Hollywood has no shortage of romantic entanglements of any kind, and no shortage of public interest
in them.
So, it was no different when Lara Flynn Boyle became embroiled in a messy love triangle
with David Spade and Jack Nicholson in the late 1990s.
Nicholson’s womanizing reputation is nothing new, but Boyle might not be too far behind.
There’s a car crash, shameless actions on both sides, and more mess than any other couple
can account for.
Lara Flynn Boyle was undeniably one of Hollywood’s most prominent young stars in the early 90s,
if not a primary “It Girl” of the era.
She had back-to-back breakout roles in two cultural phenomena of the decade: as troubled
and inquisitive teen Donna Hayward on a mind-bending mystery Twin Peaks and as Wayne’s desperate
ex-girlfriend Stacy in the big-screen version of the Saturday Night Live sketch Wayne’s
World.
Adept at both drama and comedy, it didn’t hurt that she looked like a femme fatale straight
out of a 1940s classic Hollywood thriller.
As a young starlet with the world’s attention, Lara certainly had her pick of romantic partners.
The actor landed a string of famous boyfriends, including Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy’s
and Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz .
As for Nicholson, Hollywood has seen its fair share of ladies’ men over the decades, though
few can match up to the three-time Academy Award winner when it comes to womanizing.
Even by Hollywood standards, he is on another level.
While Boyle and Nicholson don’t publicly talk about the situation, David Spade has
been open about the love triangle that has forever bound them.
Lara began dating David Spade after ending her two-year marriage to John Patrick Dee
III in 1998.
The two were “happily” together when she was involved in a car crash with, yes, Jack
Nicholson in June 1999.
Boyle reportedly exited Nicholson’s Mercedes-Benz through the sunroof, screaming, “I have
a boyfriend!
I can’t be here!”
The romance between Boyle and Nicholson didn’t exactly come out of nowhere.
Before the accident, Nicholson swooped in and hit on Boyle with Spade standing right
next to her!
Spade said the three of them were “smoking a doob somewhere” when the legendary actor
straight-up asked her out.
Wow, the man is full of respect for their relationship.
When Spade didn’t jump to defend their romance to Nicholson, quote, “she got mad because
I didn’t stick up for her.”
But Spade said he had his reasons.
“I said, ‘I’ve been in this town long enough to know when I’m outranked.
You’re either gonna go out with him or you’re not.’
She goes, ‘No way.
He’s worse than Trump!’”
The actor didn’t think much of the interaction until he got a call from the National Enquirer,
asking for a comment on the car crash situation.
“That’s how I found out,” he admitted.
“She and I didn’t talk too much after that.”
As for Nicholson and Boyle, they were in a high-profile relationship until April 2001,
when she broke up with him.
“Jack was more into the relationship than she was and after a year together she wants
to date other people,” a friend of Boyle’s said at the time.
It wasn’t the first time Lara’s romantic entanglements ended up gaining that level
of attention.
Earlier in the decade, her love life even got in the way of her work when Boyle was
in a headline-grabbing relationship with Kyle MacLachlan .
Everyone deserves love and affection, surely.
However, when pursuing relationships makes the production of a film or TV series more
difficult for the people putting it all together, that might have certain consequences.
During the filming of her first major project, Twin Peaks, Boyle dated her co-star, Kyle
MacLachlan.
While they were sharing the screen, their relationship reportedly altered the outcome
of the show.
At least that’s the version shared by Sherilyn Fenn , who played the trouble-seeking Audrey
Horne.
In a 2014 interview with the AV Club, Fenn confirmed that Horne was initially supposed
to engage in a romantic relationship with FBI agent Dale Cooper, played by MacLachlan.
“Lara was dating Kyle, and she was mad that my character was getting more attention,”
she said.
Soon after, MacLachlan began to argue that Horne was too young to date Agent Cooper,
and it wouldn’t “look good,” Fenn claimed.
“Literally, because of that, they brought in Heather Graham — who’s younger than
I am — for him and Billy Zane for me.
I was not happy about it.
It was stupid,” she said Sherilyn wasn’t the first one to suggest
jealousy had been involved in the decision not to pair up two of the characters.
Without naming names, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost said the situation was “a curveball”
that saw them having to pull a rabbit out of the hat, speaking out back in May 2011.
“Somebody in the cast was involved with somebody else, and that somebody else was
not overly thrilled with the idea of the somebody else having love scenes with a third somebody
else,” Frost said.
Then, in January 2006, a representative for Harrison Ford confirmed that the actor had
separated from his wife of 17 years, screenwriter Melissa Mathison . Around the same time, the
National Enquirer posted photos of Ford and Boyle allegedly spending some time together
in a New York nightclub after the Vogue Fashion Awards.
Ford’s agent claimed that the actor and his wife had split before the Boyle encounter,
while she said nothing romantic had happened with Ford.
“That was so blown out of proportion.
I sat down in a booth with Harrison Ford at a party and talked to him for five minutes.”
Nevertheless, the damage was done to Lara’s already increasingly poor reputation and perhaps
to her career prospects.
“People really think I’m a home wrecker,” Boyle said.
“That I’m difficult.
That I’m crazy.”
In a rare interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2021, Lara said she stays away from
social media and the internet in general, still opting for an “old phone” instead
of a smart one “that can look up where you are or where you’re going.”
However, she doesn’t complain about the paparazzi.
It simply comes with the territory, she said.
“They’re like mosquitoes ... But I chose this profession.
I would be a total jerk if I complained about it.
If I’m going to take the paycheck, I’m also going to take the bad publicity.
It’s going to happen,” she admitted.
Nicholson’s reputation, however, was never really hurt by tons of romances and flings.
When the Independent compiled a list of “the great seducers” in history, his name appeared
alongside the likes of Lord Byron and Casanova.
That may be a stretch, but if reports are to be believed, the actor has more than earned
his place in history — he’s said to have slept with over 2,000 women.
This figure has never been verified (when Nicholson was asked to confirm it, he replied,
“I don’t count,”), but first-hand accounts from the people who have known him personally
over the years indicate that the number is indeed very high.
Sure things, as long as nobody gets hurt.
“The thing about Jack is that he likes women more than any man I’ve ever known,” Nicholson’s
The Witches of Eastwick co-star Cher said, while Kim Basinger described the actor as
“the most highly sexed individual I have ever met.”
And he didn’t slow down, even though the Oscar winner gave an interview several years
back announcing his retirement from the flirtation game.
“There were points in my life when I felt oddly irresistible to women,” Nicholson
said.
“I’m not in that state now, which makes me sad…
I would love that one last romance, a real romance, but I’m not very realistic about
it happening.”
However, those sentiments didn’t keep the actor from trying when he shamelessly flirted
with Jennifer Lawrence — 50 years his junior — on camera at the 2013 Oscars.
Nicholson popped up out of nowhere as Lawrence was just beginning an interview backstage.
“You did such a beautiful job.
I didn’t mean to cross into your interview, but I had to congratulate you,” Nicholson
told a star-struck Lawrence.
“You’re being really rude,” the actor, who had just taken home the award for her
role in Silver Linings Playbook, joked.
As Nicholson walked away, Lawrence put her hands in her face and said, “Oh my God.
Is he still there?”
Yes, he was!
It turns out that when he told her, “I’ll be waiting,” he wasn’t kidding.
The actor has continued waiting for Jennifer and sent her gifts along the way.
“He sent me some flowers and a bottle of Cristal and a note that said ‘Missing you
already,’” Lawrence said.
“Not to brag.”
According to Lawrence, the pair haven’t spoken since that fateful night, who later
regretted spilling the beans.
“I should have probably kept that a secret, so it could just be between me and Jack,”
she said.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with keeping an active romantic life as long as there’s
communication and trust, and you don’t ruin a movie or TV production in the process.
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