It doesn’t take a celebrity news junkie to realize that cheating is all the recent rage — hello, Jesse James and Tiger Woods! And it’s no mystery why these scoundrels steal the daily headlines. Whether you’re a scandal addict, love peering into Hollywood’s elite houses or simply enjoy feeling better about your own, normal relationships, there’s something in a celebrity cheating reveal for everybody.
This observation is further proven by the lying ladies and double-crossing cads who have made their way from cinema’s big screens and into our Cheating Characters Hall-of-Fame. So clear out your sext inbox and click through to see some of the movies’ most manic adulterers.
Diane Lane’s Constance Sumner drives into “Unfaithful” territory when she abandons surburbia for afternoon romps in New York City with Oliver Martinez’s ‘s sexy Frenchman Paul Martel.
20th Century Fox
2 of 22
Forget the possibility of losing his marriage, Daniel Gallagher’s (Michael Douglas) “Fatal Attraction” to Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) almost cost him his family’s lives.
Paramount Pictures
3 of 22
In “Legends of the Fall,” Julia Ormond’s Susannah kept it in the Ludlow family as she jumped from brothers Samuel (Henry Thomas) to Tristan (Brad Pitt) to Alfred (Aidan Quinn).
Columbia TriStar
4 of 22
While their — separate — “Little Children” played, miserable mom Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) and depressed dad Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson) found solace when left to their own, more adult, devices.
New Line Cinema
5 of 22
We discovered “The English Patient” had quite the torrid past when flashbacks revealed that Count László de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) had an affair with a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas).
Miramax Films
6 of 22
In the end, Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ married Chris aced Scarlett Johansson’s unsuspecting mistress Nola Rice in “Match Point.”
DreamWorks
7 of 22
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s “Revolutionary Road” had a dead-end for the unfaithful marriage between Frank and April Wheeler.
Paramount Vantage
8 of 22
In “Closer,” Dan Woolf (Jude Law) and Anna Cameron’s (Julia Roberts) on-again, off-again shenanigans landed them in a cheating square.
AP
9 of 22
Life “Derailed” for Clive Owens’ Charles Schine after he was duped by his supposed lover Lucinda, played by Jennifer Aniston.
The Weinstein Company
10 of 22
Billionaire John Gage’s (Robert Redford) “Indecent Proposal” would irk any married man, and it surely didn’t sit well with Diana Murphy’s (Demi Moore) husband.
Paramount Pictures
11 of 22
“What Lies Beneath” Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford)? A cheating murderer, that’s what.
DreamWorks
12 of 22
Vicky (Rebecca Hall) couldn’t blame it on the scenery when she allowed herself to be seduced by Javier Bardem’s Juan Antonio in “Vicky Christina Barcelona.”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
13 of 22
Joseph Fiennes’ character was still married when this “Shakespeare in Love” fell for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Viola de Lesseps.
Miramax Films
14 of 22
The then-hitched Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman kept their characters’ “Eyes Wide Shut” to the betrayals occurring in their unhappy marriage.
Warner Bros.
15 of 22
It must have been “Body Heat” that attracted the married Matty (Kathleen Turner) to her sleazy lover Ned Racine (William Hurt).
Warner Bros.
16 of 22
Violet (Jennifer Tilly) leaves her husband for a woman (Gina Gershon) in “Bound.”
Gramercy Pictures
17 of 22
Joaquin Phoenix’s naive Jimmy Emmett was willing “To Die For” his wedded lover Suzanne Stone, played by Nicole Kidman.
Columbia Pictures
18 of 22
In the case of “In Her Shoes,” when Maggie (Cameron Diaz) slept with Rose’s (Toni Colette) boyfriend, slutty sister trumped cheating boyfriend on the loyalty scale.
20th Century Fox
19 of 22
If Erika Christensen’s obsessive “Swimfan” Madison Bell couldn’t convert Jesse Bradford’s Ben Cronin into a faithful boyfriend, we don’t know what could.
20th Century Fox
20 of 22
High school teacher Jim McAllister’s (Matthew Broderick) “Election” to cheat instead of end his unhappy marriage was a difficult lesson learned.
Paramount Pictures
21 of 22
Ben Gunders (Bradley Cooper) ended up alone when both of the women in his life turned the tables on him in “He’s Just Not That Into You.”
New Line Cinema
22 of 22
Idris Elba’s Derek Charles almost threw away a lifetime with Sharon (Beyonce) for his “Obsessed” receptionist (Ali Larter).
Screen Gems Pictures
