The most famous celebrity feuds in Hollywood’s history

New film Don’t Worry Darling – a psychological thriller starring Olivia Wilde – may look set to be a hit. 

But its press tour has been plagued with rumours of feuds – from Florence Pugh apparently refusing to do publicity with Harry Styles, to a reported frosty relationships between her and Olivia Wilde. 

And earlier this week, a viral video left fans speculating after it appeared to show Harry Styles ‘spitting’ on co-star Chris Pine. 

Yet it is far from the only TV show or movie associated with behind-the-screen spats.

The Sex and the City 3 movie was famously canned in 2017 after years of rumoured tensions between actors Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker. 

Meanwhile, on the long-running Grey’s Anatomy show, Katherine Heigl was branded ‘difficult’ to work with following a feud with show-runner Shonda Rhimes.

And Lea Michelle’s reputation has also taken a hit after reports that she and her Glee cast-mates didn’t get on.

Here, FEMAIL takes a look at the other famous feuds that have slipped from behind the curtain into the limelight. 

Sarah Jessica-Parker and Kim Cattrall

Rumours of tensions between Sarah Jessica Parker and her Sex and the City co-star Kim Cattrall go back to 2008, when the first movie was released  (pictured on the show) 

Rumours of tensions between Sarah Jessica Parker and her Sex and the City co-star Kim Cattrall were made public in 2008, when the first movie was released.

At the time, The Telegraph reported these rising tensions where down to money and dated back to the show’s second series. 

After hearing Sarah got a pay rise after being given an executive producer credit, Cattrall negotiated a higher salary for herself, which did not land well with the others.

The Telegraph reported that the rest of the show’s main cast were displeased with Cattrall and ‘wouldn’t even sit with [Cattrall] at mealtimes.’

The same report addressed the fact that Cattrall didn’t sit with the rest of the cast at the 2004 Emmy Awards, causing her to comment: ‘Are we the best of friends? No. We’re professional actresses. We have our own separate lives.’

However, Parker crushed any feud rumours at the time, saying: ‘Honestly, we are all friends and I wish I saw more of Kim. She mentioned money and no one should vilify her for it. People made a decision that we had vilified her.’

More rumours of a feud followed in the following years, and boiled over in 2017, when it was revealed the third Sex and the City movie project had been squashed, with Kim Cattrall cited as the main reason.

The Daily Mail reported that Cattrall had made too many demands to Warner Bros, who was producing the movie, causing the studio to backtrack. 

It was reported Cattrall had requested for Warner Bros to produce other movies she had in development.  

More rumours of a feud followed in the following years, and boiled over in 2017, when it was revealed the third Sex and the City movie project had been squashed, with Kim Cattrall cited as the main reason

The Telegraph reported that the rest of the show’s main cast were displeased with Cattrall and ‘wouldn’t even sit with [Cattrall] at mealtimes’

‘Warner Bros. refused to meet her demands and had to cancel production as the company decided it wouldn’t be fair to fans to produce a movie with only three of the four main characters,’ the Mail reported at the time. 

However, in September 2017, Cattrall countered that, saying she had said ‘no’ to doing the movie in 2016.

Shortly after, Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed that the movie would not be filmed. 

She said to Extra TV at the time: ‘It’s over. We’re not doing it… I’m disappointed. We had this beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story. 

‘It’s not just disappointing that we don’t get to tell the story and have that experience, but I think more so for that audience that has been so vocal about wanting another movie.’  

In an interview with Piers Morgan in October 2017, Cattrall doubled down that she would not be doing the movie and added she was never really friends with the rest of the Sex and the City cast.

‘This is really where I take to task the people from Sex and the City,’ she told Morgan.

Referring to Parker, she said: ‘I think she could’ve been nicer. I really think she could’ve been nicer. I don’t know what her issue is.’

In January 2021, it was announced Sex and the City’s HBO revival series And Just Like That would go ahead, starring Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon but without Cattrall.

In February 2022, Parker said in an interview with Variety she did not want Cattrall to return to the show’s second series. 

‘I don’t think I would, because I think there’s just too much public history of feelings on her part that she’s shared,’ she said. 

‘I haven’t participated in or read articles, although people are inclined to let me know,’ she added. 

Meanwhile, creator Michael Patrick King added, ‘Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.’

Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano 

Charmed, the show which starred Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano, Mary Holly Combs, pictured, and later Rose McGowan, as sisterly witches Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige, was also rife with rumoured feuds

Charmed, the American drama starring Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano, Mary Holly Combs and later Rose McGowan as sisterly witches, was also rife with rumoured feuds. 

But the most talked-about reported rift was between Doherty and Milano. 

When the show premiered in 1998, all initially went well, with Milano telling E! News: ‘I feel that we’re incredibly lucky that the three of us found each other. We all have horses so we all have things that are in common. 

‘Holly and I keep our horses at the same ranch so we go riding all the time together and we’re very similar and, um, very close. We’re blessed in that way.’

The actress went as far as describing the set of Charmed as a ‘big slumber party,’ that was ‘full of giggles’.   

Addressing her exit from the show in 2001, Doherty said she had ‘no time for drama’ and wanted to work with actors who cared about what they did 

The trio were so close that Doherty and Combs were Milano’s bridesmaids at her 1999 wedding to singer Cinjun Tate. 

But just as the marriage didn’t last, the show’s honeymoon period was also short- lived, marred with rumours of a feud between Milano and Doherty.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2001, Milano admitted that her and her co-star clashed. 

‘I think it’s hard when you put… two very different people together,’ she said. 

‘I’m very laid-back and passive… [Doherty’s] got a lot of energy, she’s very headstrong, she wants to get the job done.’

That same year, Doherty announced she was leaving the show after the end of its third season, with tabloids speculating it was due to her complicated relationship with Milano.

‘I have certainly enjoyed my time with Charmed, in particular the dedicated cast, crew and staff,’ she said in a statement.

She added: ‘I had the opportunity to create a character, learn and perform my own stunt work and direct three episodes of the show.

‘At this time, I feel that I have accomplished everything I set out to do when I returned to series television.’

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight later that year, she gave more of an insight into why she left. 

‘There was too much drama on the set and not enough passion for the work,’ she said. 

‘You know, I’m 30 years old and I don’t have time for drama in my life anymore,’ she said. 

‘I want to work with actors who really, really care and that want to be there every single day.’ 

Speaking in 2013 on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live, Milano said that the circumstances of Doherty’s exit were kept vague at the time.

‘I don’t know if she got fired, we never really found out what happened. We were told there were creative differences,’ she said.

Katherine Heigl vs. Shonda Rhimes

Katherine Heigl has been branded ‘difficult’ to work with following a feud with Grey’s Anatomy show-runner Shonda Rhimes (pictured together in 2006)

In the early days of ABC’s medical hit Grey’s Anatomy, no star shined brighter than Katherine Heigl (pictured fourth from left) who played intern Izzie Stevens

In the early days of ABC’s medical hit Grey’s Anatomy, no star shined brighter than Katherine Heigl, who played intern Izzie Stevens.

The blonde actress was a fan favourite, and her career soon soared. 

As well as her work on Grey’s Anatomy, she also began to take on movie projects which saw her star in the romcom 27 Dresses opposite James Marsden and The Ugly Truth with Gerard Butler. 

As her popularity grew, so did rumours that Heigl would leave Grey’s Anatomy to pursue bigger projects. 

But at the same time, rising tensions were reported on the set of the medical drama. 

In 2008, Heigl raised eyebrows when she decided to withdraw her name for Prime Emmy consideration.

She said in a statement she did not feel she was ‘given the material this season to warrant [a nomination]’.

The Independent reported that she eventually apologised to Rhimes for the comments.  

She eventually left the show in 2010, with her departure followed by rumours that she was hard to work with. 

In 2021, Heigl told the Washington Post that her ‘shunning’ from Hollywood left her feeling she would ‘rather be dead’.

She also reflected on the fact she was branded difficult, saying: ‘I may have said a couple of things you didn’t like, but then that escalated to “she’s ungrateful”, then that escalated to ‘”she’s difficult”, and that escalated to “she’s unprofessional”. 

She added she’s since ‘grown into accepting that ambition is not a dirty word.’ 

Lea Michele vs. the cast of ‘Glee’ 

Lea Michelle’s reputation has also taken a hit after reports that she and her Glee co-stars didn’t get on last year (pictured with the late Naya Riviera on set)

In her 2016 book, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up, the late Naya Riviera, who played Santana Lopez in Glee, addressed her tense relationship with Lea Michele.

She wrote: ‘If I’d complained about anyone or anything, she’d assumed I was b****ng about her’.

She added that her and Michele eventually stopped speaking to each other. 

She said: ‘She started to ignore me, and eventually it got to the point where she didn’t say a word to me for all of season six. 

‘Lea and I definitely weren’t the best of friends, and I doubt we’ll ever sit on her couch and eat kale together again.’

And it all came crashing down for Glee star Lea Michele in 2020, when her co-star Samantha Ware, who appeared on the show’s sixth season, said she made her life ‘living hell’ on set. 

Ware made the comment after Michele paid tribute to George Floyd, who was killed by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020, and voiced her support for the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter. 

And other cast-mates waded in – presenting her as a terror on set.   

Amber Riley, who played Mercedes Jones in the show, shared two GIFs of herself, one raising her hand and the other sipping tea, it’s believed to get across the point that she wanted to get back to serious matters. 

Riley went on to say she ‘didn’t give a s***,’ about the Lea Michelle situation, adding: ‘I hope that she has grown.’ 

Several former Glee cast members have spoken publicly against Michele, second left, in 2020 after she tweeted her support for George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement 

Alex Newell, who starred as Unique Adams on the series, then began spilling behind-the-scenes secrets. 

Responding to a fan who suggested he and others were making false accusations about Michele’s behaviour, he said: ‘We ain’t got not a damn thing to lie about six years later.’

Defending the negative comments about her, he added: ‘I’m gonna say this one time… when my friends goes through something traumatic I also go through it… that’s what friendship is…

‘And if you can’t understand that then you’re part of the problem.’

Actor Dabier Snell, who appeared in an episode of the show, also tweeted about  Michele.

He wrote: ‘girl, you wouldn’t let me sit at the table with the other cast members cause ‘I didn’t belong there, f*** you Lea.’

Naya wrote in 2016 that her relationship with Michele became so bad that they stopped talking altogether 

He added: ‘Seeing her message brought back bad memories of being less than on set of glee. Ain’t goin stand for her being fake like she care.’

Heather Morris, who played Brittany S. Pears on the show, added: ‘Was she unpleasant to work with? Very much so.

‘For Lea to treat others with the disrespect that she did for as long as she did, I believe she should be called out.’

Will Smith vs. Janet Hubert

The character of Vivian Banks, also known as Aunt Viv in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air sitcom, was initially played by Janet Hubert, pictured, until she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid during the show’s fourth season

At the time of Hubert’s departure from the show, Will Smith gave an interview where he said she was ‘mad’ and difficult to work with

The character of Vivian Banks, also known as Aunt Viv in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air sitcom, which launched Will Smith’s career, was initially played by Janet Hubert, until she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid on the show’s fourth season. 

It was speculated her departure was due to a bitter feud between her and Will Smith behind-the-scenes. 

At the time of her departure, Will Smith, then making his first foray into acting, said during a radio interview: ‘I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show because I know she is going to dog me in the press.’

‘She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She’s mad now but she’s been mad all along,’ he added. 

Addressing the feud in 2010, Hubert accused Smith of making colourist remarks about her dark skintone on set

The actor went as far as suggesting that he was Hubert’s ‘antichrist,’ in the same interview.   

Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Aunt Viv’s son Carlton Banks, accused Janet of ‘going off on people’ on set during a stand-up comedy routine in 2009, adding that everyone he worked with on the show was great, but ‘first mum, not so much.’

‘We felt like, when we were doing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, that we were a family…She, at that point, ruined that, and she made it very difficult for us to work, and unfortunately she was then fired,’ he added, saying Hubert went ‘nuts.’

Addressing the feud in 2010, Hubert accused Smith of making colourist remarks about her dark skintone on set. 

‘I was a dark-skinned, African-American mother, and Will used to tell the you’re-so-black jokes to the audience before the show, and at one point, I came out and stopped him,’ she told BlackAmericaWeb.

‘He didn’t understand how unbelievably disrespectful that was to women like me,’ she added. 

When Will Smith posted a picture of the Fresh Prince cast, minus Janet in 2010, calling it a ‘Fresh Prince reunion’ the actress said she would ‘never do anything with an a****** like Will Smith.

In 2018, Smith told Radio 1Xtra: ‘I think as an artist there’s so many things that [Janet] does…She sings, she dances, she’s like a really powerful artist. I loved what she brought to The Fresh Prince,’ in was was taken as a sign he wanted to bury the hatchet. 

However, in an interview in 2020, Hubert eventually appeared on the show’s reunion special and told Smith that being branded difficult to work with had been the ‘kiss of death’ for her career as a ‘dark-skinned black woman’ in Hollywood. 

Tom Hardy vs. Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy had an explosive relationship on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) that devolved into intense shouting matches, according to claims from the cast and crew in interviews

The pair’s working relationship devolved to the point that the stars got into shouting matches, with Theron calling Hardy a ‘f***ing c***

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy had an explosive relationship on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) that devolved into intense shouting matches, according to claims from the cast and crew in interviews.

The pair’s working relationship devolved to the point that the stars got into shouting matches, with Theron calling Hardy a ‘f***ing c***’ after he made her wait on set for hours, according to New York Times columnist Kyle Buchanan’s book Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild And True Story Of Mad Max: Fury Road.

In an excerpt published by Vanity Fair earlier this year, members of the production also detailed how Theron, 46, got a female producer to be with her at all times as ‘protection’ against Hardy, 44.

Hardy starred as the title character, who was played by Mel Gibson in the first three films in the series, while Theron starred as newcomer Imperator Furiosa, a lieutenant to the villain Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) who turns against her leader to team-up with Max.

In the oral history, Natascha Hopkins, a stunt double on Fury Road, recounted how Theron didn’t want to waste time on set, as she was a new mother at the time and was balancing her role with parenting.

But camera operator Mark Goellnicht recalled how Hardy was often late for the start of shooting.

He recounted one day when Theron was on set at eight o’clock sharp and got her makeup and costume set up before getting into the film’s War Rig.

However, despite producers making a ‘special request’ for Hardy to show up on time, it would be hours more before he arrived.

‘Gets to nine o’clock, still no Tom,’ Goellnicht recounted. ”Charlize, do you want to get out of the War Rig and walk around, or do you want to…’ ‘No, I’m going to stay here.’ She was really going to make a point. She didn’t go to the bathroom, didn’t do anything. She just sat in the War Rig.’

Hardy finally arrived after 11am, while Theron had remained in the vehicle the entire time.

‘She jumps out of the War Rig, and she starts swearing her head off at him, saying, ‘Fine the f**king c*** a hundred thousand dollars for every minute that he’s held up this crew,’ and ‘How disrespectful you are!” Goellnicht continued.

‘She was right. Full rant. She screams it out. It’s so loud, it’s so windy — he might’ve heard some of it, but he charged up to her up and went, ‘What did you say to me?”

The camera operator said Hardy seemed ‘quite aggressive,’ and that his costar ‘really felt threatened.’

Hardy said of the project that he was ‘in over my head in many ways.’

‘The pressure on both of us was overwhelming at times. What she needed was a better, perhaps more experienced partner in me,’ he admitted. ‘That’s something that can’t be faked. I’d like to think that now that I’m older and uglier, I could rise to that occasion.’

William Shatner vs. George Takei

Despite starring together in the Star Trek franchise as far back as the 60s, William Shatner and George Takei have managed to keep their feud ignited for several decades

Tensions apparently began during filming of the 79-episode show, with Takei accusing Shatner of ignoring him on set (pictured together) 

Despite starring together in the Star Trek franchise as far back as the 60s, William Shatner and George Takei have managed to keep their feud ignited for several decades.

Tensions apparently began during filming of the 79-episode show, with Takei accusing Shatner of ignoring him on set.

He also accused him of changing the script of the 1989 film Star Trek V so that Takei’s character, Hikaru Sulu, would not receive command of a spaceship, according to Page Six.

The pair have co-starred in the iconic TV show as well as six theatrical releases, ending with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in 1991.

But that didn’t end the beef. 

Last year Shatner fired back at Takei for his criticism over the James T. Kirk star going to space at the age of 90.

Asked about his thoughts on Shatner’s trip 62 miles above the surface of the Earth, Takei said: ‘He’s boldly going where other people have gone before,’ mocking the 90-year-old’s popular phrase as Captain Kirk.

‘He’s a guinea pig, 90 years old and it’s important to find out what happens,’ Takei added during the Broadway opening of Thoughts of a Colored Man, according to Page Six.

‘So 90 years old is going to show a great deal more on the wear and tear on the human body, so he’ll be a good specimen to study. Although he’s not the fittest specimen of 90 years old, so he’ll be a specimen that’s unfit!’

Shatner then tweeted a blistering response.

‘Don’t hate George,’ Shatner wrote. ‘The only time he gets press is when he talks bad about me. He claims 50+ years ago I took away a camera angle that denied him 30 more seconds of prime time TV. I’m giving it back to him now by letting him spew his hatred for the world to see! Bill the [pig emoji].’

Takei described Star Trek sets as feeling like ‘William Shatner versus the rest of the world’ in an interview on David Tennant’s celebrity podcast in 2020.

He said Shatner was insecure because co-star Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock, got more fan letters than him.

Shatner responded on Twitter, saying, ‘George needs a new hobby. Now he’s making things up. We never saw fan letters. That’s why there’s so many secretary signed photos.

‘We barely saw George. He was in once a week at most – how would he know anything? The only person with jealousy is George.’

In 2008, Shatner went after Takei’s mental health after he was snubbed from Takei’s wedding guest list.

Jamie Foxx vs LL Cool J

Hip-hop star Jamie Foxx and LL Cool J famously got into a physical fight on set of the 1999 American football drama Any Given Sunday

According to MTV , a real fight broke out while they were filming a scene at Miami’s Pro Player Stadium (pictured) 

Hip-hop star Jamie Foxx and LL Cool J famously got into a physical fight on set of the 1999 American football drama Any Given Sunday.

According to MTV, a real fight broke out while they were filming a scene at Miami’s Pro Player Stadium. 

The outlet said that reports from the Miami-Dade Police suggested that LL ‘started pushing Foxx’ and then punched him in the face ‘while wearing a helmet’.

The pair then allegedly resolved there would be warning before physical altercation, but Foxx had told police that after the incident, he was hit in the back of the head by LL’s arm – prompting the Django Unchained actor to hit LL in the face.

LL told forces that he pushed Foxx more during the scene to add to the acting in the scene. 

In 2000, LL’s track ‘U Can’t F*ck With Me’ included the lyrics: ‘Once and for all, what’s my opinion on Jamie Foxx?/He p**sy/P**sy ain’t funny as Chris Rock, ha.’

In 2020 Any Given Sunday actor Bill Bellamy gave his account of the famous feud on Instagram live, according to Showbiz CheatSheet.

According to the co-star, Foxx got under LL’s skin with some ‘trash talk’, having played football in high school himself. 

He said LL got upset, which eventually resulted in the altercation.

However apparently, despite the pair said to have refused to be in the same space, NFL icon Jim Brown called for them to patch things up.