# On-screen lovers who fought off-screen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606 "2005-11-24T18:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/1 "2005-11-24T18:10:56Z")
So well know those “aww, isn’t that romantic”-type stories about celebrities hooking up while/after playing lovers or a married couple on-screen (Brangelina, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Heath ledger and Michelle Williams, etc.)… But what actors had to go to work and kiss someone they couldn’t stand? the best example I can think of is Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey on **Dirty Dancing** - I was positively _shocked_ when I found out they hated each other. I didn’t sense it for a moment in the movie. Also, it turns out Reese Witherspoon and Joachim Phoenix didn’t take too kindly to each other at first during **Walk The Line**. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/2 "2005-11-24T18:43:48Z")
Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush recently ended their five-month marriage, yet still have to play lovers on _One Tree Hill_. Ouch. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/3 "2005-11-24T18:47:42Z")
Would Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson count? They were lovers briefly in Chinatown, but on set they were constantly bitching at each other. IIRC, Faye even lost some hair over this. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/4 "2005-11-24T19:07:19Z")
Does music count? Both couples in ABBA underwent somewhat abrasive breakups well before the group disbanded, with some apparent cruelty with Benny and Bjorn writing rather pointed songs that Agnetha and Ani-Frid then had to sing both in the studio and live. The Mamas & the Papas were a big ol’ vat of infidelity, unrequited longing, and resentment, while having to appear as a cohesive group. There was also quite a bit of cruelty involved with John Philips writing a song or two with rather pointed lyrics that Michelle and Denny were required to sing. Add in Cass pining for Denny on the sidelines and that bunch of good friends was hardly such. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/5 "2005-11-24T19:15:26Z")
I remember reading a story about the movie “Rebecca”. Laurence Olivier wanted his wife, Vivienne Leigh, to play his love interest, but Joan Fontaine was cast instead. Apparently, Olivier was so unhappy about it that he used to whisper hateful and filthy things in Joan’s ear when they were shooting intimate scenes. At least that’s the Hollywood legend. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/6 "2005-11-24T19:16:08Z")
On the set of SOME LIKE IT HOT, Tony Curtis supposedly referred to Marilyn Monroe as “Hitler.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/7 "2005-11-24T19:24:30Z")
_Gone With the Wind_-Vivien Leigh was annoyed by Clark Gable’s denture breath. I believe Bogart and Katherine Hepburn weren’t very chumy while making _The African Queen_ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/8 "2005-11-24T19:34:33Z")
Hepburn slapped Peter O’Toole, hard, in front of press when filming _The Lion in Winter_ because he was taking too long with his interview. Of course they were playing a major love-hate couple. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball had fire fights off set and were living in separate residences and rarely speaking during the final days of _I Love Lucy/The Desi-Lu Comedy Hour_, but their last filmed kiss went on for a long time after the director called “Cut!”. I’ve read that Matthew Perry and Courtney Cox did not get along at all. (She has a pretty bad reputation as far as attitude and self-assessment.) James Caan and Bette Midler hated each other when they filmed _For the Boys_ (a flop in which they played a couple of USO performers who have romantic interludes). Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner hated each other and didn’t mind telling it in interviews, though I forget the movie they were a couple in. Robert Gant and Hal Sparks on _Queer as Folk_ did not get along. Part is I believe due to Sparks fear he was being typecast as a whiny gay guy (he’s a whiny straight guy in real life) and that Gant was way more popular with viewers (he’s gorgeous and his character’s not as much a total bottom personality wise). Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd famously loathed each other when in _Moonlighting_. Leslie Howard and Olivia de Havilland did not get along well. Howard, in most things I’ve read, comes across as the original pompous ass and made no secret of the fact that he didn’t want to do _Gone With the Wind_ because it was melodrama and he was a serious actor. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/9 "2005-11-24T19:35:28Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Does music count? Both couples in ABBA underwent somewhat abrasive breakups well before the group disbanded, with some apparent cruelty with Benny and Bjorn writing rather pointed songs that Agnetha and Ani-Frid then had to sing both in the studio and live. > > The Mamas & the Papas were a big ol’ vat of infidelity, unrequited longing, and resentment, while having to appear as a cohesive group. There was also quite a bit of cruelty involved with John Philips writing a song or two with rather pointed lyrics that Michelle and Denny were required to sing. Add in Cass pining for Denny on the sidelines and that bunch of good friends was hardly such. You left out the soap opera that was Fleetwood Mac. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/10 "2005-11-24T19:48:18Z")
> [@pseudotriton ruber ruber](#): > > On the set of SOME LIKE IT HOT, Tony Curtis supposedly referred to Marilyn Monroe as “Hitler.” Yes but he said it with affection 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/11 "2005-11-24T20:05:46Z")
_Moonlighting_ was infamous. In fact, IIRC the first time the word “bitch” was intentionally uttered on TV was when Bruce Willis said in right in Cybill Sheppard’s face on an episode. She slapped him pretty damn hard right after that. Must have felt good, for both of them! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/12 "2005-11-24T20:49:25Z")
> [@pseudotriton ruber ruber](#): > > On the set of SOME LIKE IT HOT, Tony Curtis supposedly referred to Marilyn Monroe as “Hitler.” Curtis said she kissed like Hitler. He later recanted that statement. Actually, after the “Where’s the bourbon” scene (Monroe infamously flubbed her lines in 50+ takes) director Billy Wilder was just about ready to fire her and refilm the scenes with another actress. The drunk floozy that one of “the boys” wants to have a liasion with in his next film, _The Apartment_, was allegedly a dig at Monroe for her shoddy work ethic and unreliability as a performer. Although the infamous “garlic sandwich” episode appears to be hyperbole, Dame Diana Rigg and George Lazenby (who?) apparently didn’t get along to well in the Bond film, _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_. Rigg, who was a professionally trained dramatic actress and a professional ethic was disgusted with Lazenby’s drama queen antics (refusing a ride to the set unless he was transported in a Rolls Royce, among other things). More’s the pity; with the execption of Lazenby’s wooden acting (it was, aside from a series of television commericals, his first acting job) this is bar none the best Bond film. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/13 "2005-11-24T21:12:58Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > You left out the soap opera that was Fleetwood Mac. I know. I remembered Mick Fleetwood’s penchant for sleeping his way through the distaff side of the group too late. I’d already hit “Submit”… ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/14 "2005-11-24T21:51:18Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Curtis said she kissed like Hitler. . . . _What_ did Tony Curtis do during World War II? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/15 "2005-11-24T21:54:40Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > . . . _What_ did Tony Curtis do during World War II? Well, if it was anything like he did in _Some Like It Hot_, he COULD’VE been Eva Braun… ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/16 "2005-11-25T00:48:06Z")
I recall reading that Richard Gere and Debra Winger did not get along while filming _An Officer and a Gentleman._ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/17 "2005-11-25T01:14:56Z")
> [@EJsGirl](#): > > In fact, IIRC the first time the word “bitch” was intentionally uttered on TV was when Bruce Willis said in right in Cybill Sheppard’s face on an episode. The phrase “son of a bitch” was used on M_A_S\*H years before _Moonlighting_ debuted. I seem to recall reading that Laurence Olivier was not very thrilled with Marilyn Monroe during the filming of _The Prince and the Showgirl_ but it’s been a while since I started reading the book on the topic and the book itself was so dull I couldn’t get through it. Supposedly Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner (who were not on-screen lovers but who were romantically interested in each other in “Wonder Woman”) did no care for each other, although Carter has denied publicly that there were bad feelings between them. Bette Davis and Gary Merrill fell in love on the set of _All About Eve_ but the marriage didn’t fare too well. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/18 "2005-11-25T06:03:30Z")
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy (paired in several MGM operettas in the 30’s) pretty much found each other useless, the story goes. She was called the Iron Butterfly, and he was generally regarded as a pretty face with not much behind it. Then there’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He did not respect her as a dancer, since she had little formal study in that discipline. She resented his perfectionism, and constantly complained that they rehearsed until her feet bled. Some truth on both sides in that one. Of course, they never kissed on-screen (that I remember, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/19 "2005-11-25T06:38:36Z")
> [@Roderick Femm](#): > > Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy (paired in several MGM operettas in the 30’s) pretty much found each other useless, the story goes. She was called the Iron Butterfly, and he was generally regarded as a pretty face with not much behind it. Heh. I remember reading S. J. Perelman, wherein he referred to Eddy as “The Singing Capon.” Not visibly attracted to one another on screen, although they portrayed husband and wife, we have William Frawley and Vivian Vance (Fred and Ethel Mertz, in _I Love Lucy_). They are said to have detested one another. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606/20 "2005-11-25T07:04:00Z")
I don’t think Sonny and Cher were having much fun during the latter part of their shows. They’d already divorced. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-screen-lovers-who-fought-off-screen/332606.md?page=2)