Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals the surprising gambit that ended his bitter feud with Sylvester Stallone
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are close friends now, but there was a time where they were actually quite bitter rivals.
For more than a decade - including when they were at the height of their fame in the 1980s - they were constantly bad-mouthing each other in the press.
Schwarzenegger even confirmed in 2017 that he purposefully leaked his 'interest' in the film Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, so Sly would swoop in and take the role.
They ultimately became friends and co-stars in films like The Expendables franchise and Escape Plan, though he recently revealed how the feud came to an end.
Schwarzenegger, 77, who made bizarre comments about his son Patrick recently, was promoting his new series Fubar on Radio Andy, where he confirmed, 'We hated each other' at the time.
He also revealed that, surprisingly enough, it was their partnership in the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood that truly brought them together.
When host Andy Cohen asked how they buried the proverbial hatchet, Schwarzenegger said, 'It was Planet Hollywood. It was actually Planet Hollywood.'
'We were kind of like attacking each other, doing nasty things, saying nasty things about each other and all these stupid things,' the former California governor admitted.
'And then all of a sudden, I started working with Robert Earl and Keith Barish to create the Planet Hollywood franchise, and the next thing I know, I get a call from my lawyer, who was also Sly's lawyer, and he said, "Arnold, is there any kind of room for Sly on Planet Hollywood?"' Schwarzenegger recalled.
The actor added, 'I said, "That's actually a good idea," because that could bring us together, and I wanted that. At that point I had grown out of my crazyness.'
'So, sure enough, we made it work, then Bruce Willis became part of Planet Hollywood, then Whoopi Goldberg became part of Planet Hollywood, then Chuck Norris,' he added.
The rivalry went all the way back to January 1977, when Arnie and Sly were both seated at the same table during the Golden Globe Awards.
Schwarzenegger was awarded Best Acting Debut for his 1976 film Stay Hungry, which he was 'gloating' about, while Stallone was up for several awards for Rocky.
Stallone revealed in a 2017 interview with Variety that he saw Schwarzenegger laughing when he lost Best Actor, but Sly got the last laugh when Rocky won Best Picture.
'Finally it was Rocky, Best Picture, I managed to grab this giant bowl of flowers and heave it in his direction, and I went, OK, the gauntlet is down,' he said.
He added, 'This began a 10-year battle royale. I mean, we couldn't stand to be in the same galaxy,' but ultimately the feud came to an end.
'Now we realized we're the same person, that's what it was,' he said, adding they're,' great friends, fantastic friends.'
While Schwarzenegger was Governor of California, he invited Stallone to his inauguration ceremonies and Stallone donated $15K to his campaign fund.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Russell Crowe reunites with Superman son Henry Cavill for reboot of another beloved action franchise
Russell Crowe is reuniting onscreen with Henry Cavill, more than a decade after they acted with each other in the Superman film Man of Steel. The 2013 superhero movie starred Henry in the lead role and Russell as his biological father Jor-El, who saves his son's life just before losing his own. Now, fans will be able to see them back onscreen in a remake of the 1986 action fantasy picture Highlander, which launched a franchise of the same name. In the original Highlander, Christopher Lambert played Connor MacLeod, a 16th century Scottish warrior who discovers he is immortal unless his head is severed. He gets initiated into the secret world of immortals by the virtuoso swordsman Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, memorably portrayed by Sean Connery. A reboot starring Henry as MacLeod was announced in 2021, and now, after years of development, Russell has been cast as Ramírez, according to Variety. The original Highlander emerged as a roaring success in 1986, leading to the 1991 sequel Highlander II: The Quickening, which flopped disastrously. However the series staggered on for the 1994 release Highlander III: The Sorcerer, a direct follow-up of the first film as if the events of the second never happened. There was also a TV series from 1992 to 1998, followed by the 2000 film Highlander: Endgame, which was a sequel to the show rather than to the previous movies. In 2021 it emerged that the original movie was being remade with Henry in the lead, back when he was still starring as Geralt of Riva on the Netflix medieval fantasy series The Witcher, before his departure and replacement by Liam Hemsworth. The new film will be directed by Chad Stahelski, who helmed all the John Wick movies, and will have a script by Michael Finch, who co- wrote the fourth John Wick picture. Russell first met Henry long before they ever worked together, back when the latter was a teenager at boarding school in the English countryside. The encounter took place when Russell was filming his 2000 drama Proof of Life, starring him and Meg Ryan, at the Stowe School - where Henry was a student along with Russell's onscreen son Merlin Hanbury-Tenison. Russell recalled that 'during a break in the shooting,' he caught sight of a rugby union game and noticed 'one kid on that field who was very fluid and in control.' The teenager 'came over to have a chat, but all his questions were about acting, and there was just this smile in his eyes but there was something dead serious behind that smile,' Russell said on The Graham Norton Show in 2013. 'So instead of not answering the questions or whatever - 'cause you get asked these questions a hundred thousand times - I told him the truth in the brief moment that I had with him, and put it in front of him that it's a challenge that's up to him. Nobody's gonna give it to you,' Russell remembered. 'A couple of days later, I was putting a package together for the kid who'd played my son, because I figured the greatest thing if you're at boarding school must be unexpected mail, and I thought: "I'll put one together for that other bloke," and I'd remembered his name because he'd been very clear when he said it,' he shared. His note to Henry was the saying: 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,' which Russell interpreted as meaning: 'If you want it, you go and get it.'
Daily Mail
42 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Blake Lively sends out new subpoenas in legal battle with Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively is currently wrapped up in a nasty court battle with her It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni. New legal documents obtained by reveal that the actress, 37, has filed motions to compel subpoenas from multiple executives at Baldoni's, 41, production company Wayfarer. According to the paperwork, Blake initially served third-party subpoenas in March, and is now asking the court to enforce them. The eight executives listed are Ashmi Elizabeth Dang, Ahmed Musiol, Mitz Toskovic, Tera Hanks, AJ Marbory, Jennifer Benson, Shekinah Reese, and Jarriesse Blackmon. Lively and Baldoni butted heads while filming the romantic drama last year, and things turned litigious in December when the Gossip Girl alum sued the actor for alleged sexual harassing and engineering a retaliatory smear campaign against her. Earlier this week Lively suffered a setback in the case when a New York judge denied her attorneys' application for a protective order seeking to block her text messages with Taylor Swift from being entered as evidence. Baldoni's team has subpoenaed Lively for text messages, emails and any other messages between herself and the singer. The Jane The Virgin actor's lawyers will now be allowed to pore through the text trail, with all communications related to It Ends With Us set for scrutiny. In one embarrassing text exchange, Lively appeared to refer to herself as the Game of Thrones character Khaleesi, and to Swift as one of her 'dragons.' Elsewhere in Baldoni's filing is the claim that Swift was present at a meeting convened by Lively at her New York penthouse to discuss It Ends With Us script changes. Sources close to Swift insisted the singer had no knowledge of the meeting and simply arrived to find it underway. The situation reportedly left Swift — who is godmother to Lively's three daughters — feeling 'exploited' by her friend of ten years. Six months ago Blake outlined work opportunities that she allegedly missed out on due to Baldoni in her explosive lawsuit against him. One of the missed work gigs listed was hosting the season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live in September, which aired the month after the film was released. Earlier this week Lively suffered a setback in the case when a New York judge denied her attorneys' application for a protective order seeking to block her text messages with Taylor Swift from being entered as evidence; the former friends pictured in February 2024 'The effects on Ms. Lively's professional life were immediate and substantial,' said the suit. 'Given the ongoing nature of the campaign and the associated negative public sentiment, Ms. Lively did not believe she could proceed with public appearances or events without being forced to openly discuss what happened on set,' the filing stated. Baldoni hit back in January with a $400 million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of defamation. All parties have denied the allegations. Last week, the defamation element of Baldoni's lawsuit was thrown out by a judge, although he is still suing for civil extortion and invasion of privacy among other claims. But contained in Baldoni's filing were screenshots of alleged text messages, in which Lively regularly mentioned Swift by name.
The Independent
42 minutes ago
- The Independent
Key moments from the sixth week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
The sixth week of the Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial was shortened by a holiday and a juror's illness as prosecutors nearly concluded their case, setting the stage for a one- or two-day defense presentation next week. In the trial's first five weeks, jurors repeatedly heard testimony about drug-fueled marathon sex events described as 'freak-offs' by one of Combs' ex-girlfriends and as 'hotel nights' by another. In the sixth week, they were shown about 20 minutes of video recordings from the dayslong events. Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges in the trial, which continues Monday. Here are key moments from the past week: Jurors watch videos of 'freak-off' sex marathons they had heard so much about Jurors largely kept their reactions muted when they were shown about 20 minutes of recordings made by Combs of his then-girlfriends having sex with male sex workers at the elaborately staged 'freak-offs' or 'hotel nights.' Prosecutors say the events were proof of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges because Combs coerced his employees, associates and even his girlfriends to recruit and arrange flights for sex workers while his workers obtained drugs, stocked hotel rooms with baby oil, lubricant, condoms, candles and liquor and delivered cash. In her opening statement, defense lawyer Teny Geragos had called the videos 'powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.' Prosecutors played about 2 minutes of the recordings before the defense team aired about 18 minutes of the videos. The public and the press were unable to observe whether the prosecutors or defense lawyers had the better arguments after the judge ruled that neither the recordings nor the sound could be seen or heard by anyone except lawyers, the judge and the jury. Several jurors seemed to cast their eyes and sometimes turn their bodies away from the screens directly in front of them while the recordings played. The jurors listened through earphones supplied by the court, as did Combs and lawyers. A juror is ejected from the panel by a judge who questions whether he has an agenda Judge Arun Subramanian started the week by dismissing a juror whose conflicting answers about whether he lived in New Jersey or New York convinced the judge he was a threat to the integrity of the trial. Subramanian said the juror's answers during jury selection and in the week before he was excused 'raised serious concerns as to the juror's candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury.' 'The inconsistencies — where the juror has lived and with whom — go to straightforward issues as to which there should not have been any doubts, and the answers also go to something vital: the basic qualifications of a juror to serve,' the judge said. Residents of New Jersey would not be permitted to sit on a New York federal jury. A day before Subramanian ruled, defense lawyers argued fiercely against dismissal, saying that replacing the Black juror with a white alternate juror so late in the trial would change the diverse demographics of the jury and require a mistrial. The jurors are anonymous for the Combs trial. It wasn't the only issue regarding jurors for the week. The judge, angered by a media report about the questioning of another juror the week before that occurred in a sealed proceeding, warned lawyers that they could face civil and criminal sanctions if such a leak happened again. That juror was not dismissed. And Wednesday's court session had to be canceled after a juror reported "vertigo symptoms" on the way to the courthouse. A defense lawyer predicts a presentation measured in hours rather than days Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo seemed to close the door on any chance Combs would testify when he said Friday that the defense presentation would be finished Tuesday or Wednesday the following week, even if prosecutors don't rest until late Monday. It is not uncommon for defendants to choose not to testify at criminal trials. Besides being exposed to cross-examination by prosecutors, the testimony can be used by the government against the defendant should there be a need for a retrial. Also, if there is a conviction, the judge can conclude that the jury believed the defendant lied on the stand. Another former Combs' employee requires immunity to testify about working for him Brendan Paul, fresh off the college basketball courts where he once played in a cameo role for Syracuse University, joined Combs' companies as a personal assistant in late 2022 and was warned by a friend who had worked for Combs about what was ahead. 'He told me to get in and get out,' Paul recalled for the jury, citing the endless days and always-on-edge existence. 'If you have a girlfriend, break up with her. And you're never going to see your family.' The friend also instructed him to 'build a rolodex of clientele and get out,' he said. Paul said he worked 80 to 100 hours a week for a music power broker who received 'thousands and thousands' of text messages and emails a day. He was paid $75,000 salary initially, but it was raised in January 2024 to $100,000. He said Combs told him he 'doesn't take no for an answer' and wanted his staff to 'move like Seal Team Six.' Several times, Paul said, he picked up drugs for Combs and knew to keep his boss out of the drug trade because 'it was very important to keep his profile low. He's a celebrity.' The job came to an abrupt end in March 2024 when Paul was arrested at a Miami airport on drug charges after a small amount of cocaine that he said he picked up in Combs' room that morning was mistakenly put in his travel bag as he prepared to join Combs on a trip to the Bahamas. The charges were later dropped in a pretrial diversion program. Paul said he hadn't seen Combs since.
