Bradley Cooper, as an 18-year-old newspaper intern, wrote a piece for the Philadelphia Daily News in May of 1993 about the merits of having friends with benefits, long before the term was a staple in the lexicon.
The article was tweeted Tuesday by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Tommy Rowan, who shared a shot of the piece which featured Cooper, then a high school senior, in a tux with his pal, Deborah Landes.
Rowan wrote, ‘Intern Bradley Cooper, age 18, wrote in his first @PhillyDailyNews story: “Can best friends who are of the opposite sex hook up with each other without destroying their friendship? In my case, yes . . . so far.” Bold.’
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Way back when: Bradley Cooper was 18 when he wrote a piece about his friendship with benefits with high school friend Deborah Landes for the Philadelphia Daily News in May of 1993
The piece, which was titled, ‘When Best Friends Cross the Line,’ is a first-person essay from the nascent A-lister, about the tricky emotions involving sex with a friend, but without a romantic relationship to base it on.
The Limitless actor, who’s now 43, wrote, ‘I know once you take that step over the platonic line everything is supposed to change. Suddenly you start to hate that guy she always told you was hot. But that’s not really true in my case.’
He said that while he and his ‘best friend … still talk about other people … the conversation does get a little more tense’ with the added dynamic of a sexual relationship underscoring their talks.
He said the reason why he and Landes were able to make it work was because of the ‘great friendship’ they had before falling into bed with one another.
Dapper: The A-list stalwart looked every bit the star as he appeared in Switzerland earlier this month
Extra, extra! A Philadelphia reporter named Tommy Rowan tweeted a shot of the throwback piece on Tuesday
‘We really don’t know how to be anything other than best friends,’ the four-time Oscar nominee wrote. ‘I realize this when people ask me if we are going out. It sounds too weird to even imagine; however, to an outsider, it probably looks as if we are boyfriend and girlfriend.’
The American Sniper actor explained that before they began hooking up, he and Landes ‘could never fathom the idea of being more than just friends, especially because she was involved in a relationship with a friend of mine.’
However, Cooper wrote, ‘Things began to change’ when Landes and her friend parted ways. Eventually, they began talking to one another more and more about the mutual attraction that existed, and progressed to a sexual relationship.
Then and now: A Facebook profile indicated a Utah woman named Deborah Landes Schillinger (R) originally hails from the Philadelphia suburb of Collegeville, Pennsylvania, near where Cooper grew up
She has a type? Deborah’s husband Doug Schillinger looks like an A-lister in his his own right, and bares a passing resemblance to Cooper
He lamented about how the times would change after they graduated from high school and moved on to college.
‘It is somewhat easy to say everything is cool now, because we are still in school,’ said Cooper, who moved onto Villanova University after graduating from Philadelphia’s Germantown Academy. ‘The real test will probably come when I have to hear about how much fun she’s having at the Shore this summer.’
While the world is well aware of how things turned out for Bradley, it appears Deborah has gone on to a happy life as well.
Out and about: Bradley was snapped with partner Irina Shayk in March of 2016
A Facebook profile indicated a woman named Deborah Landes Schillinger, with a maiden name of Deborah Landes – originally hails from the Philadelphia suburb of Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She now resides in a town strongly associated with the film industry: Park City, Utah, where the annual Sundance Film Fesival is currently underway.
According to the social networking site, she is married to a man named Doug Schillinger – who bares more a passing resemblance to Bradley – and is mother to young sons.
Bradley is in a happy romance with model Irina Shayk, who he shares baby daughter Lea de Seine Shayk Cooper with. Prior to the Russian beauty, he was briefly married to actress Jennifer Esposito, and was in relationships with stars including Avatar actress Zoe Saldana and British model Suki Waterhouse.