It’s an awkward title but I couldn’t think of a better way to summarize it.
I’m looking for examples of movies where a married couple are both in the movie but where the wife is cast as the love interest of somebody other than her husband.
Two examples I’ve thought of: The Man Who Would Be King had Michael and Shakira Caine in it but Shakira was cast as Sean Connery’s love interest. Dodgeball had Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor in the movie but Tyler was cast as Vince Vaughn’s love interest.
One Tree Hill qualifies. Chad Michael Murray married Sophia Bush in real life, but ended up with Hilarie Burton’s character on the show. Murray and Bush subsequently divorced.
In the old tv show thirtysomething, the characters played by Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig (who are married IRL) were married to other people (Mel Harris and Timothy Busfield) - and the two couples were best friends…
In Becket, Sian Phillips is Thomas Becket’s (Richard Burton’s) mistress and in love with him. Henry II (Peter O’Toole) wants her to come sleep with him, and eventually forces them both to give in and do what he wants, which begins the rift between Becket and his king.
Phillips’s character commits suicide rather than be Henry’s mistress.
The mother of Ben(Michael Emerson) on Lost (Carrie Preston) is married to…Michael Emerson! Of course, she’s only his mother in flashbacks, but it still counts, right?
Didn’t Brad Pitt guest-star on Friends as a former fatty that Rachel hated in high school? They were married at the time.
It’s not a movie, but in Designing Women, Charlene (Jean Smart) is married to Richard Gilliland IRL. Richard played Mary Jo’s love interest. I often wonder (because Charlene had her own husband) how they dealt with each other’s canoodling other people on set. I’m sure it was all professional, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there weren’t some little twinge there.
ivylass, your tendency to come into threads before me and say the exact thing I was about to is very, very disturbing, especially given our shared love of Sports Night and Pushing Daisies. If I discover that you also love The West Wing, I be forced to conclude that we’re in a Tyler Durden situation.
Peter Falk’s wife was in a few episodes of Columbo. She was never his love interest, of course. She played different characters in each episode and was in relationships in some of them.
Not quite the same-they met on set, I believe-Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in Bull Durham. They played lovers, but then Sarandon, in the film, ended up with Kevin Costner.
Fredric March played Christopher Columbus in the 1949 movie of the same name, and his wife Florence Eldridge played Queen Isabella. Some guy named Francis Lister played King Ferdinand. Never heard of him.
More specifically, someone who hated Rachel. Rachel didn’t have any particular feelings for the guy, but he was the President of the ‘We hate Rachel Green club’
Another TV one: Idina Menzel had a 2 or 3 episode guest part on Private Practice (yeah I know, but …I watch it anyway). She was on as a potential love interest for Tim Daly’s character. I don’t even recall if she had any interaction with real life husband Taye Diggs.
In The Private Life of Henry VIII, Charles Laughton played romantically opposite four actresses – Merle Oberon, Wendy Barrie, Billie Barnes, and Everly Gregg – in addition to his wife, Elsa Lanchester*. But since he was gay, Lanchester presumably was used to him with other people.
*Catherine of Aragon was evidently left out of the movie, for those of you scoring at home.
Ditto Tony Shaloub in Monk (with wife Brooke Adams) and Felilcity Huffman in Sports Night (with husband William H. Macy).
Other real life couples who appeared in the same movie but weren’t each other’s love interest:
Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins: Bob Roberts, The Player
Tom Hanks & Rita Wilson: Sleepless in Seattle, Bonfire of the Vanities, that thing you do!
Woody Allen & Mia Farrow: Broadway Danny Rose
Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones: Traffic
Bruce Willis & Demi Moore: Mortal Thoughts
Mel Brooks & Anne Bancroft: Silent Movie, Dracula: Dead and Loving It
I can’t say I’m too familiar with the films of Eastwood & Locke or Bronson & Ireland, but they made enough together it wouldn’t surprise me if at least one qualified.
