Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton

In every relationship comes the moment when romance sells copyright to reality. For Cate Blanchett and the theatre director Andrew Upton things happen in reverse order. “Of course it was not love at first sight!” Cate recalls when they met for the first time in 1996 at the Belvoir St Theatre during the performance of the Russian play The Seagull. “He thought I was too cold and I found him rather arrogant! Till the moment when he kissed me…”

The kiss comes a year later during a late poker game at Andrew’s. “… Cate, I do fancy that friend of yours…” Upton suddenly notices her skin as delicate as rice paper, and dares finish his sentence on Blanchett’s lips. Three weeks later he becomes even more arrogant – he asks her to marry him. The star from Blue Jasmine says “Yes”.

Who cares that Andrew doesn’t look like Alec Baldwin? And that the crazy Canadians do not chase him, begging him to become mothers of his children (poor Baldwin!). Blanchett looks at herself in Upton. And how is it even possible that someone, who Blanchett looks herself at, to be ugly? Fact, they are not the couple of the century. She is Armani’s muse – as sophisticated as a marble sculpture holding Oscar in her hand, and he looks like a devilish home gnome who lives under the stove.

Besides, Cate and Upton have three sons – a casual fact, but it is in favour of the scientific theory that beautiful couples have a far greater chance of conceiving girls than others… Fuck Armani and evolutionary strategies! Andrew is the one who wakes up next to Kate in their riverside estate at Hunters Hill… No one can cut him out of there.

Do you know that Upton calls himself the Hand? Because of the paparazzi who still rather clumsily cut him out of the pictures where he holds Cate in his arms. “I get them. They’d rather see her carrying shopping bags instead of me. No, I’m not uncomfortable. On the contrary, I’m having fun!” Not that Upton has no pride. Upton is a man without prejudices. And that’s the same winning card he holds in his hand in the fateful poker game.

Luciana Barroso and Matt Damon

In 2003, during the filming of Stuck on you, Matt Damon goes out for a beer with his colleagues at Crobar in Miami. At that time Damon is still “subscribed” to famous Hollywood stars – Winona Ryder, Minnie Driver, Odessa Whitmire, Eva Mendes. That night at Crobar a throng of fans surrounds Matt very quickly and the actor decides to hide behind the bar. “What the hell are you doing here!?” And what do you think you are doing? Who do you think you are, Matt Damon, ha? And you got an Oscar? I work here!” shouts at him a dark-haired bartender, while all the women around look at him with a preorgasmic expression on their faces.

Fortune favours the bold. With her bitter like Angostura bitters look, the Argentinian – some Luciana Barroso – seems to take his heart with a bar spoon and puts it in a shaker. And he never gets it back. “Something wonderful happened the moment I met her eyes. As if I saw an old acquaintance of mine amid a crowd of people.” They marry in New York two years later, and after that the actor lives in the kingdom ruled by his wife and their four daughters – Ocean’s Eleven.

Today Luciana is an interior designer and Matt’s worthy tango partner in life. According to the actor – she is his Fortune, too. “Where else would our roads cross? And the lesson is that when you are bored and have no desire for anything, go to the bar. There you might meet the love of your life.”

Sharon Stone and Martin Mica

Sharon is like Ava Gardner – she has never tried to look like a little girl. For her facelift means simply a proudly raised chin. She knows that at fifty crow’s feet mean one thing only – regular smiles. Just as the thick annual rings in the tree trunks indicate regular rains. But if at thirty-four you can awaken the basic instinct of the world, revealing the view under your skirt, at fifty-nine you need courage, strategy, a small pick-up line.

“Men want to know that you are ready to pamper them; to cook them dinner, to know what to do in bed. Believe me, no 20-year-old girl would have succeeded – it is too binding! “In April 2012, at the Vogue Brazil party in Sao Paulo Stone shows how things are done. She calmly leaves the party and wends her way to the hotel with the man whom all women desire, but do not dare to approach.

Martin Mica – an Argentinian model and former face of United Colors of Benetton. Sharon’s favourite type – “thinking athletes.” He reads books, plays the guitar, and uploads their embossed beach photos to Instagram. For Mica, her simple black dress and tied in a ponytail hair at that party are irresistible. It is a pity that kisses and yoga on the beaches of Venice last only eight months.

According to Sharon, they both have “different interests”. She is a philanthropist, and her philanthropy hardly boils down to the love of Apollonian bodies… Which, of course, doesn’t mean that on the motorway of life full of speed limit signs – “wear that at 30”, “do that at 40”, “behave like that at 60“, Stone doesn’t have the courage to pull over; to give a 27-year-old hitch-hiker a lift and travel shamelessly with him. We can imagine her stopping, rolling down her car window and telling him:

“I’m Sharon Stone, let’s fuck!”