19 Surprising And Strange Connections Between Celebrities (And The Stories Behind Them)

At its core, Hollywood is essentially a small town. It seems like anyone who's anyone knows absolutely everyone. Sometimes, you probably see two celebs together at a premiere or hear them mention each other in interviews and wonder, "How the heck do they know each other?"

Here are 19 Hollywood connections that are surprising, unexpected, or confusing:

1.When Julia Roberts was born, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King covered the hospital bill for her parents, who couldn't afford to pay it.

In a HISTORYTalks interview, Julia said, "My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop, and one day, Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. And my mom is like, 'Sure, come on over.' And so, they just all became friends."

She also said that the Kings' kindness helped her parents "out of a jam."

2.In high school, Drake made fun of classmate Elliot Page because he had a crush on them — but he publicly apologized on his blog in 2009.

In 2013, Elliot reached out to Drake on Twitter. He said, "Hey Drake, remember when we read Joyce Carol Oates ' Black Water in Dirk's class? Good times. What have you been up to since high school?"

3.Paul Rudd's college roommate was also Jon Hamm's childhood friend. The two actors butted heads over Paul's then-girlfriend Sarah, who was also an ex Jon still had feelings for.

Paul told E! News, "Jon and I knew each other back then, though we both sort of liked the same girl, so I was not so crazy about Jon... He was great at everything. We were playing trivial pursuit one time and I was with Sarah, the girl...I would roll and be, 'Um entertainment, sports.'  And Jon, every time he rolled, 'I wanna go history.' And it was the most emasculating, because every time he'd get a question he'd get it right every time. And I actually felt so lame that I'd start reading atlases."

4.Jon Hamm was his The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt costar Ellie Kemper's improv teacher in her ninth grade drama class.

On a panel, Ellie said, "When they told us that he would be playing the reverend [on Kimmy Schmidt], it was fantastic. But I was a little scared. I think there's still a teacher-student dynamic, and acting with him was a little bit nerve-racking just because I felt like he was still grading me on some level. But he's a wonderful man and it was a lot of fun."

5.As a teenager, Alexis Haines (née Neiers, a podcaster who's known for the reality show, Pretty Wild, as well as her involvement with the celebrity-robbing Bling Ring) occasionally babysat Doja Cat because their moms were friends.

6.Before getting his big break, Ed Sheeran crashed at Jamie Foxx's house in Los Angeles.

Jamie invited Ed to stay with him after having him as a guest on his satellite radio show, The Foxxhole.

7.Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne, and Prince William were all classmates at the all-boys boarding school Eton College.

Eddie and William played on the rugby team together.

Tom and Eddie both acted in a school production of A Passage to India by E. M. Forster. Eddie played the female lead, while Tom played the front right leg of the elephant his character rode on.

8.Nicole Richie and Cameron Diaz are sisters-in-law because they're married to twin brothers, Joel and Benji Madden.

9.D'Arcy Carden nannied for Bill Hader, watching his two eldest daughters full-time.

She remained close with the family and later cameoed on his show Barry.

10.Before they costarred in Black Panther, Lupita Nyong'o gave Winston Duke a tour of the prestigious Yale School of Drama. As close friends and classmates, they went to see Avengers together.

11.David Tennant and Peter Davison, who both played different regenerations of the Doctor on Doctor Who, are son and father-in-law.

Georgia Tennant, Peter's daughter, met David when she had a guest role on the DW episode, "The Doctor's Daughter."

12.Zooey Deschanel and The Property Brothers' Jonathan Scott met while filming Carpool Karaoke with their siblings in late 2019. They made their relationship Instagram official a month later.

13.Pulp Fiction actor Ving Rhames (whose full name is Irving) got the nickname "Ving" from his college roommate, Stanley Tucci.

14.Stanley Tucci is his The Devil Wears Prada costar Emily Blunt's brother-in-law.

Stanley first met Emily's sister, Felicity Blunt, at their movie's red carpet premiere in 2006. Four years later, they reconnected at Emily's wedding to John Krasinski. They got engaged a year later and then married in 2012.

15.Al Roker and Lenny Kravitz are distant cousins. Their grandfathers were cousins.

16.Before their respective divorces, Reba McEntire was Kelly Clarkson's stepmother-in-law.

Reba was married to producer Narvel Blackstock from 1989–2015, and Kelly was married to his son, Brandon Blackstock, from 2013–2021.

17.When she was a sophomore at Dartmouth, Mindy Kaling was an intern for Conan O'Brien's show Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Appearing on Conan as a guest 14 years later, she described herself as "the worst intern that's ever worked on the program" because she'd follow Conan, her comedy hero, around instead of doing her work.

18.Tilda Swinton and Princess Diana were classmates at the Kent boarding school West Heath.

19.And finally, in high school, Cameron Diaz bought weed from Long Beach Polytechnic High School upperclassman Snoop Dogg.

She told Lopez Tonight, "We went to high school together. He was a year older than me. He was very tall and skinny and wore lots of ponytails in his hair, and I’m pretty sure I bought weed from him. I had to have."

A few months later, he told Lopez Tonight, "I might’ve sold her some of that white girl weed."