Movie filming flings that got reel: Sydney Sweeney & Glen Powell, Liam Neeson & Pamela Anderson, Brangelina

In the annals of unexpected celebrity couples, Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson is right up front. But if you think about it for more than two seconds, the only reaction is, “aww, that’s so cute”.

It’s downright adorable because they might come from different worlds – Canada and Northern Ireland, Baywatch and Schindler’s List – but they’re also two people who have had their share of hardship.

The pair met on The Naked Gun sequel, and Anderson told Esquire this week that she had originally been intimidated to meet him, because of his serious thespian credentials. She was shaking the first day of rehearsals, but his gentlemanly manner put her at ease.

“He’s such a sweetheart,” Anderson said. “He’s so giving and generous and was so complimentary and supportive that, you know, you can’t help but fall in love with him.”

There are layers to the Anderson and Neeson romance that goes beyond the sizzling onscreen chemistry in the goofy spoof comedy (out in Australia on August 21, but there are previews this weekend).

Let’s not pretend we don’t have parasocial relationships with celebrities, especially those who have had careers as long as Anderson and Neeson. For decades, they’ve graced our screens and we form attachments to what we think we know about them.

We become invested – and we love a good story.

Anderson’s tale, in particular, has been aired time and again, but in the past few years, there has been a reckoning over how she was treated within the industry, by the media and by the public.

With a sex tape released against her will and typecast in blonde bimbo roles, it’s only now in middle age has the public perception of her has been re-litigated. She was a victim of sexist tropes, and coming to terms with that, collectively, has cast her as someone who has always deserved better.

That she has reclaimed her narrative with her documentary, photoshoots in her Eden-esque garden and her choice to not wear make-up to public events, is a triumphant next chapter.

Neeson, too has had a tragic public story. His wife, Natasha Richardson (part of the Redgrave acting dynasty and had starred in The Parent Trap and The Handmaid’s Tale), died in 2009 from a brain injury sustained in a skiing accident. The two had been married for 15 years and had two sons together.

He and one of his sons, Micheal Richardson, shared the screen in the 2020 family drama Made in Italy, in which they played an estranged father and son who finally confront their shared grief over the loss of the woman they both loved.

The movie was so-so but the real-life history that served as the emotional foundation made it more meaningful than the text.

As recently as 2024, Neeson told People magazine that at his age, then 72, he was “past all that” when it came to dating.

The rumours about an on-set romance were confirmed when the pair rocked up to The Naked Gun red carpet premiere, dangling over each and launching a new set of “Find someone who looks at you the way Pam and Liam look at each other”.

Richardson’s sister, Joely, also an actor, even commented on Anderson’s Instagram posts with love heart emojis.

There was another dimension to it as well, and that’s the effect this real-life development may have on the success of the movie they were promoting.

The Naked Gun is not a romantic comedy or drama, it is, above all, a spoof comedy, and the presence of a lovey-dovey subplot is not essential to its appeal. But it doesn’t hurt, right?

When you’ve got two charismatic stars playing love interests and they’re hanging off each for real, you want to see what the fuss is about. We adore onscreen chemistry, and knowing that even within the make-believe, two people were really falling in love.

So, far it’s collected $US59 million at the box office worldwide, which is not a barnstormer, but the budget was only $US45 million, and studio comedies have become an endangered species in cinemas.

It’s also still yet to officially open in some territories, including Australia.

They’re not the first couple whose on-set entanglement played into the promotional cycle for their film.

One of the most notable has to be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who met during the 2005 production of Mr & Mrs Smith while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston.

All three participants hated the brouhaha it caused in the media, coinciding as it did with the rise of online gossip blogs including Perez Hilton. It was a vicious cycle spurred on by lashings of old-fashioned misogyny of “the Madonna and the whore” trope as “camps” declared themselves Team Aniston or Team Jolie.

But it also supercharged that action-comedy’s box office. Mr & Mrs Smith raked in $US487 million as cinemagoers raced to see for themselves what must be the undeniable chemistry that made Pitt break up his marriage.

It was, at the time, the highest-grossing movie for both Pitt and Jolie.

If you go back further in the history of Hollywood, there was the classic pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Yes, he was more than double her age when they met in 1943 (she was only 19), which makes your toes curl today. But Bacall had a gumption about her that, despite her tender age, she seemed a formidable match for him.

They made four movies together, including To Have and Have Not during which Bogart was still married to someone else. Bacall recalled that their first encounter was “no clap of thunder, no lightning bolt” but things changed.

Their son, Steve Bogart, would years later tell People magazine that you could “see their love” in that film, and that “he was the great love of her life, and she his”.

Howard Hawks, who directed To Have and Have Not, was originally incensed when he found out about their affair and threatened to sell Bacall’s contract, but after they were married, the studio they had marketing gold on their hands and played into the Bogie and Bacall of it all.

Hawks even cast them both in their next film, The Big Sleep. All four of their films together were considered commercial successes, and to this day, are still remembered for Bogart and Bacall’s onscreen partnership.

He died in 1957, and she became a 32-year-old widow.

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz started dating during the production of Vicky Cristina Barcelona but the pair had known each other for 15 years at that point. Bardem told GQ that nothing happened until the wrap party, but if you really want to see when they first sparked, you have to go to 1992.

The two had been in a film called Jamon Jamon, when Cruz was 16 and Bardem was 21, but Cruz had lied to everyone about her age.

Bardem later said of the film, “There was obvious chemistry between us. I mean, it’s all there on film, it’s like a document of our passion. It was a very sexy film, it still is.”

Bardem is speaking to that very real desire of audiences to find something authentic in the play-acting. As spectators, we understand that movies, TV shows, and stage productions are not real, that everyone is there to do a job and pretend.

But we’re also asked to suspend disbelief, so audiences look for every opportunity to ascribe meaning or authenticity that probably isn’t there. It’s how we connect.

Hollywood understands this, and can stir up something that isn’t there (or maybe isn’t there).

Case in point, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga on the trail for A Star is Born, making the most of their palpable onscreen chemistry offscreen.

It culminated in the Oscars ceremony performance where the pair walked onto stage holding hands and launching into Shallow, ending with them seated closely, leaning into the other’s cheek and then locking eyes and sharing a smile laden with secrets. It was hot.

The moment seemed to be a crescendo to all the whispers that there was something more going on, especially as Lady Gaga had called off her engagement to talent agent Christian Carino that same month.

By then, A Star is Born had already been in release for four months and had earnt most of its $US436 million box office, but the film will always be remembered in part for the were-they-weren’t-they between Cooper and Lady Gaga.

In the social media age, the hint of off-screen romance can really heighten a project’s buzz, as Anyone But You discovered in late-2023. Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell’s potential sizzle kicked off when paparazzi photos of the pair on set, frolicking in the Sydney water in swimwear, made the rounds.

It was something they played up during the promotional tour, gazing at each other on the red carpet or flirting in interviews. It was a rom-com whose whole point is to sell you the idea that these two very attractive, young people were smitten.

Then Powell and his long-term girlfriend broke up, and the rumours took over the internet.

It was all staged, of course. Powell later said, “The two things that you have to sell a rom-com are fun and chemistry. Sydney and I have a ton of fun together and we have a ton of effortless chemistry.

“That’s people wanting what’s on the screen off the screen, and sometimes you just have to lean into it a bit – and it worked wonderfully. Sydney is very smart.”

It was, indeed, a smart play. Anyone But You, despite being a mediocre movie, made 10 times its budget with a $US220 million box office.

Hollywood is about make-believe, and whether these off-screen co-star romances are real or not, it’s what we want to believe.