Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer met on the set of Batman and started dating.
Sounds like it could be one of those typical Hollywood romances, right?
Except that it wasn't!
Stay with Rumour Juice and learn why Keaton actually vetoed Pfeiffer in Batman and what
it has to do with his marriage.
Intrigued?
But before we proceed, subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell for non-typical
Hollywood stories!
Michael Keaton, who is currently 70, was married only once, from 1982 to 1990.
The actor in his prime Hollywood years and Caroline McWilliams welcomed their son Sean
the next year after they got married.
Bear with us, you will get in a while why we mentioned this.
What you might NOT know is that Michelle Pfeiffer, who was regarded as one of the most prolific
actresses of that time, was the first pick for Vicki Vale in the 1989's Batman movie.
But the producers eventually ended up with Kim Basinger), since Keaton vetoed Michelle
as Vicki because they had recently dated and broken up.
It had been maintained for years that Michael didn't want to feel the awkwardness of acting
alongside his ex.
However, that doesn't really explain why he was cool with her playing Catwoman and licking
his face in Batman Returns just three years later...
However, the truth turned out to be more complicated than that.
Several years ago Robert Wuhl , who played the journalist Alexander Knox in the film,
explained:
“To put a little fly in the ointment, Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer had previously
dated and broken up.
At the time, Michael told me he was trying to get back with his ex-wife.
Keaton was firmly, and underline firmly, against that casting of Pfeiffer and he and Peters
got into it.”
Interestingly, Keaton and Pfeiffer dated and split while Keaton was still married.
So, what actually happened?
Was Keaton against casting Pfeiffer because he was afraid of getting back together with
the actress?
Or was the stars' romance the reason for the following divorce?
Or maybe Keaton just had his own idea of how to mend things between him and wife, and that
idea definitely didn't involve Michelle?
So, after the divorce in 1990, Keaton obviously didn't mind co-starring with Pfeiffer in the
Batman Returns film.
Years later, when asked by Elle what he would advise a young actor in regard to successfully
co-starring with a former partner, Michael said:
"Be a pro.
Be a man.
And be a grownup about it".
We wonder if he could give that tip to his own younger self featuring in the first Batman
film…
We wonder, just wonder…
Looks like the Scarface actress didn't waste her time mourning the loss of her relationship
with Keaton.
She got married in 1993 and has been married ever since.
Actually, it was her second marriage.
The first one apparently ended right before she started hanging out with Keaton.
Pfeiffer tied the knot for the first time with actor Peter Horton when she was 22 years
old.
She disclosed in one of her interviews:
"I broke one of my own Ten Commandments never to date an actor, especially one you study
with.
Then I married one!"
But then as it often happens with young couples - they started, quote, "growing up and our
needs changed".
By the time Pfeiffer tied the knot again, she definitely knew what she wanted in her
partner and in her family.
Pfeiffer had begun an adoption process while she was single, and then she met her now-husband,
TV producer David E. Kelley.
So she welcomed a daughter, Claudia, and her new relationship at once.
Soon she gave birth to a baby boy.
Having gained huge recognition and prominence in the 80s and 90s, the A-list star decided
to stop working while her children were young, to spend more time with them.
She also chose to begin the process of dissolving her film production company and moved into
semi-retirement, meaning that she would continue to star in films sporadically into the 2000s
and beyond.
“I actually went overboard in separating the kids from my work, so much so that they
found out through their friends how famous I was … The world knew more about my work
than [my daughter] did.”
This marriage has been going strong for nearly 30 years and one of the secrets to it, according
to Pfeiffer, is not working together.
"I've seen a lot of couples where they seem to have a really great marriage, then they
work together and next year they're filing for divorce."
Thus, she definitely prioritizes her relationship over getting a role in her husband's popular
show.
Keaton, on the other hand, had a more turbulent dating history and hasn't settled down till
the moment.
Just a reminder: the actor is 70 years old.
The actor's only wife sadly died of cancer 2 decades after their split.
In one of his rare comments about Williams, Keaton credited his ex-wife for passing good
values to their son.
Keaton had another quite serious relationship in the public eyes, and based on the timeline
- it instantly followed the period when he tried to get back with his wife.
The lady we are talking about is Friends star, Courteney Cox.
The two were introduced to each other by a mutual friend when she confessed that she
liked Keaton in 1988's Clean and Sober.
The thirteen-year age gap was not a problem for either of them.
So was not the problem the fact that Michael was already a huge-profile movie star and
Courteney was only about to become one.
Speaking about the details of their first date, Cox said:
"We talked for five hours.
We talked about our dream homes — the great ones we'd seen and the kind we'd like to build
ourselves."
Fun fact: that date took place in Cox's home because the famous actor didn't want to attract
the attention of paparazzi.
The rest is history, as they say.
And by the rest we mean nearly 6 years into their dating.
The couple looked so fulfilled that tabloids were constantly gossiping about the alleged
marriage coming.
The lovebirds were doing everything together, like many couples usually do.
But not many couples can boast of running lines together!
Courtney shared once:
"He always came up with the most clever ways of making a line funny.
No matter how upset or pissed off I was, Michael could make a little face and crack me up."
Now imagine the shock when the world learned in 1995 that Keaton and Cox called it quits.
"It's the most important relationship I've ever had, and I think he's the most wonderful
person I've ever met.
We still love each other.”
At the time, Cox didn’t rule out a reconciliation, and her mom was a staunch supporter of it.
Courteney Copeland told People: “They were always trying to work on themselves.
They need to forget that and accept each other the way they are — and just get married.”
But this never happened.
Since then, Keaton has been occasionally spotted with mysterious women.
That's right, tabloids tagged them as mysterious and tried to find proof of any romance whatsoever.
Basically, Keaton completely went under the radar with his personal life and eventually
with his professional life as well.
In the mid-2000s, his career stalled.
As Keaton described this period, “Maybe I got bored with acting.
That sounds so cavalier: “I was bored.”
But I probably did get a little bored with myself.
People forget about you, and I’m off doing other things.”
While there is nothing specific we can say about the actor's love life, luckily we can
talk about his brilliant comeback in the past decade.
The recent sensation featuring the actor is definitely Dopesick mini-series.
Upon receiving the Screen Actors Guild Award for the show in February, 2022, Keaton dedicated
the award to his late nephew who died in 2016 following an accidental overdose from heroin
and the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
His nephew's death at the age of just 35 played a huge part in Keaton taking the role of a
doctor in the series which chronicles the nation's opioid crisis.
In his emotional speech, the Dopesick star said:
"We lost my nephew Michael to drugs, and it hurts".
There is no doubt Keaton's performance in the main role was brilliant.
You should definitely watch the show if you haven't yet.
And we do hope to keep seeing the Batman actor on the big screen despite his senior age.
Getting back to Keaton and Pfeiffer, it looks like there are no hard feelings between these
two.
Pfeiffer is happily married, Keaton is happily single, and both are mature about their present
and past relationships.
That's all for today!
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