1) Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 film directed by John Madden that depicts a fictional love affair between William Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps that inspires Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet. 2) The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. 3) Many of the stars of Shakespeare in Love like Joseph Fiennes, Judi Dench, and Colin Firth went on to work together in other films and have successful acting careers in both Shakespearean and other roles.

1. Shakespeare in Love
(Miramax, 1998)
Directed by:
John Madden
Written by: Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
William Shakespeare
Trivia
The play performed before the Queen is Two Gentlemen of Verona.
While disguised as Thomas Kent, Viola quotes this a soliloquy from this
play as her audition for Shakespeare. The other auditioning actors quote
Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. (“Is this the face
that launched a thousand ships…”)
Titus
Andronicus
would
logically
be
John
Webster’s
favorite
Shakespeare play. It is, by far, Shakespeare’s goriest play and such a
departure in style for Shakespeare that some Shakespeare scholars do not
believe he wrote it at all. Webster did become a playwright; his signature
pieces are The Duchess of Malfi, a gory play itself, and The White Devil.
Some scholars believe that Shakespeare did not write all his plays by
himself. Some believe that he collaborated with Marlowe on some, while
some believe that Marlowe simply wrote them for Shakespeare – even after
his “death.”
The movie Anonymous addresses the theory that Edward
DeVere, earl of Oxford, wrote the plays.
Many scholars think Marlowe may have “pulled a Tupac/Elvis,” faking
his own death to get out of trouble he fell into as a spy. According to this
conspiracy theory, Marlowe moved to the English countryside, where
Shakespeare visited him whenever he needed a play.

2. Many scholars also believe that had Marlowe survived, we would be
studying Marlowe, not Shakespeare.
Shakespeare in Love won seven Academy Awards in 1998: Best
Picture, Best Actress -- Gwenyth Paltrow ; Best Supporting Actress -- Judi
Dench; Art Direction; Costume Design; Set Decoration; Screenplay Written
Directly For The Screen.
Joseph Fiennes has a thing for Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare and
Marlowe. Along with Geoffrey Rush, he appeared in the biopic Elizabeth,
which came out in 1999, shortly after Shakespeare in Love. He played
Queen Elizabeth I’s married lover.
Fiennes was trained at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. He
has performed in many Shakespeare plays, most recently appearing in
Love’s Labor’s Lost. He has also starred as Bassanio in the film version of
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Bassanio is a lover with a cash
flow problem.
Fiennes also spent two seasons performing in Marlowe’s Edward II, a
play about a reputedly gay king of England.
Colin Firth has gone on to star in the Bridget Jones movies as Mark
Darcy, Bridget’s love interest and in the movie version of Mamma Mia! He
also played the painter Vermeer in Girl with a Pearl Earring. He won an
Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of King George VI in The
King’s Speech.
Several of the stars of this movie have worked together in other
productions. Judi Dench, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett were all in The
Importance of Being Earnest. Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow were
in Running with Scissors. Mark Williams and Imelda Staunton appear in
two Harry Potter movies with Ralph Fiennes, Joseph’s brother.

3. Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Meg Ryan and
Julia Roberts were all considered for the lead roles.
When Shakespeare in Love was being made, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben
Affleck were romantically involved. Gwyneth went on to marry Coldplay
singer Chris Martin, while Ben married Jennifer Garner.
Ned Alleyn married Henslowe’s stepdaughter. Alleyn went on to found
Dulwich College
Henslowe managed the Rose and Fortune theaters.
His diary is
considered by many as an invaluable source of information about the
Elizabethan theater.
Prince Edward, son of Queen Elizabeth II of the British Commonwealth,
currently holds the title Earl Of Wessex, bestowed upon him when he
married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999. Edward expressed interest in the title
after watching Shakespeare in Love.