Ryan Murphy is no stranger to anthologies tackling real-life figures and scandals. His latest is Love Story, whose first season revolved around the courtship between John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Anthony Kelly) and Carolyn Bessette (Sarah Pidgeon), the media blitz that followed them, and their tragic end in a 1999 plane crash.
The show has come under fire from some of the real-life people portrayed (such as Daryl Hannah) but is a success among viewers. That’s led to talk of a possible season 2, which would tackle another famous couple. It’s likely going to fixate on ones known for their romance, while also including some very dramatic moments, and the more infamous, the better.
Some relationships may be too hot to handle (the Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston/Angelina Jolie scandal comes to mind), while others have been covered before (Walk the Line dealt with Johnny Cash and June Carter). There are still a score of relationships that can be used from various decades and forms of entertainment. These are ten famous couples who can easily support a second season of Love Story to show that real-life couples are truly stranger than fiction.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
There are scandalous celebrity couples, and then there’s Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Yes, there have been takes on their relationship before, but if any famous pairing deserves a full mini-series treatment, it’s these two. Their relationship began on the set of Cleopatra when both were with other people and added to that movie’s legendary status.
The pair’s relationship saw them marry, divorce, remarry, divorce again, and so on, amid several movies together. Despite all that, they remained a key part of each other’s lives until Burton’s death in 1984. A dramatization of this relationship would be something explosive, to say the least, as well as honoring two Hollywood legends.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III
It was a romance straight out of a movie: One of the most famous and beautiful women in Hollywood giving up her acting career to marry a real-life prince. Grace Kelly was already a Hollywood icon when she began dating Prince Rainier III of Monaco. Their storybook wedding made her a queen and it is still amazing how she ended her Hollywood career at just 26.
The pair’s love remained true despite political turmoil, and they stayed together until Kelly’s death in 1982. The series would do a fine job exploring their ups and downs, Kelly’s struggles adjusting to royalty, and yet still being bound together. It’d be a warmer story than others on these lists and a tribute to true Hollywood royalty.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham
The two stars of Fleetwood Mac have long maintained an offbeat relationship. They were already together when they joined the band in 1975 and kept their relationship going as Fleetwood Mac rose to fame. Nicks and Buckingham split in 1977 yet remained with the band and even used their breakup as material for songs.
The pair has maintained a good friendship since that included reuniting in Fleetwood Mac. The series would be a fascinating look at how it developed, how Nicks ended things, and why, despite it all, the pair remain rock’s most famous friendly exes who helped Fleetwood Mac become iconic.
Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love
High on the list of talents taken from us far too soon, Kurt Cobain helped reshape music forever with Nirvana, leading the grunge genre of the early 1990s. There are actually differing accounts on just when and how Cobain met fellow rocker Courtney Love, which is fodder for a series. What is known for sure is that their marriage went beyond merely tumultuous and into pure insanity.
The pair were famous for their wild antics, both together and apart, fighting and making up, rampant drug use, and more. Yet there was still a bond between them as Love was clearly affected by Cobain’s death in 1994. Maybe this show can look beyond that controversy and focus on one amazing rock-and-roll couple.
Andy Williams, Claudine Longet and Spider Sabich
This might be an offbeat choice and closer to a Crime Story series. However, it does contain a bizarre romance that caught many off guard. Beloved American crooner Andy Williams met French singer-dancer Claudine Longet in 1960 in a straight-out-of-the-movies “meet cute” as he helped her when her car broke down. They were married the following year and remained together until 1975.
In 1976, Longet became infamous for shooting her lover, skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich, in what she claimed was an accident. Williams stood by her side during the trial, including giving her legal assistance and aiding Longet's scandal. That’s a bond deserving of a series as well as a look at a quirky crime.
Sonny Bono and Cher
For a generation, Sonny & Cher were always mentioned together. It was such an odd pairing: A small Italian crooner and a gorgeous singer who would become a cultural icon. They weren’t just singing stars but a hit variety TV show and their chemistry was key to their success. Their breakup seemed sad, even though they kept up with their show.
Cher would go on to become a megastar, and she and Sonny would continue to cross paths and team up. A series would show the start of the relationship, their monster success, their breakup, and how they were still strong until Sonny’s passing. If nothing else, a series based on Cher’s life is long overdue and a reminder of the stunning talent she is and was while she and Sonny were always a prime couple.
David Bowie and Iman
This would be a fascinating subject as both David Bowie and Iman openly acknowledged their marriage never began as a romance. A friend arranged for them to meet at a party where the eccentric rocker wore all white and the model wore all black. Iman turned down Bowie’s first marriage proposal so she could get to know him and his family better. They finally tied the knot and remained married for 25 years until Bowie’s death.
Their marriage is far more romantic than others on this list, but it can also address how daring it was for a superstar interracial marriage in the early ‘90s. There were also Bowie’s battles with addictions and his sexuality and Iman’s own scandals. Yet that true love between them was always obvious and would make this one love story worthy of the show’s title.
Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
Murphy has an affinity for Old Hollywood and tackling this classic romance would fit. Clark Gable was married five times, with his final marriage lasting until his death. But many would agree that Gable never truly got over the tragic loss of his third wife, Carole Lombard. They were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood in 1939, and their whirlwind romance is straight out of one of their movies.
The tales of their initial hostility toward each other can easily be adapted for a show, followed by how they fell in true love. Lombard’s death in a plane crash in 1942 devastated Gable to the point that he joined the military himself. Get the right actors, and this could be a real-life screwball comedy-romantic tale with a tragic ending that fits this show.
Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio
The life of Marilyn Monroe could easily fill an entire limited series by itself. Yet her relationship with baseball legend Joe DiMaggio is something for the books. Their early marriage was rocky to say the least, with allegations of physical abuse, jealousy, and a hard divorce. That may disqualify the "love" part of the title but sure makes for some great TV drama.
Yet the pair seemed set to reunite years later, with DiMaggio helping Monroe after her divorce from Arthur Miller and rocked by her death. Supposedly, DiMaggio’s dying words were about Marilyn. That seems a likely contender for a Love Story installment on how ugly this beautiful couple became.
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner
Frank Sinatra never did anything small in his life. So it’s no surprise his marriage to movie star Ava Gardner was a wild one. Sinatra left his wife to be with Gardner in a scandal so huge that even the Catholic Church chimed in on it. Their relationship was dramatic as Gardner helped Sinatra through a low point in his career, only for accusations of his womanizing to ruin things.
Yet after their divorce, the pair seemed better as friends than as spouses. Even with their respective marriages and affairs, Gardner and Sinatra remained close, with talk of a remarriage. This would offer some wonderful real-life figures mixed into the glitz and glamour of a love story featuring two romantic favorites.