Here are a couple of other, if not weird, then improbable friendships.
After his career as a lawman, Wyatt Earp became an unpaid consultant for silent Western films in Hollywood. He befriended a young contract actor named Marion Morrison on the set of one film. Morrison would bring Earp coffee and Earp would reminisce about his life. Morrison, of course, went on to fame as legendary film icon John Wayne. Wayne later said that he based his image of the Western lawman around Earp.
In 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his radio play of “War of the Worlds,” based upon H. G. Wells’ novel. The broadcast famously spread panic among some listeners, who assumed that the Martian invasion was real. In 1940, Orson Welles and H. G. Wells encountered one another in San Antonio, TX, and agreed to be interviewed on a local radio station. They got along famously, each previously being aware of the other’s work. H. G. gently chided Orson for having a superflous “E” in his name and called the latter’s radio broadcast a “sensational Halloween spree.” He also helped Welles plug his upcoming movie, “Citizen Kane.” An audio recording and transcript of the interview can be found here.
There’s a great section in World War Z about a celebrity fortress that is eventually overrun by other survivors looking for safety that ends with Bill Maher and Ann Coulter screwing each other’s brains out before they’re killed by the mob.
That the sort of example I find interesting, because I think of Wyatt Earp as a nineteenth century figure and John Wayne as a twentieth century figure.
Not sure if this one is surprising, but Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) and Randy Johnson (retired MLB pitcher) are apparently good friends. I presume this started when Johnson pitched for the Mariners.
He attended the wedding IIRC, but wasn’t in the wedding party.
Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were college roommates and have remained friends ever since; Jones spoke at the Democratic Natl. Convention in 2000.
In addition to Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, mentioned upthread, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter became close friends after both left the White House, despite having run against each other in 1976.
JFK and his family were supporters which probably had a lot to do with both being Irish Catholic, but I think you’d have to really stretch things to call them friends.
Back in 2000 or so, the space rock group Hawkwind had a concert where all members past and present were invited on stage to play. For those who don’t know, before Motörhead, Lemmy was in Hawkwind. Samantha Fox was also invited to perform for some reason, which I now guess is because of this friendship with Lemmy. She sang a song that someone else should have sang, there was a huge kerfuffle and blah blah blah. The basic complaint was “Why is this woman who has no relationship to the band whatsoever singing a song instead of the original songwriter?”
I follow both Jessica Gomes (SI model) and Shay Mitchell (actress) on Twitter. Noting that they follow each other, I thought they were a pretty random pair to know each other.
I started noticing a long time ago that famous people are just like us - it’s easier to be a good sport and not make waves and agree while we may not see eye-to-eye on subjects; no one is as horrible as the media makes them out to be. Snoop Dogg is more than willing to look like a doofus if he thinks it’s funny.
The newer crop of gangsta rappers jockeying over who gets custody of Justin Bieber is a head-scratcher though. (Tyler the Creator is the only holdout to date.)