Entertainment

17 Celebrity Couples That Everyone Thought Were Faking It For the Cameras

Fans go crazy over celebrity couples, and often their love for a real-life pair translates into passion for the characters that pair plays onscreen — if not vice-versa. That might be the reason why some people are skeptical whenever co-stars or even just the "newest hot things" of Hollywood start dating. It's like the real-life version of the showmances that often erupt on Big Brother, if you consider Hollywood real life. Sure, their love could be the real deal — or it could be a publicity stunt to promote a movie, show, or, hell, even just the people themselves. So which celeb couples were people most suspicious of? Click through to find out what maybe-fake couples passed the test — and which didn't.

by Kaitlin Reilly

Blake Lively

The former Gossip Girl star was accused of promoting her first big action movie by starting a fauxmance for the press with her co-star.

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Ryan Reynolds

Lively had been spotted out with Leonardo DiCaprio just before she started dating her Green Lantern co-star Ryan Reynolds, making fans suspicious of the new romance. But it looks like Lively and Reynolds’ love was true: they’re currently married and expecting their first child together.

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Kendall Jenner

One easy way to drum up publicity for yourself (and your famous family?): start dating a member of One Direction. Allegedly, that’s just what the reality star did.

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Harry Styles

The boy bander was spotted out with Jenner in public, looking all sweet and teenager-y and stuff. While some 1D fans went “Aww!,” most rolled their eyes, figuring that this was just another way for the Kardashian-Jenner clan to keep their names in the tabloids.

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Jennifer Aniston

After a very public divorce from Brad Pitt (maybe you’ve heard of that whole Brangelina thing?), Aniston was spotted cozying up to her rom-com co-star.

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Vince Vaughn

The stars of The Breakup began dating in 2006 while promoting their film, but certain media outlets claimed that their romance was all for show. To be fair, would you blame Aniston for wanting to show off a new dude in response to the love triangle the press wrapped her up in with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?

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Tom Cruise

People had suspicions about the validity of Cruise’s relationship with this younger actress for years.

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Katie Holmes

Rumor has it that Holmes and Cruise didn’t start dating organically — the Top Gun actor allegedly had several actresses “try out” for the role of his wife before Holmes was selected. The Dawson’s Creek actress also allegedly signed a nondisclosure agreement during their courtship, which is just a tad odd, considering they were both in the public eye.

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Reggie Bush

Here’s one way to piss off your reality star ex: start dating her lookalike.

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Melissa Molinaro

Model Molinaro is a dead ringer for the football player’s ex, Kim Kardashian, and even parodied her for an Old Navy commercial. (Kardashian must have died over that one.) Obviously it’s just a tad suspicious for a guy to date someone who looks like his ex for a living, which is why this romance seemed like more of a PR stunt than anything else.

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Zac Efron

The former Disney darling was spotted out with this up-and-coming starlet in 2012.

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Lily Collins

According to Blind Gossip, this short-lived relationship was a total sham set up by their shared agent to promote Collins’ film The Mortal Instruments. No big deal — it’s not like anyone was shipping “Lilac” that hard to begin with.

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Kristen Stewart

It was inevitable for the stars of Twilight to get together, but that doesn’t mean that their relationship had to be real.

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Robert Pattinson

Stewart and Pattinson were the romantic leads of Twilight (you know, just in case that slipped your mind) and began dating just before the film hit theaters. Critics accused the couple of using their fauxmance to promote the movie, but Pattinson fired back, saying that if their love was a marketing tool then the notoriously private couple wasn’t utilizing it very well.

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Ryan Seacrest

The American Idol host made people skeptical of his relationship when he gave his ex a very expensive gift.

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Julianne Hough

According to reports, Seacrest gifted Safe Haven actress Hough a mansion after they announced that they were splitting up after three years together. People instantly started speculating that perhaps the house was a “thanks for being my fake girlfriend” gift — in which case, I’ll totally fake-date you, Seacrest.

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Selena Gomez

I had so prayed that the romance between these two teen stars was a sham…

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Justin Bieber

…Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it is. When Gomez and Bieber first hit events together, I assumed it was because both were young, hot stars trying to look young and hot together. And then all the drama happened, which made me think that, as terrible as this couple was and is together, they probably were really dating.

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Kaley Cuoco

The Big Bang Theory star was spotted out and about with this up-and-coming actor.

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Henry Cavill

The Man of Steel star was spotted hand-in-hand with the sitcom actress, but 12 days later the pair announced that they had split. Just a tad suspicious, no?

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Kim Kardashian

No one thinks that the reality star’s second marriage was more fake than her now-ex.

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Kris Humphries

Kardashian called off her marriage to Humphries only 72 days after their “fairytale” wedding. The basketball star has since gone on the record to say that he felt used by Kardashian and that their marriage was nothing more than a sham — too bad he didn’t get the memo 72 days sooner.

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Miley Cyrus

The former Hannah Montana star met her then-fiancé on set of a Nicholas Sparks movie.

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Liam Hemsworth

Hemsworth and Cyrus met in 2009 while playing romantic leads in The Last Song and quickly jumped into a relationship. They were on and off for years before getting engaged, but never walked down the aisle. Fans long speculated that the relationship, if it started out as real, became more and more artificial over time. Once Hemsworth scored one of the starring roles in The Hunger Games, the relationship fizzled out, which some suggested may have been because he was using Cyrus for fame. But hey, those are just the rumors.

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Ginnifer Goodwin

The relationship between Goodwin and her now-husband seemed like a fairytale — as in, maybe too good to be true.

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Josh Dallas

The Once Upon a Time co-stars play Snow White and Prince Charming on the show, so, duh, they should date offscreen. But while many fans thought it was weird that the couple fell hard for one another while playing such a romantic couple onscreen, this romance appears to be the real deal. The co-stars recently wed and had their first child together… just like their characters did on the show.

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Anna Paquin

Paquin raised eyebrows when she started dating her True Blood love interest offscreen.

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Stephen Moyer

Whether you shipped Bill or Sookie or not (ugh, why would you?!), you have to admit that the now-married couple is pretty cute together. Still, fans speculated at the beginning of their relationship that their offscreen romance was all for the cameras — it was just too good to be true.

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Ben Affleck

The Gone Girl actor met his now-wife when they were co-stars in a truly terrible superhero movie, Daredevil.

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Jennifer Garner

He was playing Daredevil. She was playing his love interest Elektra. The quick relationship between the co-stars screamed publicity stunt, but it couldn’t have been further from the truth — the couple is now married with two adorable kids, and even makes it a point to not do too much press together.

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Nina Dobrev

The Vampire Diaries star was spotted getting cozy with her pal’s brother — and the press screamed “fraud!”

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Derek Hough

Shortly after Dobrev and her co-star Ian Somerhalder ended their relationship, the CW star was spotted out with Julianne Hough’s younger brother and Dancing With the Stars pro Derek Hough. The six-week relationship was super PDA-heavy, making people wonder what the so-called couple was really trying to prove.

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Kylie Jenner

The youngest Jenner was accused of having her own mother orchestrate her dates with this A-Lister’s son.

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Jaden Smith

Jenner firmly denied that momager Kris had anything to do with her dating Will Smith’s son, Jaden, and tweeted that she would never “waste her time” dating anyone for a “publicity stunt.” Whatever the relationship really was, it didn’t last very long.

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