Despite the drama and chaos of the entertainment industry, these superstars have managed to maintain enduring friendships with each other in Hollywood.
From Matt Damon and his best friend Ben Affleck, to inseparable Dawson’s Creek alums Busy Phillips and Michelle Williams, these are the most enduring celebrity friendships.
Jennifer Aniston & Courteney Cox
Cox and Aniston were just meant to be. Since becoming besties on the aptly named Friends back in 1994, their relationship has endured failed marriages, health issues, a baby, and more.
They’ve experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows together. “I’ve slept in her guest bedroom a lot,” Aniston told More. “Without giving away too much of my private stuff, all I can say is she’s been there for me through thick and thin.”
It’s no wonder Aniston was Cox’s maid of honour in 2018, and Cox was Aniston’s in 2015 when she married ex-husband Justin Theroux. The former Mrs Brad Pitt is also godmother to Cox’s daughter, Coco.
Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet
Thirty years is a true milestone in Hollywood for any kind of relationship – and we have no doubt these two have another three decades of friendship in them.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh, this is gonna be fun. We’re definitely gonna get along.’ And we just really did. We just really did,” Winslet told Entertainment Tonight of the moment she met DiCaprio on the set of 1997’s Titanic.
“To have friendships that bind you, and that shared history, it’s really something,” Winslet told Glamour. “Sometimes we do quote the odd Titanic line back and forth to each other,” she confessed. “Because only we can, and we find it really funny.”
Tina Fey & Amy Poehler
Comedy power duo Poehler and Fey were nobodies when they met at Chicago’s ImprovOlympic theatre more than 30 years ago. In her autobiography, Yes Please, Poehler recalled how the theatre’s co-founder played friendship matchmaker.
“There was another new improviser in another one of her classes whom she thought I would really like. Her name was Tina and she was like me but with brown hair,” Poehler wrote.
And the rest, is history. The ladies went on to star as Saturday Night Live regulars together, worked on films like Mean Girls and Sisters, and even hosted the Golden Globes together multiple times.
Jennifer Lawrence & Emma Stone
Did you know these two became besties after bonding over a shared stalker? Lawrence and Stone were chatting to Vanity Fair as they recalled their early days in Hollywood.
“We both had the same stalker. His name was John the Orchestra Guy. He would ‘accidentally’ text us,” Lawrence said. It went on for some time before the actresses eventually met in person.
“[Stone and I] had been texting every day for a year, but we’d never talked on the phone and we’d never met,” Lawrence continued. “Then we were finally going to meet and she sent me her address … and on the way over, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what if this is John the Orchestra Guy?’”
Since then, they’ve both won Oscars, got married and each had a baby.
Dolly Parton & Sylvester Stallone
Stallone told Ain’t It Cool News how his Rhinestone co-star was there for him when no-one else was.
“I remember in the early ’80s when I was sitting in a hotel room feeling sorry for myself … [she] called, and we began a conversation that lasted at least two hours, and by the time I hung up, I thought she was the most amazing person I’d ever spoken to.”
In her own autobiography, Parton said Stallone was “very healthy for me to be around”.
Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
Affleck was just 8 years old when he and a 10-year-old Damon became friends. Both from the same suburb of Boston, the guys turned from mates to besties, then rivals and eventually professional collaborators after discovering they had a mutual love of movies.
“As a teenager, the natural thing is to have friends who have common interests and so you fit together seamlessly. Before Matt, I was by myself,” Affleck once told Parade. “Acting was a solo activity … and no-one understood it. All of a sudden I had this friend, Matt, and he gets it and wants to do it.”
Oprah Winfrey & Gayle King
This iconic duo first met in 1976 when they were promising young journalists at Baltimore’s WJZ station. Oprah was the anchor of the 6pm news slot and Gayle was a production assistant.
They became fast friends when Oprah invited Gayle to stay with her for the night, when she couldn’t make it home during a snowstorm. From there, the bonds only continued to deepen.
“We became friends that first night because for the first time, I met somebody who I felt was like me,” Gayle said. “I’d never met anybody like that. Certainly not another Black girl. I grew up in an all-white community.”
“Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own,” Oprah said in the August 2006 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. “Whatever this friendship is, it’s been a very fun ride—and we’ve taken it together.”
Busy Philipps & Michelle Williams
It wasn’t until Season 4 of Dawson’s Creek that Busy Philipps walked onto the set. But the friendship between Philipps and Williams was instantaneous, with the help of some cheap red wine. “I’m so in love with her,” Williams, who is also Philipps’ daughter’s godmother, once told People.
“She’s proof that the love of your life does not have to be a man!” And the feeling is mutual. In 2020, the White Chicks star gushed, “I’m eternally grateful that we met all those years ago because there’s no-one I’d rather weather all the storms with and celebrate all the wonderful things with and cry and cry and laugh and laugh and drink and not drink with.”
These two are all about celebrating their big and little wins, side by side.
Penélope Cruz & Salma Hayek
Cruz says Hayek is “like a sister” after meeting more than three decades ago.
“It’s like we can tell each other everything. We really trust each other. I’ve known her for 30 years,” Cruz told E! News.
So, how did they become the best of friends? “The way I met her was really special, because she picked me up from the airport on my second trip to LA,” the Oscar-winning star recalled.
“She said, ‘You’re coming with me to my house because you don’t know anybody here,’ so it really became like family from that moment.”
Naomi Watts & Nicole Kidman
It’s hard to believe these two A-listers actually met in high school here in Oz, but it wasn’t until they both starred in the coming-of-age film Flirting in 1991 that they forged a forever friendship.
“We’ve gone through a lot together over a significant amount of time. That history binds you,” Watts told People. “We have a strong respect and love for one another.”
Drew Barrymore & Cameron Diaz
Did you know their friendship pre-dates their 2000 film, Charlie’s Angels? Yep, that’s right. Barrymore was 14 when a 16-year-old Diaz walked into the coffee shop that the child star was working in. From that moment, they became best friends, and in Barrymore’s own words, “Sisties.”
Since that fateful day in the ’90s, she said, “We’ve experienced birth, life, death, marriage, divorce, highs and lows, work, boyfriends, friends, travel – there is nothing we haven’t done together.” Barrymore continued, “The thing that I love about our friendship is that we have been there in all the big and important moments, we’ve also been there in the small moments and the casual moments and the reason we are such good friends is because it’s real and we go through real stuff with each other. It’s not a Hollywood fairytale.”
TREAT A FRIEND
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