‘ WE WERE SMITTEN’
Sabrina star, Ryan Reynolds almost dated
It may be hard to believe now — given that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have become the standard bearer for happily ever after celebrity couples — but Reynolds was not only once engaged to Alanis Morissette, but was also at one time married to Scarlett Johansson.
Also getting in on the action, apparently, was Melissa Joan Hart — who claims the Canadian actor almost dated her (but in this case, did not propose).
Reynolds played Hart’s love interest in the sorely underrated Sabrina t he Teenage Witch movie in 1996, while offscreen, he also touched her heart.
“He was very sweet,” Hart said Thursday on Australian morning show Studio 10. But, turns out, the sitcom star was seeing someone else at the time and couldn’t pursue her interest in Reynolds.
“I had a boyfriend at the time, but we were smitten and cute and he was adorable,” Hart said. “He was a really, really nice guy, probably would have been a great boyfriend, and I didn’t end up with the other guy, so maybe I should have taken a chance!”
In her 2013 memoir Me- lissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life, Hart went into greater detail about their short-lived romance.
“Nobody looked as good with wavy blond locks and a thumb ring as Ryan did. Though I was madly in love with James, my boyf riend of six months by t hen, Ryan and I spent plenty of time together,” she wrote. “Though Ryan was totally cute and charming, I couldn’t get past the fact that he always seemed to be channeling Jim Carrey’s oddball mannerisms and voices. Even so, he sure knew how to make a girl feel special.”
On their last day of shooting, Reynolds gifted Hart a pricey Bulova watch, which made her go “weak in the knees.” His “taste in bling” turned her on, she wrote.
“There’s a ridiculous moment in the Sabrina movie where Ryan looks at me and says in a throaty, whispered hush, ‘ I think what we need is a little less talk and a little more action,’ ” Hart said. “When I opened Ryan’s gift, I couldn’t agree more with this statement. ... Not sure whether to chastise or make out with him next, I decided to plant a big, fat kiss on his mouth without saying a word more. It was very dramatic.”
The two “fooled around” in her hotel room that night and made plans to reunite in New York. She ended up confessing to and sticking with her boyfriend, however, leaving Reynolds stranded in the city.
Hart is now married to husband Mark Wilkerson, with whom she has three sons, while Reynolds has since married Lively, with whom he has two daughters.