The Real Life 'Saga' of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson

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Written by olivia 

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If Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are truly an item off the set, they're in line to become the next Brangelina. And if not, the saga of their rumored romance is probably the best thing that ever happened to Twilight -- and to the ravenous entertainment media.

Something unprecedented happened this spring when Zimbio compiled its list of 2010's 100 Hottest Celebrity Couples: Rob and Kristen's powers combined earned them a ranking of #25, but we're not even totally sure they're dating. In other words, they're so hot that even a possibly nonexistent romance can't keep them down.

Our celebrity couples list takes into account all the aspects of stardom that make a couple hot. We look at their Google search volume, the amount of money they're raking in, how genetically blessed they are, and how likely they are to stay together -- and on all of these counts (aside from the last, where celebs in their 20s often fall short) they're dominating.

This duo have proven they shouldn't be underestimated on- or off-screen, because they've got the tween scene wrapped around their fingers.

Once Upon a Co-Star

Twilight hit theaters in 2008, but it had been in production since 2004. Stephenie Meyer, the author of the wildly successful book series, signed a deal with Summit Entertainment in 2006 after executives promised her they'd stay true to the novels and drew up a contract to prove it. 

Director Catherine Hardwicke had her eye on Kristen Stewart from the beginning after noticing her in Sean Penn's Into the Wild. According to Entertainment Weekly, Stewart did an impromptu screen test for the role of the lovely, clumsy Bella Swan while she was shooting Adventureland, and Hardwicke knew she'd found her Bella. "I was captivated," she said.

Those who've read the Twilight Saga can attest to the number of times vampire Edward Cullen, Bella's love interest, is described as "beautiful" and "perfect." It's not an easy profile to live up to, and the pressure was on Hardwicke. She said of the series' fans, "They were rabid. Like, old ladies saying, 'You better get it right.'''

Apparently she didn't think Robert Pattinson, then of Harry Potter fame, fit the bill. That is, until he flew to California to do a screen test with Stewart. The two acted out a love scene right then and there.

Stewart credits herself with getting Pattinson on board. "I basically cast him," she told Vanity Fair. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me!? It's such an obvious choice!' It couldn't have been better. It was sort of perfect."

Hardwicke was floored after the screen test. She said, "It was electric. The room shorted out, the sky opened up, and I was like, 'This is going to be good.'''

Mixing Work and Play

The crew shot Twilight between April and May of 2008. On its opening day the film earned more than $35 million at the box office, and while not all critics were kind, the general consensus was that Twilight was every pre-teen girl's fantasy -- and that translated to an audience engagement that most franchises only fantasize about. The most recent films in the saga, New Moon and Eclipse, are ranked first and second on the list of the Top Single Day Grosses at the box office.

As one NPR commentator put it, "Twilight is unabashedly a romance. All the story's inherent silliness aside, it is intent on conveying the magic of meeting that one special person you've been waiting for. Maybe it is possible to be 13 and female for a few hours after all."

At the time, Stewart was dating Michael Angarano, with whom she co-starred in the 2004 film Speak. They started dating two years later, but by 2008, Twilight mania had been unleashed, and teenage fans were infatuated with the fictional love between Edward and Bella. The film won an impressive 10 Teen Choice Awards and another five MTV Movie Awards that year, as if herds of screaming admirers weren't enough to prove the enthusiasm.

Stewart and Angarano were photographed together in the spring of 2009, when the crew was filming New Moon in Vancouver. But tabloid blogger Lainey (at the popular site LaineyGossip.com) claimed insiders told her Summit Entertainment wasn't so happy about the pictures, and that they'd even asked Kristen not to hang around with her beau when the paps were nearby.

Robsten leaning in at a concert (EOnline.com)

Interestingly, it was around that time that Rob and Kristen were caught holding hands for the first time. E! Online's Ted Casablanca reported that a grocery store shopper saw them looking couply and "giggling" while walking around the market, but apparently they quickly kept their hands to themselves after they saw people looking. Hm.

They were also supposedly caught kissing at a Kings of Leon concert in April, and reports of other PDA sessions started to become more frequent. Photos of the alleged smooches are few and far between, though -- the closest that's out there is this one, where they're visibly holding hands.

Thanks to reports like these, the Robsten frenzy only grew. The two didn't even pose together at the New Moon premiere in November 2009, seemingly making an effort to keep their distance so the press couldn't read too far into their chemistry. They shrugged off questions about their romantic status, either denying all or joking that they were indeed engaged and pregnant, as the tabloids persistently kept claiming.

Fanning the Flame

Some time in early 2010, however, Pattinson and Stewart seemed to let go a bit and stop caring so much about the rumors. She showed up at the premiere of his movie Remember Me in March, which didn't have anything to do with Twilight. They didn't pose together, but her presence certainly did not go unnoticed in the blogosphere.

And they did get coy with fans at the MTV Movie Awards in 2010, where they won Best Kiss for Eclipse (It should be noted that they won the same award for Twilight and New Moon in previous years). But this time around, they sat next to each other in the crowd and played up the rumors about their off-screen chemistry.

"So I guess the thing to do is, we're supposed to kiss each other?" Kristen said to the crowd. "But to be perfectly honest with you it takes a lot of smoke and mirrors to make us look good kissing. And we don't want to let you guys down."

Cheering ensued, and Stewart said they'd "give it a shot." They knocked their faces together several times in almost-kisses and awkward shoves before Robert grabbed her in a very brief liplock, and they waltzed off the stage. The audience went crazy.

Soon after, the rumored couple stood side by side for the cameras at the June Eclipse premiere, showing a shift in their attitudes about the Twilight mania and romance rumors. Where once they would have gone to any lengths to avoid egging on the fans, they were starting to get the hang of the coy, "no comment" behavior.

Letting people think what they want clearly had its benefits.

Onward and Up

Robert Pattinson has two movies in the works for 2011, and Kristen Stewart has at least two of her own. Their current co-stars include names like Uma Thurman, Reese Witherspoon and James Gandolfini. They were both listed on Forbes' World's Most Powerful Celebrities in 2010, with Pattinson's salary listed at $17 million and Stewart's at $12 million.

 

It would be naive to think that the tabloid attention on their relationship didn't play a huge role in making Robsten more marketable. Thanks, Us Weekly!

The cast and crew behind the films are predictably bombarded with questions about the co-star sparks between Rob and Kristen, but even they have played it cool for the press.

Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg gushed about their chemistry to E! Online, and actor Alex Meraz said, "I don't even know if they are together or not, honestly, but I just think it's who they are as people and it's what they bring to their work [that makes the franchise successful]."

Amazingly, none of the insiders have been able (or willing) to say definitively that the two are a couple. At least none of the insiders that aren't conveniently anonymous.

The closest we've come to a confirmation is producer Wyck Godfrey, who once said he just hoped they'd "stay together" until the end of shooting so it doesn't get awkward on the set. It's something, but we have to wonder how much this guy really knows about the personal lives of his young stars.

Whatever their relationship, refusing to confirm anything is the smartest thing they could do publicity-wise. The "are they or aren't they" back-and-forth gives gossip blogs much more to work with than a stable relationship, and the mystery of it all is just right for the raging hormones that guide Twilight fandom.

"I would never cheapen my relationships by talking about them," Kristen told Elle magazine earlier this year. And for better or worse, her silence has only made Twi-hards listen even more carefully.