Movie Castings That Ruined Relationships

One's work can really complicate a relationship, especially if they have a job with long hours that requires a lot of travel. For most celebrities, that's a given, and it's even further complicated because their job often requires making out with really, really attractive people. That or bossing really, really attractive people around for long periods of time, creating a shady power dynamic that can lead to trouble if one or more parties are in a relationship.

While there are a ton of instances of celebs cheating on their spouses or significant others with their co-stars, there are also quite a few examples of directors getting too hands-on with the talent. From shattered hearts to broken marriages, getting the gig can come at a steep cost. For these stars, being cast in blockbusters or box office duds did a lot of damage to their private lives — and to their public images, too.

Ben Affleck was engaged to singer Jennifer Lopez when he filmed 2003's Daredevil the year before with actress Jennifer Garner, whom he'd later marry (and divorce) — and he admitted that he and Garner may have been involved during filming, despite giving a rock to "Jenny from the Block."

Affleck told Playboy in 2014 (via International Business Times), "That's where I found my wife. We met on Pearl Harbor, which people hate, but we fell in love on Daredevil."

Garner, meanwhile, was married to Felicity actor Scott Foley at the time. They separated in March 2003 and filed for divorce that May (via Us Weekly). Foley blamed the split on Garner's sudden success, explaining to TV Guide (via Entertainment Weekly), "Jennifer became a huge celebrity. She became a huge star, and she deserved everything she got. There was no other relationship, there was no infidelity, nothing. People get divorced, you know?"

Don't feel too bad for J.Lo, though: Her ex-husband Cris Judd's dad actually claimed to the New York Daily News that Lopez cheated on Judd with Affleck while they filmed the 2003 critical and commercial flop known as Gigli.

To be fair to Sienna Miller, it wasn't her casting in the 2004 film Layer Cake that put the nail in the coffin of her relationship with Jude Law — it was actually reportedly Law cheating on her with his children's nanny. Still, the relationship had already been rocky enough for her to cheat on Law with her co-star Daniel Craig in the British crime thriller.

The affair was revealed during the hacking trial involving the now-shuttered tabloid News of the World. A reporter from the rag allegedly hacked into Craig's voicemails in 2005, revealing a message from Miller telling the Casino Royale star that she was out with Law and couldn't talk right then but that she loved him, as reported by The Telegraph. Miller later had to testify about the voicemail. The Telegraph reported in January 2014 that Miller said her fling with Craig "was not a relationship." Rather, she said, "It was a very brief encounter."

Robert Rodriguez cast Rose McGowan in Planet Terror in 2006, and they quickly became an item ... even though he was married with kids to Elizabeth Avellán at the time. Rodriguez divorced his wife and got engaged to McGowan, but they split before ever walking down the aisle.

The relationship sounded far from healthy: McGowan said in her book, Brave (via Vanity Fair), that she'd confided in Rodriguez about movie producer Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually assaulting her in 1997 (a claim Weinstein has denied). McGowan alleged that Rodriguez played "mind games" with her after the revelation, which the director denied. Rodriguez told Variety that he cast her in Planet Terror to spite Weinstein, whose company was distributing the movie.

Rodriguez even hinted that he regretted making the movie at all. "For me personally, it cost me my marriage of 16 years, my family, a large dose of sanity, and for years I have grappled with the sobering idea that maybe I made a grave error in standing up at all, when no one was even asking me to," he shared. "The reason I'm saying this is because it's very clear to me now that when someone does what Harvey Weinstein did, the devastation goes far beyond predator and victim."

Two relationships were ruined just so we could all watch Paris Hilton die in 2005's House Of Wax.

Nick Carter told Page Six (via MTV News) that he believed the heiress allegedly cheated on him, and rumors swirled that she'd had an affair with actor Chad Michael Murray while filming the horror flick together, as reported by Us Weekly. Murray was newly married to his One Tree Hill co-star Sophia Bush at the time.

Shortly after those rumors gained traction, Bush filed for an annulment from Murray, reportedly citing the ever-ominous yet vague "fraud" as the reason for the split (via TMZ). Bush's request for an annulment was denied, however, so the pair officially divorced in 2006, as the Daily Mail reported.

Neither Bush nor Murray has commented on the affair allegations, but Bush has said their marriage had an "unpleasant" ending. Murray told E! News in 2011 that his "troublesome past" was behind him (but didn't mention his alleged Hilton hookup), explaining, "I was a kid, and I guess I just I didn't see things as clear as I wish I did. ... When you're young and you're thrown into something that I was definitely not ready for — I'm human and screw up. I'm glad I went through it, I really am, because I wouldn't have come out the other side."

When Billy Crudup worked with Claire Danes on the 2004 movie Stage Beauty, he had been in a relationship with Mary-Louise Parker for eight years and she was seven months pregnant with his child. But he still reportedly hooked up with Danes and ditched his long-term partner and soon-to-be baby mama for the much-younger ingénue.

Crudup and Danes split four years later, and Danes still doesn't seem to have remorse for contributing to the end of Crudup and Parker's romance. "I was just in love with him. And needed to explore that and I was 24," Danes later told Howard Stern (via Us Weekly). "I didn't quite know what those consequences would be. ... But it's okay. I got through it."

Parker still hasn't addressed the affair explicitly, though she did allude to it in her 2015 memoir Dear Mr. You — and it sounds like she was, understandably, incredibly hurt, writing, "I am pregnant and alone. It hurts to even breathe. ... I'm trying to get through it but I'm by myself every night and every morning and no one, nothing helps."

Lifetime movies really do bring the drama.

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian each cheated on their spouses when they co-starred in 2009's Northern Lights. Rimes was married to Dean Sheremet, while Cibrian was married to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville, with whom he shares two sons. They made little effort to hide their affair and each eventually divorced their respective spouses and married each other — but not without years of drama between Rimes, Cibrian, and Glanville afterward.

"It happens every day to so many people. And I if I take away my album sales, my words, and you have just another couple. You had two couples whose marriages didn't work who really stumbled upon each other and fell in love," Rimes told ABC News in 2010. "I can't change [critics'] minds. Nothing I'm going to say is going to change it. I do know that and I have accepted that."

Cibrian added, "The truth is that we're human beings. ... We make mistakes and we learn from them, but we're human. We fell in love. We're talking about something that's over a year, year and-a-half old, really and we're still together and we're madly in love. And I think people are finally seeing that."

Can you imagine Mr. And Mrs. Smith starring anyone but Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt? It almost happened: Nicole Kidman was originally slated for the role of Mrs. Smith.

In the book Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon – Arnon Milchan about one of Mr. And Mrs. Smith's producers, it's revealed that Kidman was originally cast as Pitt's secret agent wife in the 2005 action-comedy, but that Pitt actually dropped out of the role because he didn't feel any chemistry with the Australian Oscar winner. Eventually, Kidman's role was recast with Jolie, at which point Pitt — who was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time — said he'd gladly sign back on to star.

"At first, Jen didn't believe he was involved with Angelina. She started asking around but no one would tell her anything because they were loyal to Brad, so she asked him point blank. He denied it," an excerpt of the book read. It wasn't until Aniston and Pitt went on a pre-planned New Year's vacation with Courteney Cox and then-husband David Arquette that Pitt allegedly came clean.

"He eventually admitted he was in love with Angelina. Jen was furious and threw him out," the book's authors wrote. Aniston and Pitt announced their separation in January 2005.

And, well, we all know what happened next.

Kristen Stewart's casting as Snow White in 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman was probably a bad idea for a few reasons, including the audience being forced to believe she was the fairest of them all when the movie also stars Charlize Theron. However, it was her after-hours work with the film's director, Rupert Sanders, that led to the demise of not one, but two relationships.

Stewart was dating her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson while filming the action-heavy fairytale flick. Sanders was married to model Liberty Ross, with whom he shares two children.

But that didn't stop Sanders and Stewart from getting very close in July 2012 ... and paparazzi busted them doing it. The exposure of the affair led Stewart to publicly acknowledge her romance with Pattinson, telling press (via E! News), "I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob." She added, "I love him ... I'm so sorry."

Whether or not it was really a "momentary indiscretion" remains a mystery, but the damage was done: Stewart and Pattinson split (though they briefly reunited before later breaking up for good), and Ross filed for divorce from Sanders in 2013, snagging big bucks in their settlement (via TMZ).