Paul Rudd and Jon Hamm Became Friends While Chasing the Same Girl

Paul Rudd and Jon Hamm’s 20-year friendship started over a game of Trivial Pursuit with a girl they both fancied.

Rudd tells the new issue of Vanity Fair magazine he fell for his college roommate’s sister Sarah in the early 1990s and agreed to visit her at her family home in St. Louis, Missouri, where he came face-to-face with her high school prom date Hamm.

Rudd recalls the two suitors spent a family game night trying to outsmart each other: “He seemed like he was a good-looking, athletic guy who possessed qualities I did not possess. We were playing Trivial Pursuit in teams. Sarah and I were on one team, and Jon and (Sarah’s brother) Preston were on the other team. Jon would want to go right to Yellow, which was History, and I was like, ‘Oh great, this guy is smart, too’.”

But Rudd eventually won Sarah’s heart and struck up a lifelong friendship with Hamm – in fact, when Rudd first landed work in Hollywood, the Mad Men star was inspired to move to Los Angeles and try his luck at acting.

Meanwhile, the girl, Sarah Clarke, has also found success in Hollywood – she played Bella Swan’s mother in the Twilight series as well as Jack Bauer’s nemesis on 24.

Rudd and Clarke eventually split and the actor wed Julie Yaeger in 2003.

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