact remains—the two certainly brought out the best in each other.
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