We love watching “best friends” support each other on our favorite shows,
but it’s a testament to the power of acting that some of TV’s "best
friends" and colleagues couldn’t stand each other in real life.
Through season two of the legal drama The Good Wife, Alicia Florrick, played by Julianna
Margulies, and Kalinda Sharma, played by Archie Panjabi, were good friends. Then -- spoiler
alert! -- viewers learned that Kalinda had hooked up with Alicia's husband at some point.
Then the characters appeared much less frequently on screen together.
According to Vogue, a long-rumored feud between the co-stars may have
played a role in the plot twist. Although the actresses initially denied any problems on set,
Margulies claimed that the season six finale -- in which their characters reunite -- had been
shot separately due to Panjabi filming The Fall at the same time. Panjabi objected, tweeting,
"I was in New York ready to film the scene!"
According to Vulture, Panjabi later said it was only respectful for what
happened on The Good Wife to stay on The Good Wife:
"It was time for me, for many reasons, to unzip the boots and step into another show."
In June 2019, co-star Alan Cumming essentially confirmed the beef to Us Weekly. However, in early
2020, Panjabi once more refused to speak about the alleged bad blood, telling The New York Times:
"I've said what I'm going to say. [...] I just feel
like I'm doing work because of that character."
When Beverly Hills 90210 first aired in the 1990s, there was nonstop drama both on- and off-screen.
Shannen Doherty, who played California newcomer Brenda Walsh, and Jennie Garth, who portrayed the
popular best friend Kelly Taylor, admittedly never got along while they were co-stars.
Garth described what she thought was the root of the conflict in her 2014 memoir,
Deep Thoughts from a Hollywood Blonde, writing:
"[Shannen] had opinions about a lot of things. […] And she wasn't afraid to share them,
even if it meant sounding like a complete and utter b--ch."
On Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,
Garth shared that co-star Tori Spelling often was the “peacekeeper” between them.
And one time, when Doherty pulled up Garth’s skirt during shooting, they took it outside:
“The guys held us back, so we never actually…”
“You remember that?”
“I do, but I stayed in my dressing room, shaking when it was happening.”
In 2019, for the show’s reboot, Spelling and Garth revealed that their art imitated their
lives and that they drew inspiration from past tensions. As Garth told Entertainment Tonight:
"We were all really on board to look at people's perceptions of us
and flip it, and sort of take power. Take the power back."
When ABC canceled the crime dramedy Castle in 2016,
Us Weekly quickly seized on rumors that co-stars and on-screen spouses
Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion loathed each other. A source dished:
"They will not speak when they are off set, and this has been going on for seasons now."
A second insider alleged that things got so heated that the two had to attend counseling,
with Katic appearing on set in tears. According to People, by the show's end:
"The two were basically not speaking to each other if it wasn't in character."
For his part, Fillion released a gushing statement about how much he'd miss Katic.
In 2018, however, Katic told Entertainment Weekly:
"It hurt and it was a harsh ending, but [...] it would be a disservice to those people,
to the work that we did together, and to my work [...] to be anything but grateful because,
at the end of the day, that was a fantastic platform."
Shortly after Star Trek made its U.S. debut in 1966, tensions between William Shatner,
who played Captain Kirk, and Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock,
exploded as a result of Shatner's attempts to be the sole star of the show, according
to the British tabloid Express. Nimoy became increasingly frustrated by Shatner's stealing
lines and other controlling antics, demanding equal pay with Shatner, the tabloid said.
Co-star George Takei, who played Sulu on the show,
also had choice words for Shatner, telling the paper:
"To me, more than ego, it looked like some deep-seated insecurity was
driving Bill's congenital need to be 'the star.'"
The relationship between Shatner and Nimoy evolved as the years went on, with the two eventually
becoming close in the wake of personal tragedies. Shatner went on to write an entire book about
their stormy friendship, in which he admitted that despite improvements, at the time of Nimoy's 2015
death, the two hadn't spoken in five years due to a conflict over a documentary Shatner was filming.
Rumors have long circulated that Sex and the City co-stars Kim Cattrall,
who played Samantha, and Sarah Jessica Parker, who played Carrie, were nowhere near as cozy IRL
as their on-screen friendship would suggest. In 2017, public interest in the pair's alleged feud
reignited when they faced off in the press over the third installment of a Sex and the City movie,
leading to its cancellation. Cattrall later told Piers Morgan that she had never agreed
to make the film and had not demanded a higher salary or more scenes, adding:
“We were never friends.”
She also took Parker specifically to task.
"I think she could’ve been nicer. I really think she could’ve been nicer."
Parker responded on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,
saying Cattrall’s comments left her “heartbroken”:
"I don’t know. I found it very upsetting. Because it’s …
You know, that’s not the way I recall our experience.”
Fans were subsequently stunned when Cattrall on Instagram called out Parker after Parker
posted her condolences following the death of Cattrall’s brother in 2018. Cattrall wrote:
"I don't need your love or support at this tragic time. […] You are not my family. You are not my
friend. […] Stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your 'nice girl' persona."
Wow.
For five seasons, the hit 1980s show Moonlighting had the premise that the two central characters,
private detectives Maddie Hayes and David Addison, constantly bickered as a way of
hiding their attraction. However, as Cybill Shepherd later explained to Entertainment Weekly,
her off-screen relationship with co-star Bruce Willis was hot for other reasons:
"I remember at one point in the show, it had gotten to where we just
hated each other. It was a very volatile show anyway, but that’s also what made it great."
In 1989, People ran an article suggesting that the show's demise was
largely due to the fact that the volatile vibe on set had gotten out of control,
with Willis steaming over Shepherd's maternity leave.
Although the co-stars' relationship was notoriously fraught, Shepherd also told the London
Sunday Times in later years that she and Willis had nearly slept together. How's that for a 180?
While there weren’t any rumblings of trouble between stars Debra Messing and Megan Mullally
when Will & Grace first aired in the late 1990s, some cryptic Instagram posts and
omissions after the NBC reboot made it clear that their relationship was messy at best.
In June 2019, Messing posted an Emmys snap with
Mullally and co-stars Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack on Instagram,
tagging everyone but Mullally. While that easily could have been an oversight,
the Daily Mail reported that Mullally and Messing weren't following one another on Instagram.
Later that summer, Mullally wrote in a since-deleted Instagram Story:
"One of the best feelings is finally losing your attachment to somebody who isn't good for you!"
She also added in an Instagram text-post:
"Don't ask people for directions if they've never been where you're going."
Indeed, Mullally ended up taking a leave of absence from several days of filming that fall,
allegedly because she and Messing couldn't stand to be around each other.
While McCormack pooh-poohed any talk of a dispute, producer Max Mutchnick told Entertainment Weekly:
"It was not an easy year, but the permanent legacy of the show
is much more important to us than any temporary squabble that would take place on the stage."
Patrick Dempsey and Isaiah Washington played best pals in the early seasons of Grey's Anatomy,
but their relationship was far from McDreamy in real life. People reported that T.R. Knight was
late to set back in 2006, noting that Dempsey wanted to wait for him before filming a scene,
but Washington wanted to keep it moving. Things got heated, and Washington was
accused of using a homophobic slur. Knight ended up coming out after the scandal.
Washington issued an apology, saying in a statement:
"I sincerely regret my actions and the unfortunate use of words during the recent incident on-set.
Both are beneath my own personal standards. I have nothing but respect for my coworkers."
But it was too little too late, and accounts conflicted over what was said.
Washington was ultimately fired from the series and later told Larry King
Live that he did use the slur in a screaming match with Dempsey, but did not direct it at
Knight — claiming that Knight lied about the incident to benefit his own career.
The behind-the-scenes drama on Desperate Housewives rivaled the antics of the show’s
suburban Wisteria Lane. Tensions first came to light via E! News and a 2005 Vanity Fair
cover story that claimed a representative from ABC had to be on hand to keep Teri
Hatcher from being in the center of any photos and going to wardrobe first. It didn't work:
Hatcher reportedly went to wardrobe fittings first, and Marcia Cross allegedly screamed
at the rep and walked off the shoot when she learned she'd be next to Hatcher in a snapshot.
ABC denied that this was a regular occurrence, saying in a statement:
"[T]his shoot simply did not go as planned. […] This one isolated
incident does not define these women or their relationship."
But it wasn’t rare to separate Hatcher from the rest of the cast, however. After the series
finale, her name was conspicuously left off the cast gifts to the crew, and producer Marc Cherry
testified in a lawsuit that Nicollette Sheridan called Hatcher "the meanest woman in the world."
“Susan please, let me like you!”
In April 2018, Eva Longoria cracked on Jimmy
Kimmel Live! that the housewives are “very good friends” -- mostly.
“Oh, you are? All of you?”
“No.” “You’re always very candid.”
“But 99 percent of us are.”
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