Shaquille O’Neal and Nicole “Hoopz” Alexander don’t let height or reality TV fame get in the way of their love. Despite their nearly two-foot difference, the divorced NBA basketball legend and former VH1 reality star—of Flavor of Love and I Love Money fame—have been inseparable since getting together in the summer of 2010. Rumors surfaced they were engaged shortly thereafter, but he hasn’t put a ring on it yet.
Two months after breaking up with her boyfriend of two years, towering heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko (left), Hayden Panettierre has been linked to the more human-size New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. Klitschko told People magazine that a long-distance relationship was just too much for the couple. Presumably he didn't mean vertically.
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Even standing on her wallet in high heels can't really bridge the gap between Kim Kardashian and her new fiancé, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. But Kardashian loves the foot-and-a-half height difference. When Piers Morgan asked her how tall Humphries is, little Kim replied: "Six foot nine…it's the best way to feel skinny—find a big, tall man."
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In 1990, Jada Pinkett was considered too short to play Will Smith's girlfriend when she auditioned for The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. But the two remained friends, began dating in 1995, and were married two years later. Not that Will Smith prefers everything petite—last month, he caused a controversy in New York when his 53-foot Men in Black trailer upset neighbors in Soho.
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Though Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher are a relatively private Hollywood couple, their 13-inch height difference makes them conspicuous in public. And typically, Fisher has a sense of humor about her size: "I'm used to it," she told Star magazine in 2008. "It used to be hard when we went to a bar or something —people try to pick up little people physically, pat you on the head. It's like when I communicate with a dog!"
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Fergie may sing about how "Big Girls Don't Cry," but at 5'2", she doesn't speak from experience. The Black Eyed Peas singer married actor Josh Duhamel, who is 13 inches taller, in 2009. Ryan Seacrest says the couple's height difference may be the reason Fergie appears on his New Year's Eve show. "She likes to do it with me because I'm sort of like a half-Josh Duhamel," he once joked with E! Online. "I'm about half the size of Josh, but from afar, I kind of—kind of —remind her of the other version. [At least] the hair."
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Having met on the set of All's Faire in Love in 2008, Christina Ricci and comedian Owen Benjamin took the movie's title seriously: They ignored their 18-inch height difference and were engaged a few months later. Alas, the couple realized they did not see eye to eye and called off the engagement after three months.
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Since splitting from her 5'9" husband, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson has traded up—at least height-wise. She dated 6'2" Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romoand is now engaged to 6'3" NFL tight end Eric Johnson. And while Simpson is not self-conscious about her height, she has been quick to defend herself against fat jokes. In 2010, she told Oprah: "The fact I was famous last year for gaining 10 pounds is ridiculous and really sad… I don't want other people to feel fat if they're a size 6 or whatever size they are."
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"He might be much, much taller and bigger than me but it's not a problem. Love is blind," Eva Longoria once said of seven-years-younger, 12-inches-taller San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker. The two were married in 2007, but even blind love wasn't immune to a long-distance relationship and reports of infidelity. The couple divorced in 2010, and Longoria has since been linked to Penelope Cruz's brother Eduardo Cruz.
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Though there is a 12-year age difference and a 14-inch height differential, actress Eliza Dushku and NBA star-turned-actor Rick Fox couldn't be closer. Fox, who was once married to Vanessa Williams, recently paid the diminutive Dushku a high compliment in UsWeekly: "Watching her and my kids bond over the holidays was really a gift to me—I couldn't have wished for anything better," Fox said. "I told her, 'We're not married, yet, but you're like a stepmother to my kids.'"
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They may be a foot apart vertically, but Amy Poehler and Will Arnett share a comic sensibility. So much so that the couple (who were married in 2003) have worked together several times—including in Blades of Glory, Arrested Development, and Parks and Recreation. This fall, Arnett will also join Poehler on NBC's prime-time lineup when he stars in Up All Night.
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In 1932, director Merian C. Cooper called actress Fay Wray into his office to tell her, "You're going to have the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood." As Wray later recounted in her autobiography, On the Other Hand, "Naturally, I thought Clark Gable." Luckily, Cooper had a different Hollywood king in mind. Wray's performance as Ann Darrow in 1933's King Kong remained the defining role of her career, but she wasn't very pleased with it the first time she saw the movie. "At the premiere of King Kong I wasn't too impressed. I thought there was too much screaming," Wray once admitted. "I didn't realize then that King Kong and I were going to be together for the rest of our lives, and longer."
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