It’s long been known and ridiculed that celebrities have about as much loyalty to their partners as dolphins, better known as the tramps of the ocean. For whatever reason, celebs switch partners like they’re dancing the Do-Si-Do. While there are definitely some beautiful love stories and long-lasting relationships, it’s far more normal for engagements to last a couple of months and marriages to last not much longer than that. What is the reasoning behind this phenomenon? We don’t know. What we are interested in, however, is when these partner “switches” take place. Especially when those switches, or affairs as the rest of the English-speaking world calls them, happen on the set of a movie.
Whenever you ask an actor, do you ever get feelings for another actor if you’re pretending you have feelings for them on set? Many get shocked. “My word! Of course not! This is a job!” But then, every year we see some actor getting busted for sleeping around with a co-star. People may think, but yeah, coworkers in every profession fall for each other. This is nothing new. Sure, but co-workers in most other professions don’t kiss each other and pretend to be in a relationship as their jobs. This is most definitely different. Maybe that’s why it happens so often in Hollywood. These adulterous actors get a taste of life with each other and decide to give it a go for real. So let’s dig in. Let’s talk behind the backs of these adulterers. Here are 15 actors who had an affairs on the set of their films.
15. LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian – Northern Lights
In 2009 while they were filming Northern Lights, actor Eddie Cibrian and actor/musician LeAnn Rimestook their on-screen romance off-screen. The only concern was that both stars were married at the time. Cibrian had been married to Brandi Glanville (Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) for nine years and Rimes had been married to Dean Sheremet for seven years. After filming commenced, the affair got quite a bit of publicity and both marriages were ended. Soon after, Rimes and Cibrian were engaged and then, in 2011, they were married. It’s tough to say how this relationship will turn out, but, since the marriage is built on a mountain of lies and mistrust, we can guess that it’s probably not the strongest foundation ever. Then again, sometimes dysfunctional relationships are the best kind.
14. Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw – The Getaway
Best known for his work in The Great Escape, Papillon, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, Steve McQueen has long been considered one of the greats in action cinema, but he was also a bit of a pig, so say most of the women in his life. He was said to be abusive, an addict and he slept around as often as he could, but when he and actress Ali MacGraw met on the set of The Getaway, there was electricity in the air. Both actors were married. McQueen was married to actress Neile Adams and MacGraw was married to producer Robert Evans, but that couldn’t stop them from getting together. Their love affair was highly publicized, strange and probably unhealthy. MacGraw left Hollywood at the height of her career to follow around McQueen as he did whatever the hell he wanted to do. She only returned to acting after they split.
13. Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz – Dream House
There’s a lot we don’t know about what went on while Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz were filming Dream House in 2010. There are claims that nothing went on between the two actors until each of their respective relationships were over, but the timing is a little funny. Here’s what we know. Weisz was in a relationship for nine years with director Darren Aronofsky and Craig was almost married (engaged) to producer Satsuki Mitchell, his girlfriend of seven years. Everything seemed fine until Dream House came along. Soon after filming, both actors split from their engagements and even sooner after that, both actors were spotted publicly together. Rumors had been rampant that something was going on between the two during filming, but they insist that isn’t true. When they got together in the end, it did make the whole thing look a little fishy.
12. Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart – To Have and Have Not
Humphrey Bogart was 45, Lauren Bacall was 20. He was one of the biggest stars in the world and she was just starting out. He was married and she was not. What could go wrong? It was on the set To Have and Have Not when the two stars met and things moved slowly, at least they didn’t happen right away. Over the course of filming, however, a connection was building and it all culminated in Bogart kissing Bacall one afternoon. After that, their affair went into hyper speed and they were barely even trying to hide it. Bogart asked his then-wife, actress Mayo Methot, for a divorce to which she obliged, drinking herself to death not long after. Bogart and Bacall would marry and stay together for 12 years until Bogart’s death in 1957. They would also have two children together.
11. Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders – Snow White and the Huntsman
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were the favorite couple of every 12- and 13-year old girl in the Western world. When the two actors got together while filming Twilight, they turned a crappy fictional romance into a horrible non-fictional one. They would live happily ever after, at least until Stewart started filming Snow White and the Huntsman. It was there that she got up close and personal with director Rupert Sanders, the same Rupert Sanders who was married to model Liberty Ross. For some reason, they thought they should start kissing and holding hands in public, as if no one would catch them. They were caught. No big surprise. Someone stood like five feet from them and took pictures of their infidelities. It hit the covers of every magazine and Pattinson cried tears of blood. Wait, do Twilightvampires cry blood? Or do they just twinkle in the sunlight?
10. Peter Bogdanovich and Cybill Shepherd – The Last Picture Show
Cybill Shepherd has done a lot of things in her career and done a lot of men during her career. She had a trend of getting close to her co-stars and it all started with her first film, The Last Picture Show. It was there that she had a fling with co-star Jeff Bridges, as well as another fling with the director, Peter Bogdanovich. The latter fling turned into an eight-year long affair that wasn’t a secret to anyone in the industry. The big issue here was that Bogdanovich was still married to Polly Platt and was 11 or so years older than the fresh-faced Shepherd. He must have treated her alright though because after years and years, even after they split, the two have remained fast friends.
9. Billy Crudup and Claire Danes – Stage Beauty
Back before Watchmen, Eat Pray Love or The Good Shepherd, Billy Crudup was best known for his work in Almost Famous and Big Fish, but he was also a lady-killer. He was married to Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker and she was seven months pregnant. He was filming Stage Beauty and he met a new beauty, Claire Danes. The two began consorting and sneaking around, until they were caught and Crudup split with his wife, Parker. The new couple, Crudup and Danes, would date for about four years after the affair began. Today, Danes is married to Hugh Dancy (Hannibal), who she met and started dating when they were filming Evening in 2007. The time frames for those two relationships overlap a little bit, which is pretty interesting as well.
8. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy – Woman of the Year
Spencer Tracy had many affairs in his life, but there was one which trumped them all and that was with Katharine Hepburn. It’s also the weirdest affair on this list and maybe in the history of time. As we mentioned, Spencer Tracy had many affairs. He was married to actress Louise Treadwell and, despite sleeping with nearly every co-star he ever had, stayed married to her until his death in 1967. The marriage was technically 44-years long but there was barely a day that he wasn’t with another woman. In fact, for 26 of those years, beginning on the set of Woman of the Year, Tracy was involved with Hepburn. Even though the entire world knew they were together, they pretended as if they weren’t. They would co-star in nine films together and Hepburn would even move in to care for Tracy in his final years. She would never speak about the affair publicly until Spencer’s real wife, Louise Treadwell, died in 1983.
7. James Cameron and Suzy Amis – Titanic
When James Cameron married Linda Hamilton in 1997, the same actress that he cast to play Sarah Connor in The Terminator in the 80s, everyone smiled. These two had been dating for years, so we all expected it to happen at some point. Unfortunately, the happy marriage only lasted a few months before the two split. The truth is, Cameron had traded Hamilton in for a newer actress. This time it was Suzy Amis, the actress who played Lizzy Calvert, Old Rose’s granddaughter, in Titanic. Cameron and Amis had started an affair during the filming and they began officially dating after Cameron’s split with Hamilton, leading to a new marriage in 2000.
6. Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini – Stromboli
Another Hollywood legend, Ingrid Bergman, had a few affairs during her climb to the absolute peak of fame. It appears that she was the most highly sought after woman on screen and off screen. While married to a poor sap back in Sweden, Bergman had dalliances with actors Gregory Peck and Spencer Tracy as well as photographer Robert Capa, but her big affair happened with director Roberto Rossellini while filming Stromboliin 1950. The affair was seen as a massive scandal in Hollywood and the public were outraged. Though Bergman would marry Rossellini (after the already-married man divorced Marcella De Marchis) and give birth to three of his children, she would only act in one film over the next six years and moved back to Sweden to flee the bad press.
5. Evangeline Lilly and Norman Kali – Lost
Despite the fact that Dominic Monaghan (The Lord of the Rings and Lost) has said some things in the past that might make him seem untrustworthy, we’re going to use his side of the story on this one because it’s the only side of the story we’ve heard. It goes like this: Monaghan and Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly, were dating. They were probably in love, probably going to get married. We don’t know, but everyone’s in love in Hollywood. They were together for about three years. Over time, Lilly started to get a bit closer with a production assistant named Norman Kali. Then one day something happens. First reports say that Monaghan has moved on to another woman, seen crying and cuddling in a restaurant. The break-up is official but why? A while later, Monaghan accuses Lilly of cheating on him. He also did this in a Tweet, saying, “nah, I don’t date cheaters.” Next thing we know, Lilly is dating Kali and Monaghan has requested to be written off the show. Awkward.
Back in 2000, Meg Ryan was married to Dennis Quaid. They had a child. Things were great. Russell Crowewas dating long-time partner Danielle Spencer. They were on-again-off-again, so who knows how things were. In comes the film Proof of Life, and Crowe and Ryan are cast opposite each other. On set things get a little too real for the two and they begin an affair behind-the-scenes. This leads to a very public break-up and divorce for Ryan and Quaid, and who knows what happened with Crowe and Spencer. While Ryan insists that she didn’t leave Quaid for Crowe, the timing of the whole thing is just too convenient to ignore.
4. John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer – Dangerous Liaisons
In the film Being John Malkovich, Catherine Keener‘s character becomes obsessed with Malkovich and it’s rather funny because that would never happen in real life, would it? Malkovich is a bit of a mystery, but he’s not a sexual being is he? Well, apparently he is. On the set of Dangerous Liaisons in 1988, Malkovich, who was married at the time to actress Glenne Headley, began a scandalous affair with co-star Michelle Pfeiffer. This unlikely duo took their on-screen relationship behind-the-scenes and it led to the separation and divorce of Malkovich and Headley. A little while later, Malkovich was with Nicoletta Peyran and Pfeiffer was with Fisher Stevens, so the fling seemed to end as quickly as it started.
3. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – Cleopatra
Where to start with this one? Maybe we’ll go back to Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (Carrie Fisher‘s/Leia’s parents). Those two are married and Elizabeth Taylor and her husband, producer Mike Todd, are all friends together. In 1958, Todd dies in a plane crash. Taylor is comforted by Fisher, Reynold’s husband, and the two start an affair. One year later they’re married. Reynolds and the public are furious. A few years later, Taylor and Richard Burton start filming Cleopatra. Burton, at the time, was married to actress Sybil Williams. During the filming, Taylor and Burton started an affair that was caught by paparazzi and spread to the world. This affair would turn into another marriage as Liz and Dick tied the knot and began one of the weirdest and most turbulent relationships ever seen by Hollywood.
2. Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan – Proof of Life
Back in 2000, Meg Ryan was married to Dennis Quaid. They had a child. Things were great. Russell Crowewas dating long-time partner Danielle Spencer. They were on-again-off-again, so who knows how things were. In comes the film Proof of Life, and Crowe and Ryan are cast opposite each other. On set things get a little too real for the two and they begin an affair behind-the-scenes. This leads to a very public break-up and divorce for Ryan and Quaid, and who knows what happened with Crowe and Spencer. While Ryan insists that she didn’t leave Quaid for Crowe, the timing of the whole thing is just too convenient to ignore.1. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are always going to maintain that there was no physical affair between them on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which is whatever, but there most certainly was an emotional affair. Pitt was with Jennifer Aniston at the time of filming and he and Jolie became very close. Jolie describes it as such, “Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened. I think a few months in I realized, ‘God, I can’t wait to get to work.’ … Anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork. We just became kind of a pair.” That’s an affair folks. That’s an affair. And now new rumors have surfaced about a Pitt and Marion Cotillard affair on the set of Allied, which led to the Pitt and Jolie divorce.
