Reel Couples: Cam’s February Staff Picks

I’m excited to take over an evening of programming this month to focus on something I always find brings an unusual alchemy to a movie: Real couples on screen! What does real sexual and romantic chemistry bring to a movie? Can you see actors falling into or out of love on screen? Was it the project or just cupid making these folks fall in love? I hope all these questions and more go through your head as you watch the following couples.

Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall
To Have and Have Not (1944)

February 17 at 9pm ET on HS70

While this movie did come out half a century before ‘age gap discourse’, tongues still wagged when an affair emerged between the 45-year-old mid-divorce Humphrey Bogart and his then 19-year-old co-star Lauren Bacall. Upon meeting Bogart, Bacall recalled “There was no clap of thunder, no lightning bolt.” yet the on screen chemistry in this film was so palpable that director Howard Hawks almost fired the starlet for causing a scandal until he admitted the frisson improved the film. Bogart & Bacall were married by 1945, had two children and remained together until his death in 1957.

Anthony Perkins & Berry Berenson
Remember My Name (1978)

February 17 at 10:45pm ET on HS70
Available on demand in February

This married couple stirred up as much controversy, not due to their age gap but because prior to their marriage Anthony Perkins had only dated men. Questions remain to this day whether Berenson truly opened Perkins’ eyes to Bisexuality or if their marriage was a byproduct of early conversion therapy, but they remained married until his death in 1992 and had two children: musician Elvis Perkins and Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins. Their unusual coupling only appeared together once on screen in this equally unique thriller where they play the ‘perfect couple’ stalked by an icy and unsettling Geraldine Chaplin.

Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

February 18 at 12:25am ET on HS70
Available on demand in February

This is the last film co-starring longtime companions Hepburn and Tracy. The two were together for nearly 26 years, but California’s divorce laws kept Tracy married to another woman, and their affair was never publicly acknowledged until decades after his death. Current gossips and historians go back and forth on how much the relationship was one of ‘convenience’, but the affection between the pair helped them through the Hays Code era and Tracy’s alcoholism and was such a powerful force it buoyed over 9 films, including this Hollywood blow against the then taboo of interracial marriage.

Tom Cruise & Rebecca De Mornay
Risky Business (1983)

February 17 at 9pm ET on HS80

Before Katie and Nicole, heck even before Scientology, Cruise’s first big Hollywood Affair was with his Risky Business co-star. While De Mornay arrived on set dating Harry Dean Stanton, Cruise’s persistence paid off and by the time of the film’s release they were a regular item. Their dual rise to fame made them paparazzi fodder till 1985 when their careers and coupling diverged because, as De Mornay put it, “His presence is more like, I would say, a major chord, [thinking] in music terms, and I’m more of a minor chord…America really, really loves the major chords.”

Geena Davis & Jeff Goldblum
The Fly (1986)

February 17 at 10:45pm ET on HS80
Available on demand in February

Sometimes short Hollywood marriages get forgotten to the sands of time, but thankfully 80s stars Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum leave behind three films they made together. They met on the set of schlock horror comedy Transylvania 6-5000 both freshly divorced and married a year after this sci-fi shocker that’s their best as a pair. The marriage ended amicably in 1990 and both look back fondly on the time, with Geena Davis describing their union as a “magical chapter in [her] life.” They even presented a SAG Award together in 2024.

Dennis Quaid & Meg Ryan
Innerspace (1987)

February 18 at 12:25am ET on HS80

Ryan and Quaid met on the set of this wacky special effects comedy when he was a big name, and she was just an up-and-comer. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was during filming of their next, more adult, picture D.O.A. in 1988 that they really started dating and were married on Valentine’s Day in 1991. They were red carpet mainstays through the 90s but their relationship ended in the 2000s amid allegations of cheating and substance abuse (though don’t believe the misinformation that Russell Crowe broke them up). Despite the turmoil, both look back fondly on the union thanks to it producing their actor son Jack Quaid.

Courtney Cox & David Arquette
Scream 2 (1997)

February 17 at 9pm ET on HS90
Available on demand in February

While this comedic pair met on the 1996 set of Scream, they weren’t officially dating until the sequel film. Both credit director Wes Craven with noticing their mutual attraction and pushing Arquette to ask Cox out and eventually marry her in 1999. While they divorced in 2013 the relationship between their characters Gale and Dewey became a cornerstone of the franchise into the 2020s.

Freddie Prinze Jr. & Sarah Michelle Gellar
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

February 17 at 11:05pm ET on HS90
Available on demand in February

Not quite a repeat of the last couple, these 90s heartthrobs met on the set of a slasher but remained ‘just friends’ for three years before a fateful dinner in 2000 where other friends cancelled, and it was just the two of them. They’d be married in 2002, shortly after appearing together again in the Scooby-Doo franchise, have two children and remain one of the few 90s power couples that stayed together.

Rita Wilson & Tom Hanks
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

February 18 at 12:50am ET on HS90
Available on demand in February

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson met on the set of his 80s sitcom Bosom Buddies, and she became his second wife in 1988. What’s interesting about this particular film is the married couple doesn’t play love interests but instead, Norah Ephron decided to utilize Hanks and Wilson’s chemistry casting them as SIBLINGS. What might seem uncomfortable works though, with Wilson acting as Tom’s emotional anchor, and she gets one of her more memorable onscreen moments discussing An Affair to Remember.

Vince Vaughn & Jennifer Aniston
The Break-Up (2006)

February 17 at 9pm ET on HS00
Available on demand in February

You’re forgiven if you’ve forgotten this short-lived Hollywood romance, but it perfectly suits the uncoupling featured in the film. Aniston seemed to take on this comedy partly to make light of the public obsession with her 2005 divorce from Brad Pitt and she and her co-star hit it off enough to date for a year. Aniston looks back on the relationship fondly as a way out of her post-divorce rut stating, “I call Vince my defibrillator, He literally brought me back to life. My first gasp of air was a big laugh!”

Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling
The Notebook (2004)

February 17 at 10:50pm ET on HS00
Available on demand in February

Any Canadian is familiar with this 00s power couple who met on the set of The Notebook, the movie that launched them both to film stardom, BUT far from a ‘showmance,’ the twosome had a very troubled time fighting on set despite their fiery on-screen chemistry. In fact, they didn’t start dating until a year after the film came out after an accidental run-in in New York. Their pairing ended in 2007 with only this film to show for it, and both actors saying it was the ‘booked and busy’ schedules of a pair of rising stars that really got in the way.

Ben Falcone & Melissa McCarthy
Bridesmaids (2011)

February 18 at 1am ET on HS00

While he may be less of a household name that his wife, Ben Falcone may be one of Hollywood’s ultimate ‘wife guys’ by focusing most of his writing, directing and producing career on projects starring his wife of 20 years. Bridesmaids is the first film they shared screentime together: he plays a memorable air marshall straight-man who once again helps his wife’s comedy shine.