Jon Hamm and Paul Rudd
Jon Hamm and Paul Rudd have actually been friends for over 30 years now. Before they were both big names in Hollywood and show business, the two had already met. Paul Rudd was once a Bar Mitzvah DJ. Apparently they first met in college and though they soon became friends, they did not click immediately.
Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito have known one another since early childhood. There’s a seven year age gap between them (DeVito being the younger of the two) so naturally they were not initially friends, but their parents owned a hair salon together. They have since starred in several films together as adults and still remain good friends to this day. It’s amazing how far the pair go back.
Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake
Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake starred in The Mickey Mouse Club when they were preteens. The pair even lived together for around six months, and at the time Timberlake’s mother became Gosling’s legal guardian to make things easier for the family. What a wild way to get to know each other! Other Mouseketeers of the time included future pop icons Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt
Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein have followed a similar path from Broadway to Hollywood, but that’s actually not the start of their journey together at all. It turns out that the two of them met at the Bat Mitzvah of one of their mutual friends back in the 2000’s. They reconnected at university and became close friends where they attended prom and later the Tony Awards together.
Maya Rudolph and Gwyneth Paltrow
Songwriter/music producer Richard Rudolph met film director/producer Bruce Paltrow back when they were in college. They became friends, after both moved to Los Angeles they ended up sending their daughters to the same school. These girls, Gwyneth Paltrow and Maya Rudolph, also became friends, having known one another since they were only seven years old.
Jennifer Aniston and Chaz Bono
There are celebrities out there who you may not expect to mesh well or have known each other for long, but Jennifer Aniston and Chaz Bono actually go way back. The two attended the same high school, but that wasn’t all. Apparently the future Friends icon was in the same friend group as the child of Sonny and Cher, and they would all hang out at Chaz’s house after school most days.
Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler
The families of Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler families have been close for years, and the two essentially grew up together. They attended the same school in the 1990s and were friends there, a friendship they have maintained over the years. They also remain close to each other’s parents as well, with Kate Hudson even posting an Instagram picture with Liv Tyler’s father, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler.
Laura Linney and Brooke Shields
These two esteemed and seasoned actresses have known one another for a great many years. They are friends to this day, but even as young girls Brooke Shields and Laura Linney were very close. In February of 2020 Shields shared a throwback photograph in her Instagram of them as children on a swing together, captioned “went way back into the archives for this one #tbt with @itsmelauralinney.”
Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner
No runway is complete without the waifish presence of supermodels Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner these days. Together, they have appeared in several Victoria’s Secret shows and are often pictured on holiday side by side. But this didn’t begin backstage at fashion week. They actually met as young teenagers. “I met her for the first time seven years ago over Twitter,” Jenner once said. “I was probably 14 or 15. We met up and had sushi, and now we’re best friends.”
Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez
Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez are now established singers in their own right. They first met as kids when they beat out thousands of other kids to star on Barney. Their friendship continued into their teens when both hadbagged their own Disney shows. But at the turn of the 2010s, things fizzled out. “When you grow up with somebody, you’re always going to have love for them. But I’m not friends with her,” Demi said in 2020. “I will always have love for her, and I wish everybody nothing but the best.”
Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts
These two starred opposite each other on the set of Australian coming-of-age dramedy Flirting in 1991 but it wasn’t the first time they met. Kidman and Watts had actually attended the same school and theater company down under. Kidman later presented an award to Watts for her role in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. “She came to my premieres and supported me,” Kidman said. “Finally to be able to give back to her on the same level is really lovely.” “I was inspired by Nicole,” Watts replied. “The fact that we’ve come from the same place gave me hope for myself.”
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
These two grew up together in Cambridge, Massachusetts, first meeting when Damon was 10 and Affleck was 8. They went on to work together on several projects, including School Ties, The Battle of Shaker Heights and Field of Dreams. When they worked on their Oscar-winning screenplay for 1997’s Good Will Hunting, they were even roommates. “We rented this house on the beach in Venice and 800 people came and stayed with us and got drunk,” Affleck said.
Adam Levine and Jonah Hill
Long before the days of Maroon 5 and Superbad, Adam Levine and Jonah Hill were busy enjoying a childhood together. It’s a bromance that has continued to this very day. “Adam was like family, and he still is, Hill said in a Playboy interview. “I don’t see him as a rock star. He’s just a person to me…Adam has been there for me and my family, and his family has been there for my family more than anyone else. That guy has all my love and respect forever.” Now, that’s a Hollywood love story.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire
Leo and Tobey met as kids during an audition and ended up bonding over being raised by single mothers. DiCaprio revealed in 2014, he was the one who wanted to become friends. “When I want someone to be my friend, I just make them my friend. I literally jumped out of the car. I was like ‘Tobey! Tobey! Hey! Hey!'” The actors, original members of Hollywood’s famous “p***y posse”, remains friends to this day, though they now go by “Wolfpack”.
Meghan Markle and Katherine McPhee
In January 2019, McPhee shared a throwback snap of her and Meghan, captioned: “Both did musicals together as a kid. One is now the Duchess and the other is starring on the West End. Basically the same life if you ask me.” McPhee later revealed that their husbands Prince Harry and David Foster are good friends too. “We just stay in touch with them,” the actress and singer said. “Meghan and I knew each other from childhood, but really Harry and my husband are friends. It’s really nice.”
Zach Braff and Lauryn Hill
Zach Braff and Lauryn Hill were unlikely neighbours growing up in Maplewood, New Jersey. One went on to become an actor, the other an hip hop legend. Hill even attended Braff’s bar mitzvah. “There was a game called Coke and Pepsi: You’d have a partner, and one person was Coke and the other Pepsi,” Braff recalled later. “Depending on what the DJ would yell, you had to run and get on that person’s lap. And Lauryn was my Coke and Pepsi partner.”
Ansel Elgort and Timothee Chalamet
Before they found fame on the big screen, Ansel Elgort and Timothee Chalamet were two young students at a performing arts school in New York. “It’s really crazy, Timmy and I played on the same basketball team, we had the same drama teacher, Mr. Shifman, we had the same science teacher, Mr. Singh, and then in the same year, both of us are nominated for a f**king Golden Globe!” Elgort wrote on Instagram in December 2017. “Living the dream sitting courtside at the Knicks game together. Life is crazy. Congrats to you Timmy.”
Rachel Bilson and Rami Malek
Bilson and Malek were tight in school but things have kind of gone to the dogs in the last few years. Bilson, proud of her former friend’s accomplishments in film, posted a throwback picture of the two to her Instagram. The Bohemian Rhapsody star didn’t like this, and apparently told her to take it down. Ouch. No worries though, Bilson confirmed on a later episode of a Ladygang podcast that they’ve since talked it out and are “all good”.
Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale
Calm down, we’re not trying to pass out two characters starring opposite each other in a high school movie as a real life bond. Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale’s friendship actually goes further back than 2006. “We actually worked together a year before in a Sears commercial, and from that day on we were super close,” Tisdale told Us Weekly. “So people don’t really - I think some people know that, but they think it was that movie that brought us together and it really wasn’t.”
Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg is famous for his unlikely friendships, having become besties with TV cook Martha Stewart in the 2010s. But did you know this iconic rapper actually knows Cameron Diaz from school? Diaz remembers Snoop, then Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., as mainly tall with ponytails. Similar to how he is now really. The Mask actress also once revealed she bought “something” from Snoop around the time.
Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin
Most friends meet in school, and celebs are no different. Yes, Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin both starred in a film together, the 1993 thriller The Good Son, but they also studied together, so it counts. Plus, they were just kids! The pair continue their friendship to this day. Culkin joked on Twitter in 2018: “Of course we’re friends. @elijahwood and I will always be brothers… until he inevitably drops me off a cliff. #SpoilerAlert”
Alyssa Milano and Corey Haim
When Corey Haim tragically passed away from a drug overdose in 2010, plenty of celebrities paid their respects, one of whom - Alyssa Milano - had a huge reason to mourn the shocking death. Between 1987 and 1990, the two actors dated, and prior to that, they had been friends during their youth.
Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn
Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn go back. Back before the days of 1982’s Fast Time at Ridgemont High, in which they both starred. They then shared the screen in 1984’s Racing with the Moon. Years went by without much beef as the two grew to unseen heights, and then Penn slated Cage, accusing him of “selling out” and that he was “not an actor”. Cage responded by saying, “The door to our friendship is now closed.”
Aubrey Plaza and John Gallagher Jr.
Gallagher Jr. became smitten after forging a friendship with Parks and Recreation star Aubrey Plaza as a teenager in Delaware, where they performed in an amateur theatre group. “Aubrey was my first girlfriend when I was about 15 years old,” he once said. “We grew up together in Delaware. We had quite the young love for a while. We still keep in touch. I still see her whenever I can, whenever I’m in L.A. or when she’s in New York. We go way back. Our families are close. It’s great.”
Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford
The story of how Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford came to be pretty is charming. They initially met a church camp (kinda lame) as children and decided to keep in touch as pen pals (kinda sweet) until eventually falling out of contact (kinda sad). But wait! They later reconnected as famous people in the public eye in 2011 (kinda cool!) before getting hitched the next year!
Jay Z and Busta Rhymes
Jay Z and Busta Rhymes met at the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School in downtown Brooklyn back in the 1980s. Rhymes later recalled the two having a battle rap in the cafeteria at one stage. “At the time, when we were rhyming, it was speed rap. That was the thing to do. I knew how to freak it, and he knew how to freak it. And at the time, he was so ill, ’cause of the people he was with at the time, Jaz-O and them, it was their thing [that style]. He kind of got the best of the situation. I got to give it up. He was so ill and his arsenal was so long that he had more than what I did. I spit my one rap, and my tank was empty real fast. He came with two or three after that, and I was like, ‘Here we go.’ But I gave it my best.”
Jessie J and Adele
The chances are, if you attended the BRIT school at any point in the 2000s, you probably rubbed elbows with someone who now owns six houses. Hell, you may have even been friends with them! This is the case for Jessie J and Adele, two nobodies who bonded over a love of singing at the performing arts school. Together they ascended the charts turned their lives upside down.
Scarlett Johansson and Jack Antonoff
Two-time Oscar nominated actress Scarlett Johansson and four-time Grammy winning musician Jack Antonoff have done alright for themselves in the business of show but their friendship pre-dates that. The two met at New York’s Professional Children’s School. Their friendship eventually blossomed into a relationship. The two even attended prom together before going their separate ways.
Tupac and Jada Pinkett Smith
“It was the first day and he came over to me and introduced himself and in high school, Pac was a little funny looking,” Jada Pinkett Smith later revealed about meeting the rapper at The Baltimore School for the Arts. “Definitely from looking at him, wasn’t necessarily the type of cat that I would even like, deal with. But as soon as he approached me, he was like a magnet. I don’t think either one of us thought we would have made it in the way that we did, but we knew we were gonna do something. He was one of my best friends, he was like a brother.”
Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears
Just like Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake, these two met as spring chickens in the All New Mickey Mouse Club in the early 1990s. Their friendship lasted throughout the decade, right into the first explosive years of their singing careers. Though Aguilera eventually came to loathe how she was pitted against Spears. “It’s hard to hear yourself being called names,” Aguilera said in September 2018. “I remember being hurt by these commercials on MTV, pitting Britney as the good girl and me as the bad girl. It’s like, if I’m going to be demure and innocent, that’s okay. But if I’m going to just be myself, I’m trouble.”
Prince Williams and Eddie Redmayne
Yes, Eddie Redymane isn’t just posh. He’s posh-posh. Running amok with royals at school posh. He and Prince William both attended Eton College together in the 1990s and even played rugby together, not that the prince enjoyed any minute of it. “He’s a wonderful man,” Redmayne said. “I always felt slightly sorry for him because everyone wanted to tackle the future king of England. He took all the hits.”
Lady Gaga and Nicky Hilton
As luck would have it, hotel heiress and socialite Nicky Hilton attended the all-girls Catholic school Convent of the Sacred Heart at the same time as Stephanie Germanotta, later known as Lady Gaga. “They’re very pretty, and very clean. Very, very clean,” Gaga said of the Hilton sisters. “You know, I never saw Paris, she was older than me, and it’s funny that the press always write that I went to school with the Hilton sisters, but I actually only went with Nicky.”
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley
Blake Lively and Penn Badgley go way back. The actors had known each other since they were 11 years old as family friends. It wasn’t until they landed roles on Gossip Girl that things took a turn. In 2008, Blake and Penn began a relationship, both on and off screen. They ultimately split up in 2011 but remained professional for the sake of the show. Badgley later revealed he and Lively didn’t speak anymore but that it was “an amicable silence”.
Princess Diana and Tilda Swinton
What did Tilda Swinton have in common with Princess Diana? Well, they were both British. They were both blonde. And they both went to the same school as children! The daughter of a major-general of the British Army, Tilda Swinton was fairly well to do and managed to get into the private West Heath Girls’ School in the 1970s, where she met and was classmates with the future Princess of Wales.
Amanda Seyfried and Mae Whitman
Amanda Seyfried is a longtime friend of Good Girls actress Mae Whitman. In 2015, Whitman quote-tweeted a picture of her and the Mamma Mia star from their younger days, captioned “Canadian Tux!” The two could be seen wearing denim-on-denim outfits, an ancient fad that proves just how long the pair have known each other.
Victoria Justice and Taylor Lautner
Victoria Justice and Taylor have been friends for almost two decades now. At the height of their tweeny-bopper fame, the rumour mill had them down as the hottest new couple but Justice ended up denying the speculation in an interview with Popstar magazine. “The truth is that we’re really, really good friends,” she said. “We’ve known each other since we were like 12.”
Troian Bellisario and the Olsen twins
Long, long before the days of Pretty Little Liars and not so long at all before the days of Full House, Troian Bellisario and the Olsen twins were joined at the hip. Bellisario told Seventeen magazine back in 2011: “I was born here and I was raised her in Los Angeles. And when I was 5 years old, my best friends were Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen because we loved across the street from each other.”
B.J. Novak and John Krasinski
You probably know these two as co-stars from the acclaimed NBC comedy series The Office, but the friendship of B.J. Novak and John Krasinski actually goes back much further than that. The two actors have been friends since they were just seven years old. They were on the same Little League baseball team in school. It’s a small world after all.
Kim Kardashian and Nicole Richie
These much admired celebrity heiresses have known one another since the mere age of eleven. Though they have not revealed precisely how they met, it’s known that the two caused a great deal of mischief together. They would go so far as to steal lipsticks from shops together (as if they couldn’t afford to pay for them). Though their interests and hobbies together have changed a lot, the two are still friends, though they fell out for a time in the 2000s.
Andy Samberg and Chelsea Peretti
Chelsea Peretti didn’t first meet Andy Samberg when he bagged the role of Jake Peralta in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She’d known him since they were kids. At one point, Peretti got a little smitten. “We went to elementary school,” she confessed. “I had a huge crush on Andy and he for some reason will never acknowledge this, when I bring it up he just dead-eyes me. I used to call his house on like those old-timey phones that we used to have. I would call and hang up, call, and hang up as some young girls do. Irritating young girls.”
