With celebrity relationships, it’s hard to know if they’ll last forever. It seems like, more often than not, even the strongest couples split after a few years. When it happens, it feels almost personal for fans who were rooting for their favorites.
The same holds true for celebrity friendships. Being in the spotlight puts a strain on friends in the industry, and it takes work to maintain a friendship.
Some are better at it than others. There are stars that have kept their best friends close for the entirety of their careers. Whether they’ve worked on the same projects or just made sure to take the time for each other, these friends have weathered Hollywood like old pros.
Then there are those who flip-flop. The term “frenemies” was created to describe those people, aptly combining the words “friends” and “enemies.” Maybe they exchange heated tweets, or reach full-on physical violence. It’s sometimes hard to know where they truly stand.
This list will count down some of the strongest pairs of BFFs in Hollywood, along with a few pairs who have struggled to keep up their friendship.
Here are the 10 A-Listers Who Are Best Friends (And 7 Who Are Frenemies).
17. Best Friends: Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart
On the surface, it might seem like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart actually hate each other. They tend to make digs at each other during press tours, especially in joint interviews.
While filming Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the two simultaneously posted on their social media, scolding the other for infringing on the video. Johnson even referred to Hart as a “Snack size Denzel.”
In reality, the two are very close.
Having starred together on Central Intelligence, along with Jumanji, Johnson and Hart have developed a deep, brotherly bond.
They’ve reached a point where they even wear matching outfits to certain events. To seal their BFF status, Hart has even said that he’d fully back Johnson if he were to actually run for president.
16. Frenemies: Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton isn’t in the spotlight so much anymore, but her former assistant pretty much lives there now.
Yes, once upon a time, Kim Kardashian was actually an employee of Paris Hilton. Considering that they were together on a daily basis, it makes sense that the two apparently developed a close friendship.
However, the camera eventually started turning more toward Kim, than Paris.
These days, it’s Kardashian who lives her life in the spotlight. Between her family’s reality show and marrying Kanye West, everything she does in put under the microscope.
When Kim first rose to fame, it was because of a certain video that came out (rumored to be very intentional, considering the attention Hilton got for a similar video).
With that, their friendship was very suddenly over. Now, it seems the two women have buried the hatchet. Hopefully it sticks this time.
15. Best Friends: Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips
If there’s one celebrity friendship that’s stood the test of time, it’s Michelle Williams and Busy Phillips.
The two actresses worked together on Dawson’s Creek and have been inseparable ever since. Williams describes Phillips as the love of her life, though she did have a daughter with Heath Ledger. Unsurprisingly, Phillips is the godmother to Matilda Ledger.
Williams and Phillips are also often spotted walking the red carpet together at major industry events.
Their first awards show together was back in 2006, when Williams was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Brokeback Mountain. Since then, they’ve gone to everything from the Critics Choice Awards to the Oscars together.
Their best friendship even became Jeopardy! official in 2015, in a clue referring to Dawson’s Creek.
14. Frenemies: Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx
With Baby Driver and Mission Impossible, Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise are bonafide action stars. They haven’t worked together as often as most others, but they did star together in 2004’s Collateral.
Cruise and Foxx were never exactly best friends, but they had a good relationship. Now, Foxx and Holmes have gone public about their relationship, making things with Cruise undeniably awkward.
What makes it worse is that they got together just a year after Cruise and Holmes’s split.
The bright, albeit dim, side of it is Tom Cruise wasn’t totally in the dark. According to Hollywood Life, he knew about it from the beginning, though he was never thrilled about it.
At this point, Cruise and Foxx aren’t necessarily hostile with each other, but the odds of them being close again aren’t too high.
13. Best Friends: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
Saturday Night Live has seen plenty of stellar “Weekend Update” hosts. Arguably the best pairing was that of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
They were the first female anchors for the sketch and had a natural rapport, thanks to their very real friendship.
However, it wasn’t SNL that brought them together. They had met years earlier, according to Fey’s book Bossypants.
From their days as struggling improv comedians in Chicago to their stint hosting the Golden Globes, these women have done everything together.
They’ve starred in multiple movies together, earning true belly laughs in just about every one. Even Holland Taylor loves their friendship, comparing them to puppies in a basket.
They’ve been going strong for 20 years, and fingers crossed we’ll get 20 more.
12. Best Friends: Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams
Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams play sisters on Game of Thrones, and while things have been rough for the Stark sisters in the latest season, the two are much closer in real life.
They immediately clicked in 2009, and have been best friends ever since.
Turner and Williams always make time for each other, often traveling and partying together.
They’ve been known to pop up on each others’ social media accounts every now and again, warming the hearts of fans and often playing to the actresses’ goofy sides.
To top it all off, the women have matching tattoos, commemorating the date they both found out they had been cast in GoT. Williams is set to be a bridesmaid in Turner’s wedding, but the real love is in the girls’ relationship.
They’ve even created a ship name for their friendship. Long live #Mophie.
11. Frenemies: Drake and Diddy
Usually, beef between celebrities starts with subtle tweets or poorly timed photos in tabloids. For Drake and Diddy, it started with an all out brawl at DJ Khaled’s birthday party.
Shortly after the fight, video surfaced of Diddy telling an audience that Drake stole his beat for “0-100.”
It took a few months, but eventually reports came out that the two musicians had settled their issues over a phone call.
Fans thought things might get heated again when Drake directly referenced Diddy in “4PM in Calabasas,” but Diddy never responded to the song.
Then, when Diddy accepted Drake’s VMA in his absence, fans thought the feud would start up once again. However, as of 2016, Drake and Diddy are said to still be solidly on the “friends” side of frenemies.
10. Best Friends: Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler weren’t the only best friends that came out of Saturday Night Live. After starring together in a recurrent sketch on the show, Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon’s bromance was eternally solidified.
However, like Fey and Poehler, the men actually met before appearing on SNL. It happened in 2002, at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Fallon was hosting the show, and Timberlake was performing for the first time as a solo artist. To this day, the men still remember their first meeting.
The two are known for how much fun they have together. Whenever Timberlake is on Fallon’s show, they end up in a laughing fit. They can even impersonate each other pretty convincingly.
It’s truly a bromance for the ages.
9. Best Friends: Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale
Sharpay may have hated Gabriella in High School Musical, but in real life the girls are close friends. Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens basically grew up together thanks to the High School Musical franchise – it’s no wonder they got close.
It’s been 12 years since HSM came out, and Hudgens still hangs out with Tisdale on the regular. Even better, they post the proof on their social media pages.
Tisdale came out to support Hudgens in her Broadway debut, and Hudgens was even a bridesmaid in Tisdale’s wedding.
In January of last year, the women reunited to give fans the duet of their dreams. Vanessa Hudgens appeared on Tisdale’s YouTube series of “Music Sessions” to perform “Exes and Oh’s” and Tisdale once again confirmed their closeness, introducing Hudgens as her best friend.
8. Frenemies: The Rock and Tyrese Gibson
Dwayne Johnson and Tyrese Gibson became household names thanks to the Fast & Furious franchise.
The two seemingly got along but when Johnson suddenly posted on Instagram during the filming of Fast 8, calling out his male co-stars in the franchise, Gibson bit back.
He took to to Instagram as well, noting that if Johnson were in Fast 9, Gibson himself would not be. Gibson also openly criticized the idea of a Fast spinoff starring Johnson’s character.
He did continually note that he never really had a problem with Johnson himself, just the timing of things. However, when the release date of Fast 9 got pushed back, Gibson outright blamed Johnson.
As of November 2017, the actors are said to have buried the hatchet after Gibson had a talk with one of Johnson’s “associates.”
7. Best Friends: Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas
Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas have been close since their Disney Channel days, when they starred together in the Camp Rock movies.
However, they had an especially unique connection off screen– Demi dated Nick’s older brother Joe, and Nick dated Demi’s best friend Selena Gomez (twice).
Even after both relationships ended, Lovato remained close with Nick, though things never got romantic.
They’re at the level where she can tease him like a sister would, even about the purity ring he used to wear.
In 2016, the musicians shared a ride on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. Singing along to each other’s hits, it was 13 minutes of pure joy for fans.
Rumor has it that Nick Jonas was the inspiration for a song on Lovato’s latest album, but that’s one subject she won’t address.
6. Frenemies: Taylor Swift and Katy Perry
Usually, celebrity feuds are pretty easy to spot. It starts with subtle shading and eventually escalates to calling each other out by name. That’s one thing that never happened with Taylor Swift and Katy Perry– they never outright named names.
They started out like most, being friendly and even performing together on stage. However, as Swift tells it, she could never tell if they were truly friends. Though she never spelled it out, Swift made it pretty clear that “Bad Blood” was about Perry.
These days, the two are mostly civil around and about one another.
When one contestant apologized for looking up to Taylor Swift during his audition for American Idol, Perry responded “I love her as a songwriter as well!”
It isn’t exactly a loving comment, but it could’ve gone worse.
5. Best Friends: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
Back in 1997, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won the Oscar for Best Screenplay with Good Will Hunting. It was a pretty sweet bonus to add to the bromance the actors had developed.
Today, it’s hard to think of one actor, without thinking of the other.
For the most part, there hasn’t been any drama between the two.
There was a brief moment in 2004, where they were thought to have a falling out over a comment Damon made, saying he thought actors shouldn’t just do blockbusters.
Affleck shot back during his SNL monologue, but it was never more than the men just giving each other a hard time.
When the Weinstein scandal broke earlier this year, it seemed their friendship might finally hit a real rocky point, especially with the rumor that Damon helped Affleck cover his own actions.
However, the two are still going strong.
4. Frenemies: Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez
In Hollywood, it’s common to come across the same people pretty often – especially if you meet them when you’re a child.
Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez both got their start on Barney and Friends, and eventually ended up on Disney Channel together.
For the most part, they were very close friends. They even starred as best friends in Disney Channel’s Princess Protection Program.
Unfortunately, some friendships deteriorate over time. It’s only natural. According to rumors, the deterioration of Gomez and Lovato’s relationship was sped up because of Gomez’s romantic relationship with Justin Bieber.
The women fell out of touch for awhile, with Gomez even unfollowing Lovato on Twitter.
Fortunately, they seem to be close once again. Even Lovato’s mom has said there’s no drama, and that the girls will always love each other.
3. Best Friends: Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough
There are few celebrity BFF pairings as close as Nina Dobrev and Julianne Hough. They are constantly popping up in each other’s social media posts, and manage to spend a ton of time together.
However, they don’t just limit themselves to photos on social media. Dobrev and Hough have been the stars of several modeling campaigns together, and they always have a good time doing it.
They even went old school and rocked best friend necklaces in 2016, as part of The Giving Keys’ campaign.
Being goofy is really a staple of the women’s friendship. They’re always smiling and laughing in the pictures they take together, and love to head out on exciting adventures.
Now that Hough is married, Dobrev is ready for her best friend to start having kids. She even told PEOPLE that she’s ready to make the jump from best friend to babysitter.
2. Frenemies: Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon make this list as best friends but their exes, Gwyneth Paltrow and Winona Ryder respectively, unfortunately became one of the most famous pairs of frenemies in the ’90s.
The story most people believe is that the actresses had a falling out after Paltrow found the script for Shakespeare In Love in Winona’s house. The movie went on to become a hit, and earned Paltrow an Oscar.
Their story fell off the radar for awhile, but resurface again in 2009 when Paltrow launched her website Goop.
In one of the first articles, Paltrow references a frenemy, who most believed to be Ryder, saying she “was pretty hell-bent on taking me down.”
These days, it’s a bit unclear where the actresses stand. In 2015, Paltrow told Howard Stern that she hadn’t seen Winona in years.
1. Best Friends: Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff
Their characters may have dated – and even end up married – on Glee, but in real life Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff are just best friends.
Groff is openly gay and Michele is currently dating Zandy Reich. Ironically, Groff and Michele’s friendship began while playing a different pair of lovers in Broadway’s Spring Awakening.
It’s not often that a celebrity friendship gets a ship name, but “Groffchele” is one of the lucky few. Even while working on different projects, the two have remained close.
Last year, Groff even spent the holidays with Michele, her boyfriend and her family.
They’re even at the level where they can snuggle in bed together, and it makes for adorable photos when it happens.
This month, the pair reunited to help out on a production of Spring Awakening featuring survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Can you think of any other A-listers who are friends or frenemies? Sound off in the comments!
