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Not since Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor heated up the Nile on the set of Cleopatra in the early '60s has a celebrity romance garnered this much attention.
Print journalists scouring for proof of the affair from the parties involved were left with only more hearsay. Last weekend, Warner Bros. held interviews in Los Angeles to promote the drama Proof of Life, which opens this Friday.
It's an account of an American engineer (David Morse) who is kidnapped while working on a dam in a volatile South American country. His wife (Meg Ryan) hires a kidnap expert (Russell Crowe) to go into the jungle and rescue her husband after the initial attempts at negotiating a ransom fail.
It was on the set of Proof of Life that Ryan and Crowe had an affair. Two months ago, Ryan filed for divorce from her husband of nine years, Dennis Quaid.
Ryan and Crowe are still together, but they are refusing to discuss their relationship. They agreed to do TV and radio interviews to promote Proof of Life, but refused to speak to print journalists.
"It's the nature of the job. Artists can better control what happens in television or radio interviews than they can with print journalists," explains Proof of Life director Taylor Hackford. "They know there is little hope of you not asking them about their private lives - it's your job.
"If they refuse to speak on TV or radio, the interviewer loses their chance. It's not that easy with print journalists, and the actors know it's your job to seek out these answers.
"Hollywood is still unforgiving of actors' private lives. Actors are vilified for doing things and having feelings that the rest of the world have."
As much as he supports and understands the refusal of Crowe and Ryan to do print interviews, Hackford says he's disappointed about that.
"I am deeply hurt that they couldn't (do interviews)," he says, "and that Proof of Life will probably best be known as the film that sparked a love affair between Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan."
Hackford insists he did not know that his stars had fallen in love in Ecuador.
"They were incredibly discreet and incredibly professional. It was not until we flew back to England to film some scenes that I learned about the affair. I read about it in one of the London newspapers."
People who might rush to Proof of Life to see a series of steamy love scenes that might have sparked the affair will be disappointed. There are many loving glances, affectionate touches and a passionate, albeit brief, kiss.
Hackford admits he filmed a more explicit love scene but that it has been exorcised from the final print.
"This was completely my decision. There was no pressure from Meg or Russell and certainly not from the studio.
"I screened the film with and without the love scene and had to go with the version that worked best for audiences.
"If I wanted to be sensational I could have inserted the scene, but it would have detracted greatly. I wanted the relationship between the characters to be tenuous and ambiguous."