On-screen friends, off-screen foes

Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker may have denied the alleged feud with her then-co-star Kim Cattrall, but the latter’s recent furious attack lays bare the truth of their ‘far from friendly’ association. It all came to the fore when SJP shared a post on social media that read, “Dearest Kim, my love and condolences to you and yours and Godspeed to your beloved brother. Xx” She was responding to the announcement by Kim about her brother, Chris,  who had been found dead on his farm in Canada. However, her post invited an attack from Kim, who wrote on Instagram, “My Mom asked me today ‘When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone? Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear (if I haven’t already). You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona.”

She linked her post to a 2017 newspaper story headlined, “Inside the mean-girls culture that destroyed Sex And The City.” The irony was not lost on all, as Sex And The City was about female bonding and friendships. And Sarah’s character Carrie Bradshaw shared the best bond with Kim’s character Samantha Jones. Clearly, the camaraderie on-screen did not spill over off screen. Here are other actresses who played buddies on screen, but disliked each other off the camera...

Blake Lively and Leighton Meester

Gossip Girl co-stars Blake and Leighton were meant to be best friends on reel. Off screen, however, they were more than happy not to socialise and moved on after the show ended. Allegedly, Meester was annoyed that Lively didn’t reach out to her to congratulate her on her engagement to Adam Brody. There were also rumours that Blake got jealous that the show became all about Leighton’s character. Probably, another reason why these onscreen friends failed to bond when the cameras were off.

Ariana Grande and Victoria Justice

Nickelodeon’s Victorious focused on the on-screen friendship between Ariana and Victoria, but off screen, they got into a war of words with the media hot on their trail as they trash talked each other on why the show ended. Grande even went on to say, “Victorious ended because 1 girl didn’t want to do it. She chose to do a solo tour instead. (sic)” and Justice tweeted, “Some people would throw some1 that they consider a friend under the bus just 2 make themselves look good. (sic)”

Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross

Wisteria Lane saw a lot of female bonding when the cameras were on, but off camera, Teri Hatcher aka Susan in the show was far from close to anyone on the sets of Desperate Housewives. Things got especially bad with Marcia Cross (Bree). During a Vanity Fair photo shoot, Marcia was upset that Hatcher was front and centre. Eva Longoria spoke about the cold vibes the ladies shared. She said, “You know, Teri was just a loner. I don’t know. Me and Marcia (Cross) and Felicity (Huffman) were a lot closer because we are just girlie girls, who like to be in each other’s company. Teri didn’t.”

Lea Michele and Naya Rivera

Glee saw the introduction of many talented actors including Lea and Naya. Lea apparently was known to be a diva and had the habit of walking off set making everyone wait for her. Naya chose not to tolerate it and complained, leading to her character being written off the show, apparently an orchestrated move by none other than Lea.

Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi

Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi’s characters worked together frequently in The Good Wife, but in real-life, that was a difficult task. They didn’t share a single scene in the last three years of Archie’s stint on the series. Even the finale scene, which was to feature the two actresses, was filmed separately. Though Julianna tried to dismiss talk of a feud in an interview, Archie scoffed at her claims in a round about way through her social media handle.