Hollywood veterans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s rivalry is one for the history books. From snide jabs and press slander to straight-up lies, these two have done it all. Spanning over two decades, their rivalry also enabled them to trick each other with almost career-ending bad movies and worse decisions over the years.
However, there was one particular event that took this feud between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone to a whole new bloodthirsty level in the 1980s. Although rumors have floated for a while what made it even more scandalous was Schwarzenegger’s confirmation of this event in 2012.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s feud
The infamous Schwarzenegger-Stallone feud started way back in 1977 at the Golden Globe Awards. Sylvester Stallone, a nominee for Best Actor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, a nominee for New Star of the Year were both present at the event. Things took a turn for the worse when the Rocky Star lost the award to Schwarzenegger for which he allegedly laughed at the former.
Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger became rivals after the 1977 Golden Globes
In a fit of rage, Stallone reportedly threw a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger and they have been at each other’s necks ever since. From coming up with outlandish lies like Schwarzenegger said,
“I’d be angry at hearing my name mentioned in the same breath as Stallone’s. Stallone uses body doubles for some of the close-ups in his movies. I don’t,”
to Stallone beating up the Austrian-American Bodybuilder’s look-alike in his movie as a response, it has sure been interesting for the audience.
Even their outrageous slanders, like Schwarzenegger’s claim to Playboy that along with being out of touch with the women’s movement, Sylvester Stallone apparently “Just gives off the wrong vibrations,” made for a highly entertaining gossip among fans.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone
Stallone’s response this time was an outright false slander published in The News of the World about Schwarzenegger’s Nazi ties. Where Wendy Leigh claimed that the Commando star’s father was responsible for rounding up Jews to put in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Although Schwarzenegger himself confirmed his father voluntarily being an active supporter of the Nazi regime, there is no evidence about him personally being involved with putting people in concentration camps.
And Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born two years after the fall of the regime, neither had any ties nor was he ever supportive of the Nazi regime.
Arnold Schwarzenegger set Sylvester Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen up
With the actors’ feud growing more intense by the day, though, something had to give. And that came in the form of Sylvester Stallone and his Cobra co-star Brigitte Nielsen getting married in December of 1985. However, there was more to the story as in that specific year, Nielsen was co-starring with none other than Schwarzenegger in Red Sonja.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja
What was even more intriguing were the rumors floating around of Nielsen and Schwarzenegger, who was dating Maria Shriver for eight years at the time, having a fling during the shooting. Vulture reported during the wedding,
“Stallone marries Cobra co-star Brigitte Nielsen, who reportedly had a fling with Schwarzenegger during the filming of Red Sonja.”
Sylvester Stallone with Brigitte Nielsen
In fact, there were even rumors going around about how Stallone and Nielsen initially met. While some claimed that the Mercenaries star allegedly sent a nude photo to Stallone, after which he organized for them to meet, there was another version going around by Schwarzenegger that was even more scandalous.
According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, during their now-confirmed fling, Nielsen was apparently so taken with The Terminator star that he himself set her up with Stallone to get rid of her and save his relationship with Maria Shriver.
Obviously, this added flames to the beefing legends’ already intense feud and made them lash out at each other even more furiously. Thankfully, it all ended in the late 1990s when both of their Hollywood stardom slowed a bit.
In fact, they seemed to have mended their relationship a lot as both collaborated for various movies like The Expendables franchise and even Escape Plan.
Source: Wikipedia
