Wednesday 8th June is national Best Friends Day!
There are many things that make best friends best friends; you sort of have your own language that nobody else would understand, you have secrets about each other you will never tell and you hold a telepathic and unspoken mutual dislike for exactly the same things. You might owe each other money, but it doesn’t matter because ‘it will all balance out eventually’ and you are comfortable in each other’s company night or day.
People love to express this friendship through presents and greeting cards, and every occasion, be it birthdays, weddings, moving house, passing exams, giving birth or sadly losing a family member becomes all the more poignant when it is recognised by your best friend. Best friends can find each other in the most unlikely places; often school or university or your best friend may simply be your partner. However it came about, such a friendship is a very special thing and everywhere we go in our lives we see such bonds around us.
In celebrity life it is notoriously difficult to form lasting bonds with people, as careers take individuals far and wide across the globe and much about celebrity life is based on image and brief associations with people or ‘names’ purely for professional reasons. However, beneath the glamour, the pretence and the sometimes imitation relationships that are formed in the eye of the paparazzi, there are some solid friendships that appear to last, and when we see them in the glossy magazines and in the newspapers and lifestyle sections, we can’t help but smile at the palpable love being shared by two friends with the whole world watching.
Celebrity best friends show their love through birthday cards and Christmas cards just like the rest of us, but they have quite unique friendships and by and large, celebrity best friends can be split into five categories:
Double acts: those celebrities that come as a professional pair and are evidently best friends as a result. We are thinking of Ant and Dec, Vic and Bob, French and Saunders.
Professions: In a similar vein, you have celebrity best friends who are in the same profession and while they don’t necessarily work together they cross each other’s paths so regularly they are bound to form a bond. Look at Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby or Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss.
Couples: We all have friends we make through our partners and this is no different in the world of the celebrity. Would Chris Martin and Jay Z ever have been friends if Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé weren’t also? It’s unlikely, and this also shows that strong friendships can outlast one of the couples splitting up.
Unlikely friendships: Somehow Mariah Carey and Will Ferrell have forged a lasting friendship. And reality shows are also a great example of celebrities from entirely different worlds being thrust together and forming bonds based purely on human nature, rather than synthetic celebrity lifestyles. Who would have thought Eric Bristow and Hugo from Made in Chelsea had anything in common?
Parties: Of course the magazines are full of celebrities falling out of glamourous parties, and these are so frequent that some lasting friendships are bound to be formed that go further than simply sharing the limelight and a bottle of bubbly. Kate Hudson and Stella McCartney are one example of a pair of celebrities who are a staple feature of the red carpet circuit, but who have a clear friendship that goes beyond all that.
It is true that we all love a bit of glamour, and while friendship can be expressed in many different ways, those most obvious celebrity best friends are touching examples that most of the time you can’t fake it. And when you are best friends, the whole world can see it.
Here's some ways you can celebrate Best Friend Day:
Spending time with your best friend
Making efforts to find a best friend (if you don't currently have one)
Giving a small gift or card to your best friend
Calling an old best friend that you've lost touch with