10 celebrity friendships that may surprise you - Pubity (2024)

• Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega forged a surprising friendship on the set of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice
• The co-stars bonded over their love of cinema
• Here are 10 more unlikely celebrity friendships

They’re set to star on screen together in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

And after playing mother and daughter in the sequel to the hit 1988 horror comedy, Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega have forged a surprising friendship.

In a recent interview, Ryder – who will reprise her role as Lydia Deetz in the movie – revealed she had bonded with Ortega – who will play her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid – over their shared love of cinema.

Director Tim Burton even described their friendship as “very special”.

Despite their 31-year age gap, it’s clear that Ryder and Ortega’s friendship will bloom for years to come.

Pubity.com takes a look at 10 of the most unlikely friendships in showbiz…

Vin Diesel and Dame Helen Mirren

After meeting on the set of the 2018 movie Fate of the Furious, Vin Diesel and Dame Helen Mirren would also go on to star in the franchise’s ninth installment, F9, as well as Hobbs & Shaw and Fast X.

“The most random people just have chemistry,” Mirren, 79, told People. “And I adored Vin from the moment I met him.”

Diesel, 57, added, “What makes Dame Helen Mirren so beautiful? I’ll tell you. She has a charisma that is timeless. She has looks to kill and always has. She has a jovial spirit.

“But I think the thing that is most attractive about Dame Helen Mirren is the way she makes you feel. She always makes you feel appreciated and loved. And for that I love her forever.”

Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart

In a truly surprising friendship that has spanned more than 15 years, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart are the gift that keeps on giving.

The pair recently attended the Paris Olympics together, but have attended many events as pals since they first met on her cookery show in 2008.

“When you work with someone like Snoop, it’s like having a sidekick. How great it is,” Stewart, 83, once revealed. “That’s why all the comedians have sidekicks and bands because it loosens them up and lets them be freer. Snoop is my freedom.”

In 2016, Snoop, 52, told The Hollywood Reporter that Stewart is his “homegirl” and that they “have a special bond that goes way back.”

Pitbull and John Travolta

Another bizarre friendship is between John Travolta and Pitbull – who the Grease star calls by his Christian name, Armando Christian Pérez.

“I once told Armando I wanted to be friends with him for the rest of my life and forever,” Travolta, 70, said during Pitbull’s handprint ceremony in Hollywood. “Little did I know we would be immortalized together at the Chinese Theatre.”

He even credited Mr Worldwide, 43, with helping him to make the decision to shave off his trademark dark locks.

“He would send pictures of me where I have all my hair, and he’d superimpose no hair and say, ‘I prefer this,’ so I thought… Maybe it’s time to do it,” Travolta revealed.

50 Cent and Bette Midler

While he’s better known as 50 Cent to the general public, Bette Midler knows the rapper best by his real name, Curtis James Jackson III.

After reaching out to him back in 2008 for some fundraising advice, Midler, 78, recalled, “I called and nagged him. His G-Unity Foundation gives a million dollars away every year in grants to nonprofits all over the city. They’re just brilliant.”

“He’s really made my life worth living,” she said in a separate interview, adding that Jackson, 49, had “been with me through thick and thin.”

Matthew McConaughey and Guy Fieri

Speaking at his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey praised his pal Guy Fieri’s – and opened up about their unlikely friendship.

“Fifteen or so years ago, I was living in an Airstream, traveling across America … I lived on the road, and I came across this show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives, and it quickly became my favorite show,” McConaughey, 54, said. “One day on the road, I get the number of the host, Guy Fieri, and I call him up, and I say, ‘Listen, hey man, it’s Matthew McConaughey.”

From then, Fieri, 56, became McConaughey’s foodie travel guide, offering suggestions on where he should stop and eat next. When McConaughey returned to Los Angeles, he had Fieri over where the two discussed food, faith, and authenticity.

“In a business where you can be anyone you want to be, you’ve been you the whole time,” McConaughey ended the speech. Aww!

Courteney Cox and Ed Sheeran

While one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses and a musician from Suffolk, UK, may seem like an unlikely duo, Courteney Cox and Ed Sheeran’s friendship has stood the test of time.

Friends (pardon the pub) for over a decade, the pair were introduced by a mutual pal when Sheeran, 33, was in his early twenties.

The singer has gone on to write a track titled American Town inspired by the show which made Cox, 60, a household name.

And Sheeran has even played cupid – as he was the one who introduced Cox to her now-fiance, Snow Patrol star Johnny McDaid.

Macauley Culkin and Lizzo

Another bizarre duo is the bond between Macauley Culkin and Lizzo.

Meeting in San Diego in 2016, Lizzo would be the opening act for Culkin’s comedy band, The Pizza Underground.

The pair sent the Internet into a tizzy when the Juice singer, 36, pulled the actor, 44, on stage at one of her shows back in 2019.

Elton John and Eminem

First meeting at the Grammy Awards in 2001, Eminem and Elton John performed one of his biggest hits, Stan, together.

“We became friends. We’ve been amazing friends ever since. He’s an amazing guy. […] I just adore him,” John, 77, admitted.

John is even Eminem’s AA sponsor.

In his Me memoir, he wrote, “I’m Eminem’s AA sponsor. Whenever I ring to check in on him, he always greets me the same way: ‘Hello, you c***’, which I guess is very Eminem.”

Eminem, 51 – real name Marshall Mathers – recalled in 2009, “When I first wanted to get sober, I called [Elton] and spoke to him about it. He’s somebody who’s in the business and can identify and relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be. He understands … the pressure and any other reasons that you want to come up with for doing drugs.

“I reached out to him and told him, ‘Look, I’m going through a problem and I need your advice.’”

Gwyneth Paltrow and Jay-Z

The Queen of Wellbeing and Billboard’s Greatest Rapper of All Time seem like two phrases which shouldn’t fit together.

But Gwyneth Paltrow and Jay-Z have forged an unlikely friendship over the years.

In a 2016 interview, actor Paltrow, 51, revealed that the musician is a “brother figure” to her – and how her children Apple and Moses refer to him as “Uncle Jay”, and his wife Beyoncé as “Auntie B”.

Adele and Drake

Despite hailing from opposite sides of the pond, Adele and Drake share a special bond – with the Someone Like You singer revealing that her friendship with the Canadian rapper is “one of the biggest gifts”.

“Having access to someone else that knows exactly what it’s like to be in a certain position sometimes…if I try and talk to one of my other friends about it, they’ll have no idea what I’m talking about. They’re like, ‘Can’t relate!’ So they just switch off,” she said. “I can say something to [Drake] and he won’t judge me for it, you know?”

Drake has also referenced the songstress as “one of [his] best friends in the world”.

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