30 Greatest Movie Star Couples
When their powers combine...
Dominic Monaghan & Evangeline Lilly
The Couple: Worth including if only for the sheer WTF-ness of it! Lost co-stars Lilly and Monaghan managed to keep their off-screen relationship as closely guarded as the most top secret of storylines, with headlines only really emerging when the duo announced (and then retracted) plans to marry back in 2007. We still can't see it...
Relationship History: The pair got together back in 2004, before the aforementioned marriage plans were aired a few years later. The union never materialized however, and a break-up soon followed as Monaghan’s screen-time decreased following the show’s third season.
Onscreen Chemistry: Damned if we ever noticed any! Kate was usually too busy mooning around after Sawyer and Jack to give Charlie a second glance.
Ryan Phillippe & Reese Witherspoon
The Couple: Hot young things Phillippe and Witherspoon co-starred in saucy teen drama Cruel Intentions , having begun dating after Witherspoon’s birthday party the year before. Cute, no?
Relationship History: The couple married in 1999, when Witherspoon was five months pregnant with daughter Ava. Son Deacon followed in 2003 before the pair officially split in 2006. Boooo.
Onscreen Chemistry: Forget the kiss between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair (difficult, we know), Cruel Intentions ’ steamiest moment surely has to be the sex scene between Reese and Ryan. Yowsers!
Warren Beatty & Annette Bening
The Couple: Beatty spent much of his youth carousing as a notorious Hollywood playboy, until he met Bening on the set of Bugsy and decided the time was right to hang up his pulling vest. “She’s great,” he told director Barry Levinson, “I’m gonna marry her.”
Relationship History: The pair were married in 1992 after a hush-hush romance, and have remained so ever since, giving birth to four kids along the way.
Onscreen Chemistry: There’s definite heat between Bening and Beatty in the aforementioned crime drama, with the pair trading snappy zingers as the sexual tension crackles.
Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams
The Couple: Two of modern Hollywood’s hottest stars delighted weepie fans everywhere when they revealed their throbbing chemistry on The Notebook has spilled over into real life. How dreamy…
Relationship History: The pair got together after filming the Nicholas Sparks adaptation before separating amicably in 2007. However, according to Gosling, their relationship was far juicier than anything we saw onscreen. “( The Notebook ) introduced me to one of the great loves of my life,” he told GQ, “but people do Rachel and me a disservice by assuming we were anything like the people in that movie. Rachel and my love story is a hell of a lot more romantic than that.”
Onscreen Chemistry: The early sections of The Notebook fairly sizzle with animal attraction between the pair. No wonder some of it hung around after the cameras stopped rolling.
Ryan Reynolds & Scarlett Johansson
The Couple: Talk about hot. As two of Hollywood’s sexiest stars, Reynolds and Johansson disappointed men and women everywhere by announcing they were dating each other back in 2007. Way to ruin everyone’s dreams, guys.
Relationship History: After marrying in 2008, the couple announced their divorce just two years later, claiming that, “we entered our relationship with love and it's with love and kindness we leave it.” Both are currently back on the market…
Onscreen Chemistry: At present, the pair are yet to co-star, although should that change, expect a crowd of rubberneckers to swell the box-office take!
Ben Affleck & Jennifer Garner
The Couple: Having endured the car-crash that was Bennifer, Ben Affleck has conducted his personal life in a far more low-key fashion ever since. His A-list partnership with Jennifer Garner has largely shied away from the spotlight, and the pair are happily married with kids. Good for them!
Relationship History: Having co-starred in Daredevil , romance blossomed between Affleck and Garner back in 2004, before the couple were married the following year. As yet, the pair have yet to make a music video together, which surely bodes well…
Onscreen Chemistry: To be honest, both were fairly wooden in Daredevil , which just goes to show onscreen spark is never the best barometer of a happy relationship.
Ben Stiller & Christine Taylor
The Couple: Moderately spotlight-shy by traditional Hollywood standards, comedy couple Stiller and Taylor appear to lead a pretty normal life, wholly lacking in tabloid intrigue. They seem the sort of couple you’d like to be mates with, which makes them cool in our book.
Relationship History: Having dated a string of actresses including Jeanne Tripplehorn, Calista Flockhart and Amanda Peet, Stiller married Taylor back in 2000 before going on to star with her in Zoolander , Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder .
Onscreen Chemistry: They’re comedic chemistry is excellent, which is just as well given that their films always play it for laughs.
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Mel Ferrer & Audrey Hepburn
The Couple: Having met at a party, Ferrer was duly bewitched by the enchanting Hepburn, and set about attempting to get himself cast opposite her in order that he might win her heart. The sly dog…
Relationship History: After the aforementioned party (hosted by Gregory Peck as it goes) Ferrer sent Hepburn a script to star opposite him in the play Ondine . She eventually got the role, and rehearsals began in January 1954. Eight months later they were married, a union that would last for 14 years. No slouch was old Mel…
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair smouldered together in War And Peace , proving that given the right chemistry, even dense Russian literature can be sexy.
Kurt Russell & Goldie Hawn
The Couple: Ahh, Kurt and Goldie. A more affable pair of stars you’re unlikely to meet, which might help to explain why theirs is one of the longest-running relationships in Hollywood today. They also remain unmarried…perhaps that’s the key!
Relationship History: The pair got together on the set of Swing Shift and have been a couple ever since. Not every Hollywood relationship has to be a maelstrom of emotion you know…
Onscreen Chemistry: Their onscreen romance in Overboard successfully navigated the tricky narrative issue of Russell’s character conning Hawn’s amnesiac into believing they’re in love…somehow they make it work with a minimum of creepiness.
Mickey Rooney & Ava Gardner
The Couple: Nuptial enthusiast Rooney made a pre-megastardom Gardner (an MGM stablemate at the time) his first wife of eight, when the pair were 21 and 19 respectively. Ah, young love. Sweet while it lasts…
Relationship History: The pair divorced the following year, with markedly different accounts emerging from each party. Whilst Rooney bragged about the pair’s sex life, Gardner retorted: “he might have enjoyed the sex, but goodness knows I didn’t.” Ouch.
Onscreen Chemistry: The pair never starred together before they were married, and after comments like the above, were never very likely to do so after they split.
George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.