# Mismatched Parings

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 25, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297 "2009-04-25T05:13:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/1 "2009-04-25T05:13:45Z")

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I was watching the flick _Rear Window_ and while I quite enjoyed the movie, all throughout the whole film I kept thinking.

“Geez this GRACE KELLY she is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, now why is she throwing herself at Jimmy Stewart.” He treats her with disregard and she is talented, has a successful career and as for her looks, c’mon she’s GRACE KELLY!!!.

And he’s regular jo photographer, who can’t work, can’t get out of a wheelchair, talks funny, isn’t handsome, and when he takes off his shirt, reveals the he has a body of an 87 year old.

Now Jimmy Stewart is an excellent actor, but the pairing of those two, kept distracting me. Yeah I know a lot of ugly men date beautiful women, but this is GRACE KELLY!!! 🙂

(Sorry if I had to pick one woman as the most beautiful in all movie history I’d pick her)

So were there any other pairings (TV, Radio, Music, Theater, etc) that you disliked, just because of this.

The film _Rear Window_ is good and it’s worth seeing, and I have no problem with the acting, but for some reason I just didn’t believe the pairing of Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart.

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### Author: ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/2 "2009-04-25T13:23:22Z")

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Woody Allen and any of a huge number of gorgeous young women he’s appointed as his costar.

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### Author: ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/3 "2009-04-25T13:28:39Z")

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You tend to see this in commercials and sitcoms a lot: hot wife, dumpy husband.

(Looks at latest picture of my wife and I): OMG, THAT’S US!!! I’VE BECOME A CLICHE!

😉

(Seriously, I could lose about 20 pounds).

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### Author: ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/4 "2009-04-25T13:46:06Z")

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Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall? Seriously, though, those two had very smoking chemistry…and she was very young. I want to say 19, but she might have been 20 or 21. Hah, and I forgot - they became a real life couple!

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### Author: ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/5 "2009-04-25T14:00:33Z")

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This is based on the assumption that the only thing women care about is a guy’s looks. It isn’t so.

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### Author: ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/6 "2009-04-25T14:14:26Z")

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Humphrey Bogart with Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina.

I am a fan of both, but that pairing didn’t work for me. I seem to recall reading in a biography that Bogart didn’t think he was right for the part, but there was a contract…

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### Author: ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/7 "2009-04-25T14:23:43Z")

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> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> This is based on the assumption that the only thing women care about is a guy’s looks. It isn’t so.

In real life - but in movies - in certain types of movies, I should say, where style is as much a factor as substance that I’d rather look at a pair of roughly equally pretty people.

George Clooney’s Ocean’s movies fail on a certain level for me because I don’t see the appeal of Julia Roberts and Danny Ocean’s prime motivation is his love for Tess. (Ocean’s 12 failed on so many other levels…)

I don’t think appearance is the only way a pairing can fail. A lot of people hollered about Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow because he was old and wrinkly and she was so young and hot. My objection was not that so much as he comes across as intelligent and she seems more like someone who doesn’t get the joke.

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### Author: ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/8 "2009-04-25T18:06:22Z")

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> [@tarragon918](#):
>
> Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall? Seriously, though, those two had very smoking chemistry…and she was very young. I want to say 19, but she might have been 20 or 21. Hah, and I forgot - they became a real life couple!

Because, in the real world, people aren’t so shallow as to judge people solely on their looks. I’m sure you’re not that way.

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### Author: ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/9 "2009-04-25T18:11:14Z")

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> [@gwendee](#):
>
> A lot of people hollered about Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow because he was old and wrinkly and she was so young and hot.

You can get away with anything in a movie. In real life he’d have to settle for someone like Catherine Zeta Jones.

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### Author: ![tarragon918](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@tarragon918](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarragon918)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/10 "2009-04-25T18:28:52Z")

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> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Because, in the real world, people aren’t so shallow as to judge people solely on their looks. I’m sure you’re not that way.

Oh Og, no! I love Bogie and I love them as a couple! I do think, however, that to some they appeared to be a mismatched couple in “To Have and to Have Not.” For me, though - smokin’! Bacall’s definitely got it. Bogie had it too.

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### Author: ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/11 "2009-04-25T18:47:58Z")

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> [@tarragon918](#):
>
> Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall… had very smoking chemistry

[I see](http://www.gallagherstravels.com/States/CT/mystic/images/bogartbacall.jpg) [what you](http://movieclassics.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/tohaveandhavenot1.jpg) [did there.](http://img5.allocine.fr/acmedia/rsz/434/x/x/x/medias/nmedia/18/36/09/90/18860360.jpg)

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### Author: ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/12 "2009-04-25T19:21:54Z")

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> [@twickster](#):
>
> Woody Allen and any of a huge number of gorgeous young women he’s appointed as his costar.

Seconded. Ew. Woody Allen makes me want to launch lunch.

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### Author: ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/13 "2009-04-25T19:33:58Z")

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In the movie _Rear Window_ the character Grace Kelly played had a great job, was educated and well paid. This is what I’m getting at. Plus she’s Grace Kelly 🙂

He was a talented photographer but it didn’t seem to work for me.

I know the smokin’ babe, dumpy fat guy has been done to death on TV but often they explain this away by saying, they were high school sweethearts so he wasn’t fat in high school.

And I’m not talking unbelievability so much as distraction. As I said, I liked the movied _Rear Window_, I highly recommend it to everyone. But to me I was just distracted and kept saying “this is ridiculous she’s Grace Kelly” 😃

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### Author: ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/14 "2009-04-26T03:21:44Z")

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While I loved the first Darren in _Bewitched_, it was a stretch that a smokin hot Elizabeth Montgomery, Samatha, would be with such a dork. She was a _witch_ who could have anybody!!!

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### Author: ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/15 "2009-04-26T03:54:30Z")

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You see this a lot with old stars who are paired with young starlets, Catherine Zeta Jones and Sean Connery comes to mind.

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### Author: ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/16 "2009-04-26T04:10:42Z")

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Recent AARP ad= Yeah, he’s a schlub, maybe hardly into his fourties bu,t only by the magic of TV, does he qualify to join AARP.

Wife is wearing granny glasses, but she is far too hot to miss the cutoff point.

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### Author: ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/17 "2009-04-26T12:17:24Z")

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An apple peel and a potato skin.

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### Author: ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/18 "2009-04-28T06:03:22Z")

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_Splash_.

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### Author: ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2009, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/19 "2009-04-28T10:53:43Z")

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It probably seems like it in relation to the way they cast Lois Lane now, but I always loved the odd, mismatched pairing of Margot Kidder and Chris Reeve in Superman the Movie. He’s basically a perfect being who could have anyone on Earth, but the one he falls in love with is this kind of plain, flawed, older woman. She represents the most mundane aspects of humanity with her imperfections (she smokes, she can’t spell, stupidity in that she doesn’t recognize him with glasses on, etc.) and her experience (compared to him and his naivete). He’s a god who aspires to be human and he falls in love with a very human woman. Now, of course, they always cast hotties as Lois Lane and miss the whole point.

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### Author: ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mismatched-parings/494297/20 "2009-04-28T13:56:32Z")

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> [@twickster](#):
>
> An apple peel and a potato skin.

Damn, you beat me to it! Could a mod correct the spelling of the OP, please?
