Nicolas Cage recently opened up about his past romance with Sarah Jessica Parker, confirming the decades-old speculation that the two actors were involved during the mid-1990s. Their relationship unfolded around the time they worked together on the 1996 romantic comedy Honeymoon in Vegas. Despite their on-screen pairing and rumored off-screen romance, Cage shared how their connection ended abruptly and unexpectedly.
Speaking to E! News on July 14, Cage recalled a moment that seemingly marked the end of their relationship.
I cared about Sarah, but I don’t think I passed the Mom test,
he said. He described a dinner with Parker and her mother at New York’s Russian Tea Room, after which he never heard from her again.
I recall sitting down with her and her mother for dinner at the Russian Tea Room, and I don’t know if it was my blue Vanson Leather motorcycle jacket (which I still have) or my sinusitis, but I didn’t hear from her again.
Life After Their Split: Marriages and Families
Following the end of his relationship with Sarah Jessica Parker, Nicolas Cage moved forward with his personal life. He married Alice Kim in 2004, and the couple had a son named Kal-El Coppola in 2005. However, their marriage lasted until 2016. Later, Cage married Riko Shibata in 2021, and they welcomed their daughter, August Coppola Cage, in 2022.
Sarah Jessica Parker also found lasting love after their split. In 1995, she married actor Matthew Broderick, with whom she has three children: son James Wilkie Broderick, 22, and twins Tabitha and Marion Broderick, aged 13. Parker has spoken romantically about her early connection with Broderick. During a July 13 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, she recounted:
I remember I had to leave to go on location to shoot a movie, and we were on East 10th street,
She explained the moment she realized her feelings for Broderick:
I was getting in a car to go away for a while. I remember thinking, ‘I think I love him. Should I say it?’ Because neither one of us had said it yet.
Parker admitted she confessed first, believing there was nothing to lose. She added, I knew he was incredible, summarizing it with:
just spending a little bit of time with him.
Other Notable Celebrity Romances That Began on Set
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes’ Quiet Love Story
Ryan Gosling, known for past relationships with Sandra Bullock and Rachel McAdams, found lasting love with Eva Mendes after meeting on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2013. The couple has kept their relationship private while raising their two daughters, Esmeralda, 8, and Amada, 6. Mendes shared in a 2020 interview on Sydney’s Nova 96.9 radio how Gosling changed her perspective on motherhood after years focusing on her career:
I was lucky enough to work my bum off for 20 years,
I never wanted babies before until I fell in love with Ryan, and then it just kind of worked out to where I was 40 and having my first baby and then I think I was 42 with my second one, so it worked out in that way that I had a career and then I changed my focus to my family.
She also expressed interest in working creatively with Gosling again:
I really want to work with Ryan again. My most fun experience was being on set with him when he was directing,
It was really so creatively satisfying being in it together and he’s such an amazing director. I would love that experience again, for sure.
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton: From Shared Heartache to Marriage
Singers Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton met on the television show The Voice in 2015, bonding over their similar experiences with divorce. Shelton credited Stefani with helping him through difficult times:
Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician?
After five years of dating, Shelton proposed in October 2020, and the couple married in a private ceremony in July 2021. Their wedding was described by officiant Carson Daly as:
a perfect blend of country and glamour.
Daly further explained:
It was as elegant and refined and cool as Gwen is, and it was country and down-home and fun as Blake is,
They just work. They’re an unlikely pair. They’re like if you paired delicious fried chicken with a glass of champagne. On paper, on the menu, it doesn’t seem to work, but it works. They’re comfort food with class, and everybody roots for that.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos: A Nearly Broken Engagement to a Lasting Marriage
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos first met in 1995 while playing love interests on the soap opera All My Children. The couple eloped in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996. Consuelos shared with Andy Cohen that their dates gradually became more private, making their relationship exclusive early on:
We would go out with groups of people from work and slowly each date would go that the groups started getting smaller and smaller until it was just us two. I was shy, I wasn’t very aggressive that way.
Ripa revealed the couple almost broke up the day before their elopement:
We broke up and we got back together the day before we went off and eloped,
Yeah, we eloped. We went to Vegas and got married.
Decades later, they remain happily married with three children, and Consuelos now co-hosts Ripa’s show, having replaced Ryan Seacrest in April 2023.
Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly’s Intense Connection
Megan Fox met Machine Gun Kelly on the set of Midnight in the Switchgrass in 2020, immediately sensing a deep and transformative relationship. Fox recalled on Randall Emmett and Lala Kent’s podcast:
And [Emmett] was like, ‘Oh, we just got Machine Gun Kelly,’
and immediately, I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ Because I knew, I could feel that some wild s–t was going to happen to me from that meeting but I wasn’t sure what. I just felt it in my solar plexus that something was going to come from that.
Following her separation from Brian Austin Green in 2019, Fox called Kelly her “twin flame,” emphasizing their deep connection beyond soulmates. The pair have publicly celebrated their relationship through joint appearances, tattoos, and an engagement in January 2022. Despite rumors of a breakup in 2023, the couple remains together.
Onscreen Love Turns Real: Kit Harington and Rose Leslie
Kit Harington fell for Rose Leslie while filming the second season of Game of Thrones, where their characters Jon Snow and Ygritte shared a romance. Harington reminisced in a Vogue Italia interview:
Because the country is beautiful, because the Northern Lights are magical, and because it was there that I fell in love,
If you’re already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love.
The couple married in June 2018 and have since welcomed two children, whose names have not been publicly disclosed.
Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song’s Unexpected Romance
Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song met on the set of the 2019 film Changeland, much to the surprise of their director Seth Green, who remarked he
didn’t see that one coming.
Song described their bond stemming from their shared childhood acting experiences:
You just look each other in the eye and you nod and we know,
The couple has been engaged since 2022 and has two children: son Dakota Song Culkin, 2, and a younger son born in March 2024, whose name has not been announced.
Sarah Shahi and Adam Demos: Chemistry Both On and Off Screen
Stars of Netflix’s Sex/Life, Sarah Shahi and Adam Demos publicly confirmed their romance in December 2020. Shahi noted how effortless working with Demos is and credited their chemistry for enhancing their performances:
With him, it’s just that easy,
I just have to look at him and 99 percent of my work is done for me. I’m falling in love with the person in real life, but I’m falling for the person on camera. It just created that extra bit that seeped through the lens. Maybe that’s what people loved so much.
Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman’s Real-Life Love Story
Though their characters had an unhappy ending on the ABC series Revenge, Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman married on December 15, 2018, after dating for several years. They announced the birth of their first child, Iris, in August 2021.
Welcome to the world our sweet little Iris,
VanCamp shared on Instagram.
In February 2024, she announced her pregnancy with their second child.
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick: A Strong Hollywood Partnership
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick met while filming the PBS movie Lemon Sky in 1988 and married later that year. Considered one of Hollywood’s longest-lasting couples, they share two children: Travis Bacon, 34, who is a composer, and actress Sosie Bacon, 31.
Jared Padalecki and Genevieve Cortese’s Supernatural Connection
Jared Padalecki met Genevieve Cortese while she joined the television series Supernatural in its fourth season. The pair married in 2010 in Cortese’s hometown of Sun Valley, Idaho, with fellow actor Jensen Ackles as a groomsman. They have three children: sons Thomas, 11, Austin, 9, and daughter Odette, 6.
Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin: From Fairytale to Family
Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin found romance on the set of ABC’s fantasy series Once Upon a Time, where they played Prince Charming and Snow White. Dallas revealed to People magazine:
It hit me like a blinding light,
I thought, ‘I’m in trouble now.’
Goodwin credited a Disneyland trip early in their relationship as when she knew he was “the one”:
I knew that in fact I was going to marry my husband Josh at Disneyland because I took him for his first time ever and we had just started dating,
We were on Big Thunder Mountain and he threw his arms in the air and he goes, ‘This is the best day of my life’ and I was like, ‘We’re totally getting married.’
They wed in April 2014 and have two sons, Oliver, 9, and Hugo, 6. Dallas has expressed hope to work with Goodwin again, recalling their enjoyable six years together on OUAT:
She’s the greatest. I miss working with her every day,
I think she was like, ‘look, we’ve worked together and we’ve lived together six years, give me a break.’ But I think we’ll work together again, I hope so.
Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys: A Late-Blooming Love
Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys met many years before their time starring on the FX series The Americans. Rhys admitted on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen:
We actually met a very long long time ago,
I very drunkenly asked her for her number when she was a young, single, slip of a thing, so I sort of knew then when I was 26.
Their relationship became romantic in 2014 while working as married KGB spies on the show. They welcomed their son, Sam, in May 2016. Russell also has two children from a previous marriage.
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn: Four Decades of Partnership
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn first met in 1968 during the filming of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band but fell in love while shooting 1984’s Swing Shift. Despite initially vowing never to date another actor, Hawn admitted:
We both said we would never go out with another actor.
The couple also starred together in the 1988 romantic comedy Overboard. They have been partners for 40 years, sharing son Wyatt Russell in addition to their children from previous relationships, including Oliver and Kate Hudson, and Boston Russell. When asked about their longevity, Russell joked:
Do it every 33 years, first of all!
Wyatt Russell and Meredith Hagner’s Western-Themed Wedding
Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, began dating Meredith Hagner after they met filming Folk Hero & Funny Guy in 2016. They also appeared together in Ingrid Goes West. The couple got engaged in 2018 and married in 2019 at Goldie Hawn’s home in Aspen in a Western-themed ceremony where guests wore cowboy hats and boots.
It was Western themed and everyone came in cowboy hats and boots,
a source told E! News at the time.
It was a big casual gathering of family and friends that lasted all weekend.
Russell and Hagner welcomed son Buddy Prine Russell in November 2021.
Kate Mara and Jamie Bell: Love After a Superhero Film
Kate Mara and Jamie Bell’s relationship began on the set of the 2014 Fantastic Four reboot, despite the film’s poor reception. Rumors of their romance surfaced after the couple was seen holding hands at a May 2015 Met Gala after-party. They married in July 2017. Bell told E! News:
It feels like we’ve been married for years. In the best way. We’re having a great time.
Mara announced the birth of their first child in May 2019, and their second child was revealed in November 2022 through similar social media posts highlighting the babies‘ feet. Bell also shares son Jack Bell with ex-wife Evan Rachel Wood.
Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara: A Private but Deep Bond
Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara met while filming the 2017 biblical drama Mary Magdalene, but sources say they felt attracted during filming in Italy a year earlier. The couple made their red carpet debut at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and quietly got engaged in 2019. When Phoenix accepted his Oscar for Best Actor for Joker, he emotionally expressed:
I love you.
In September 2020, director Victor Kossakovsky revealed that the couple had welcomed a son named River, likely a tribute to Phoenix’s late brother River Phoenix, who died in 1993 at age 23.
Ryan Bingham and Hassie Harrison: A Fiery Yellowstone Romance
Fans of Yellowstone celebrated when co-stars Ryan Bingham and Hassie Harrison confirmed their relationship in April 2022 with a passionate photo shared on Bingham’s Instagram. The post showed them kissing by an open flame, captioned, More than a spark. Harrison replied with, I love you, cowboy.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer: True Blood’s Real-Life Couple
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer began dating during the first season of HBO’s True Blood in 2008. Moyer told E! News in 2009:
There’s no one I’d rather work with,
I love working with her and that’s how it all started, by falling in love on camera.
The couple got engaged in 2009 and married in August 2010. They welcomed twins Poppy and Charlie in 2012.
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen: Love Found in Unexpected Moments
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen met on the set of 1993’s Pontiac Moon with both coming from previous, unsuccessful marriages. Steenburgen shared:
I announced to all my friends—not dramatically, but very seriously—that I was done with relationships,
Meanwhile, Danson recalled how their love blossomed during a canoe scene:
We paddled in sync,
We went out as friends and by the time we came back, we were in love… Ironic how life works in those moments. Once you throw up your arms and surrender, a lot of times things come your way.
In October 2020, after celebrating their 25th anniversary, Steenburgen said about Danson:
I’m ridiculously in love with him. I find him endlessly fascinating. He surprises me all the time and most of all he makes me laugh.
Danson added his feelings:
I get nervous around her because I want to impress her—I am the luckiest.
Grace Van Patten and Jackson White: Onscreen Romance Turns Real
Grace Van Patten and Jackson White’s chemistry on Hulu’s drama Tell Me Lies sparked fans’ curiosity about their real-life relationship. In November 2022, White confirmed they were a couple, posting several photos from the CFDA Awards, including one showing them kissing. He captioned one image:
if we kiss can we get a s2 @hulu.
The show is set to return for a second season later this year.
Our Reader’s Queries
Q. Was Nicolas Cage in Star Wars?
A. Ultimately, Cage stated that he considers himself part of the “Star Trek” universe, not the “Star Wars” realm. Although appearing in “Star Wars” may not happen for him soon, he hopes to join a “Star Trek” project someday.
Q. What was Nicolas Cage’s downfall?
A. Cage faced financial troubles after several movies he starred in did poorly at the box office. This hurt his reputation as a leading actor. Without offers from major studios, he had to appear in more than twenty-five direct-to-video films to pay off his debts.
