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Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz
The Couple: It would have been medically impossible for any man to endure Penelope Cruz’s turn in Vicky Cristina Barcelona without falling in love with her, and so it was for co-star Javier Bardem. The lucky swine…
Relationship History: After three years of dating, the pair were married in 2010, before Cruz gave birth to a son in January of this year, just three days before Bardem bagged an Oscar nomination for Biutiful . Some blokes really do have all the luck, don’t they?
Onscreen Chemistry: Their distinctly flammable relationship in Vicky Cristina Barcelona was frequently ignited by the presence of Scarlett Johansson. Let’s hope she keeps her distance in real life, or Penelope might just go loco for real…
Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow
The Couple: One of the more leftfield Hollywood unions, Sinatra and Farrow make the list by virtue of being such an odd match. He was a 50-year-old, old-school smoothie whilst she was a 21-year-old tearaway. As Dean Martin famously commented, “I have scotch at home older than Mia.”
Relationship History: Alarm bells were ringing as early as the ceremony, with Farrow turning up to the church shorn of her flowing blonde hair. “I didn’t realize I was marrying a little boy,” Sinatra is reported to have snarled at her. Unsurprisingly, the marriage only lasted 2 years.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair never collaborated. In fact, Sinatra served Farrow with divorce papers on the set of Rosemary’s Baby after she had refused to scrap the project in favour of co-starring with him in The Detective .
Vincent Cassel & Monica Bellucci
The Couple: Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci are the sort of ultra-chic, ultra-glamorous European couple that make all other Hollywood unions seem rather gauche and dowdy by comparison. Our advice? Don’t try and compete. They’re operating on a totally different level of cool.
Relationship History: The couple married back in 1999; since then they have given birth to a pair of daughters. “It was attraction and repulsion at the same time, for both of us,’ Bellucci told The Mail. ‘We didn’t realise there was an attraction at first – we both thought it was more repulsion. But then we had the chance to get to know each other better, and it was just attraction.” That’s cleared that up then.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair both starred in the controversial Irreversible , in which Bellucci banned Cassel from the set during the infamous rape scene, lest he should attempt to intervene!
Clark Gable & Carole Lombard
The Couple: Classic Hollywood royalty, Gable and Lombard were successful stars in their own right, but their marriage propelled both into the stratosphere. Indeed, it was Lombard who reportedly persuaded her husband to take on his most famous role as Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind , the star having initially been reluctant to do so.
Relationship History: Gable and Lombard shared a love story as tragic as any of the films they starred in, with Lombard dying in a plane crash just three years into their marriage.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair starred as a married couple in No Man Of Her Own several years before their off-screen nuptials. Gable’s usual slick charisma is present and correct, and the two make for a reliably charming couple.
Clark Gable & Joan Crawford
The Couple: Gable and Crawford were a legendary on-screen partnership (Gable claimed that she was the actress he enjoyed working with the most), and their on-screen passion often spilled into their personal lives, much to the chagrin of studio bosses. The spoilsports…
Relationship History: The pair were extremely close and were reportedly on the brink of marriage at one stage, but no such union ever materialised. Instead their relationship flickered on and off throughout their early careers, whilst Crawford re-emerged as a loving friend in the wake of Carole Lombard’s untimely death.
On-Screen Chemistry: Electric in every film they appeared in together, with Possessed serving as a particularly steamy example of their red-hot chemistry.
Heath Ledger & Michelle Williams
The Couple: The late Heath Ledger was involved in a string of celebrity affairs, but the one that carried the most weight was undoubtedly his relationship with Brokeback Mountain co-star Michelle Williams, with whom he fathered a daughter.
Relationship History: Having dated Heather Graham, Naomi Watts and Julia Stiles during his spell in Hollywood, Ledger and Williams met on the set of Brokeback Mountain and began dating in 2004. The pair were together for three years before the relationship broke down just months before his tragic death.
Onscreen Chemistry: There is a certain tenderness between the two, but as we know, Ennis Del Mar isn’t much of a ladies' man…
Sean Penn & Robin Wright
The Couple: Hollywood wild-man Sean Penn has often endured a rocky personal life, but through his marriage to Robin Wright he at least enjoyed a modicum of stability. For a while, anyway…
Relationship History: The pair began dating in the midst of Penn’s sticky separation from former wife Madonna, and would eventually marry in 1996, three years after the birth of their first child. After a rocky period in the late noughties, the pair filed for divorce in 2007, before reconciling, and then finally going through with the separation in 2010.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair both appeared in State Of Grace , with Wright playing one of Penn's old flames. The relationship is a troubled one, a portent of things to come for the couple off-screen.
Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford
The Couple: Oft referred to as Hollywood’s first celebrity couple, Fairbanks and Pickford became known as the king and queen of Tinseltown. They even shared a snappily-named Beverly Hills estate dubbed “Pickfair”. Eat your heart out Beckingham Palace….
Relationship History: The couple met at a party in 1916 and began an affair whilst Pickford was still married to actor Owen Moore. After an ultimatum from Fairbanks, Pickford divorced her husband in 1920, and the couple were married that same year. The marriage only lasted 13 years but was greatly celebrated by the general public, who loved the idea of “America’s Sweetheart” marrying “Everybody’s Hero”. The pair were also the first to plant their hand-prints outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, in the first ceremony of its kind. They were kind of a big deal, basically.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair starred together in The Taming Of The Shrew , but the production was a box-office bomb, with little evidence of the famous spark that had made the couple such an international brand.
Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth
The Couple: Both Hayworth and Welles were Hollywood megastars at the time of their wedding, but their union was less showy than you might expect. In fact, the pair returned to work just hours after the ceremony. How romantic.
Relationship History: Beginning in 1943, the marriage lasted just five years, allegedly on account of Welles’ dislike of commitment. “During the entire period of our marriage, he showed no interest in establishing a home,” claimed Hayworth. “When I suggested purchasing a home, he told me he didn't want the responsibility. Mr. Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life.” What a bounder.
Onscreen Chemistry: Welles directed and starred alongside Hayworth in The Lady Of Shanghai , although his decision to chop off her famous red locks was blamed for its lukewarm reception at the box-office. Despite that error, there is definitely a certain heat between the gorgeous Hayworth and her brooding leading man.
Johnny Depp & Winona Ryder
The Couple: How much kooky, indie cool can you cram into one relationship? Quite a bit, it would seem, if the pairing of Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp is anything to go by. It didn’t last of course, but for a while, they were the hottest couple in Hollywood.
Relationship History: Depp and Ryder first met at the premiere for Great Balls Of Fire in 1989, and eventually became engaged during the course of their three-year relationship. Depp famously had “Winona Forever” tattooed on his arm, a stamp he would alter to “Wino Forever” when the relationship eventually foundered.
Onscreen Chemistry: They are very sweet together in Edward Scissorhands , although sadly, real life can’t be relied upon to generate the same magic as a Tim Burton fairytale.
