The Cheating Scandals Hollywood Turned A Blind Eye To

Cheating scandals have been a part of the movie business since the golden age of Hollywood. Way back in 1955, Debbie Reynolds caught husband Eddie Fisher in bed with fellow film star Elizabeth Taylor, causing quite the stir in the upper echelons of Tinsel Town. Yet in the years that followed her affair with her best friend's man, Taylor's star power continued to grow and she went on to make some of her most iconic movies.

Hollywood's tendency to turn a blind eye to a cheating scandal when it suits them has only become more blatant in the years since, with the most obvious example being Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie getting cosy on the set of 2005's Mr and Mrs Smith. Brangelina went on to become the most beloved power couple in Hollywood at the expense of Pitt's soon-to-be ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, who was simply the least bankable of the three in the eyes of the big studios.

The former Friends star is far from the first Hollywood resident to watch an unfaithful ex go on to bigger and better things. These are the cheating scandals that Hollywood decided to brush under the red carpet.

One of the most notoriously iffy affairs in the history of Hollywood, Woody Allen's relationship with Soon-Yi Previn was back in the spotlight in 2016 after the director decided to discuss it while promoting his film Cafe Society. Previn is the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and came to know Allen when he and Farrow were an item. The two began an affair behind Farrow's back and went public with it in 1992, with Allen releasing a statement confirming that it was "real and happily all true."

The enigmatic New Yorker went on to marry Previn and they have two children together; and while he did face some criticism over his actions in the years that followed, Allen simply ignored the haters. "I was immune," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I worked right through that, undiminished." He carried on making films at the rate he always had done, and Hollywood stars continued to line up to take part in Woody Allen projects, just like they do today.

While the powers that be in Tinsel Town seems happy to accept Allen's eccentricities as a part of his genius, some commentators are not so willing to ignore them. The director was heavily scrutinized for comments he made about Soon-Yi as recently as 2015, claiming that the 35-year age gap between them actually helped their relationship blossom. "I was paternal," he told to NPR. "She responded to someone paternal."

Twilight co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson became one of the biggest couples in Hollywood after it was revealed that their on-screen relationship had developed into an off-screen one. That all came crashing down on the set of 2012's Snow White and the Huntsman, where Stewart (Snow White) began an affair with director Rupert Sanders, 19 years her senior. Pictures of the two kissing were obtained by US Weekly, who blew the fling wide open.

"He was all over her," the photographer told the magazine, and the saucy snaps were proof. Both Stewart and Sanders (who was married with two children) quickly released statement's apologizing for their actions. "I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family," Sanders revealed in a People exclusive, adding that his "beautiful wife and heavenly children" were all he had. Stewart was equally remorseful in her statement, saying that she was "deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment" she caused and declaring her undying love for RPatz.

In the end, all parties moved on and the offending pair simply got on with their careers. Less than two years after the scandal Stewart was being lauded by critics for her performance as a troubled guard in Guantanamo Bay flick Camp X-Ray. Sanders, whose wife filed for divorce shortly after the scandal, took some time away from Hollywood, but according to The Guardian the former commercials director was still getting offers to helm high-profile projects. He eventually agreed to direct the divisive 2017 remake of Ghost in the Shell.

When an US Weekly exclusive claimed that Ben Affleck had been having an affair with the nanny of his children behind wife Jennifer Garner's back, it was the beginning of the end for one of Hollywood's longest running marquee couples. The magazine talked to a friend of childminder Christine Ouzounian, whom they claim was fired from her post when Garner realized something was going on. "They would hang out without the kids," the unnamed source said. "And they were very flirty."  

Affleck's reps denied there had been any romantic involvement between himself and Ouzounian, while Garner seemed to confirm that wasn't true when she spoke to Vanity Fair. "We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny," the actress revealed. "She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation." She then went on to throw shade on Affleck for the media storm that he created. "Bad judgment? Yes. It's not great for your kids for [a nanny] to disappear from their lives."

The same outlet that broke the news of Affleck's supposed infidelity with Ouzounian recently accused the actor of also carrying on an affair with Saturday Night Live producer Lindsay Shookus while still married to Gardner. Whether there is any truth to these claims is not known, but scandalous headlines haven't seemed to harm the Batman v Superman star's standing. Put simply, he's a big name in Hollywood, but Garner? Not so much anymore.

British beauty Sienna Miller shot to stardom overnight when the press found out she was dating her Alfie (2004) co-star Jude Law. "One day I was anonymous, the next day people were outside my flat," she told Esquire, though that was just a small taste of what was to come. After getting engaged to Law (who had kids to ex-wife of six years Sadie Frost) she discovered that the star had been having an affair with his children's nanny, Daisy Knight.

Their fling was exposed when one of Law's kids told Frost that the nanny had been in daddy's bed, and Knight was given the sack soon after. Feeling scorned by the way she was let go, Knight took her story to the tabloids. "I was really worried it was going to get out and that I should put my side across," she told Daily Mail, confirming that they had slept together on several occasions while Law was filming All The King's Men (2006). The actor was forced to go public with a statement addressing his infidelity.

"Following the reports, I just want to say I am deeply ashamed and upset that I've hurt Sienna and the people most close to us," Law said (via Telegraph). Miller left, but Hollywood was more than willing to accept his apology. The Brit continued his career in the movies unhindered by the scandal, and recently won the highly coveted part of the young Albus Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films.

Like fellow director Rupert Sanders, Robert Rodriguez was married with children when he supposedly entered into a relationship with Planet Terror leading lady Rose McGowan. The Mexican-American helmer made his early films alongside his wife Elizabeth Avellán, with the two becoming known as "the power couple of Texas film" in their home state, idolized for pioneering "the new Latino cinematic sensibility." Avellán was even a producer on Planet Terror, the film that would ultimately bring their long union to an end.

According to a Variety report, production on the film (which was released as a double-feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof under the title Grindhouse in 2007) was suspended for a month when Avellán discovered her husband had fallen for McGowan. "It was the worst-kept secret on the set," a Page Six source explained. "They were going off to his trailer, having meals together. Rose thought some of the crew were treating her differently, and the attitude was, like, 'Well what do you expect when you're [sleeping with] the director?'"

While McGowan fell out of love with Hollywood soon after the scandal (she later claimed to have been raped by a studio head and said she was "shamed" in Tinsel Town as a result), Rodriguez was able to ride it out. He went on to add a fourth film to the Spy Kids franchise, started the Machete series and recently directed a live-action adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's manga Battle Angel Alita, due out in 2018.

When the circumstances of Ashton Kutcher's fling with Sara Leal became public, it didn't make good reading for the former That '70s Show star. Not only had he slept with a woman less than half the age of his wife Demi Moore, he did it on the day of their sixth wedding anniversary and without any contraception, as Leal explained when she went public in a US Weekly exclusive.

"He just came up and kissed me," Leal said, revealing what went down after they retreated to Kutcher's room at San Diego's Hard Rock Hotel. "He lost his towel and I took my robe off, then we had sex. He was good." Leal made it clear that she believed Kutcher to be single at the time, claiming that the actor told her he was "separated" from Moore before she agreed to get naked in his balcony hot tub.

As it turns out, Leal was also keeping the fact that she had a partner at the time a secret. Actor Scott Eastwood revealed during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen that he was dating Leal at the time she slept with Kutcher and sent his marriage to Moore swerving for the rocks. When asked if he was annoyed about it, Eastwood said "definitely not," echoing the Hollywood sentiment towards Kutcher's adultery. He married Mila Kunis and was welcomed back into the fold with a regular role in Two and a Half Men and later played in Netflix's The Ranch.

Hugh Grant essentially invented the hold-your-hands-up approach to dealing with a cheating scandal. The British star made headlines the world over when he was caught soliciting prostitutes in 1995, arrested by authorities in Los Angeles for "lewd conduct in a public place." Grant had just become a household name after leading the line in the critically acclaimed Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), though his clean-cut image took a major blow when he paid Divine Brown for oral sex in his car.

"Last night I did something completely insane," he said in a hastily prepared, but highly effective statement. "I have hurt people I love and embarrassed people I work with. For both things I am more sorry than I can ever possibly say." Grant was romantically involved with actress Liz Hurley at the time, making his transgression all the worse. His humility seemed to work in his favor, however, and before long it was all brushed under the carpet. Years later, the actor revealed the real reason it all just went away.

Grant was actually in Hollywood promoting a movie called Nine Months when he met Brown, and as soon as the studio saw the numbers were good, all was forgiven. "Hollywood only minds about money," he told CBS in 2016. "And that film did fine, the film that was coming out at the time. And yeah, that's all that really matters: As long as you make them money, they don't care what you get up to."

When James Cameron left his wife Linda Hamilton for a woman he had fallen for on the set of one of his movies, the circumstances were more than a little ironic. Hamilton used to be the other woman herself, forming a relationship with Cameron while playing leading lady Sarah Connor in his seminal Terminator movies despite the director being married to fellow filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow. Cameron and Bigelow divorced not long after Terminator 2 came out and Hamilton moved into Cameron's Malibu house, though before long she sensed she could become the celebrated director's fourth (yes, fourth!) ex-wife.

"It's interesting because while he was making Titanic, Suzy [Amis] at that time was the gargoyle on the end of my bed, waiting to swoop in," Hamilton is quoted as saying by Daily Mail. The actress explained how Cameron couldn't make his mind up about which woman he wanted, leading to a period of "crossover" between the two."When he got together with Suzy I changed my mind and he came back to me and we got married," Hamilton said. "Then he felt terrible about what he'd done to her and went back to her. Yes, there was a period when he did sort of cross over because he was confused."

While question marks remain over whether Cameron actually strayed (Hamilton called him a "serial monogamist" rather than a cheater), him getting with Rose's granddaughter was still a scandal in Hollywood, but Titanic's 11 Oscar wins soon sponged it from history.

In August 2017, the public was introduced to superhero movie kingpin Joss Whedon's alter ego, at least according to his ex-wife, who claims he was unfaithful with several women in the workplace. Whedon is the director behind Marvel's massive Avengers franchise and is also shepherding DC blockbuster Justice League, so both Disney and Warner Bros. would probably like to sweep that chatter under the red carpet. 

Ex-wife Kai Cole, who was married to Whedon for 15 years, dished about the director in an August 2017 guest blog for The Wrap. "There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women," she wrote. "He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better." Cole admitted that she had planned to keep quiet about Whedon's multiple infidelities, until he started garnering praise as a feminist.

"Publicly people only know his superficial presentation of us: him as the lovable geek-feminist and me in the background, as his wife and supporter," she wrote. "I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches."

A spokesperson for Whedon claimed Cole's account of their relationship was full of "inaccuracies and misrepresentations" and said the director was respectfully declining to comment.

Billy Crudup shocked Hollywood in 2003 when he left his pregnant partner Mary-Louise Parker for his Stage Beauty co-star Claire Danes. Parker had been carrying Crudup's child for seven months when he walked, making the break-up all the more shocking. Danes (11 years younger than Crudup) faced intense media scrutiny over the scandal, though she later defended her actions speaking to Howard Stern.

"I was just in love with him," Danes said on Stern's radio show (via Vanity Fair). "And needed to explore that, and I was 24... I didn't quite know what those consequences would be." The consequences, as it turned out, weren't long-lasting. At least, not as far as her career was concerned. She went on to star in the big budget adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel Stardust (2007) and would land a career defining TV role as CIA agent Carrie Mathison in Homeland.

It was the same story with Crudup. He was painted in a bad light in gossip columns for a while but never found himself short of work, recently starring in Ridley Scott's return to the Alien franchise Alien: Covenant. As far as his ex is concerned, Parker went on to star as suburban pot queen Nancy Botwin in Weeds but never found the same levels of success as the other two. The actress addressed the pain of the abandonment in a memoir (excerpted by Jezebel) without mentioning Crudup by name. "I am pregnant and alone," she wrote. "It hurts to even breathe."

Long before Hollywood was turning a blind eye to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, they were doing the same thing over her snatching Billy Bob Thornton away from Laura Dern. The Jurassic Park star was as surprised as anyone to learn that he had run off to marry Jolie, seeing as she was engaged to him at the time  "I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again," Dern told Talk magazine (via ABC). "It's like a sudden death."

While Dern will be featured in the upcoming Star Wars installment The Last Jedi, blockbuster appearances have been few and far between in the years since she was dumped, with the actress plying her trade largely in TV shows and indie flicks. Thornton went on to successfully exploit his likable jerk image in Bad Santa, whereas his new wife rocketed to international stardom playing Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider adaptation, neither one hampered by their affair.

The Pushing Tin co-stars filled countless column inches with their antics over the three years they were married, having sex in limos on the way to awards shows and wearing vials of each other's blood around their necks. They started to grow apart as Jolie's interest in humanitarianism grew and she became involved with the UN. "I never felt good enough for her," Thornton admitted to GQ. "I'm real uncomfortable around rich and important people."