Theirs is truly a love story with the way they got together. People are pretty ballsy back then.
Soon, Joanne was starring in television productions and theater. One day, by her agent, she introduced to another young actor at her level by the then-unknown name of Paul Newman. Paul's first reaction was "Jeez, what an extraordinarily pretty girl". Joanne, while admitting that he was very good-looking, didn't like him at first sight. But, she couldn't resist him. Soon they were working together as understudies for the Broadway production of "Picnic". They worked very closely together and got along very well. They would have long conversations about everything and anything. While they got on very well and there was a strong attraction, Paul was married and his second child, Susan, was born that year. Then both their movie careers took off, Joanne with Count Three and Pray (1955), Paul with The Silver Chalice (1954). Also adding to the tension was Paul's wife, Jackie, who refused to get a divorce when Paul asked her for one. He wanted to marry Joanne; Jackie would simply not have it. Eventually, Jackie saw the anguish this was causing Paul and agreed to divorce. Less than a week after the divorce was final, Paul married Joanne in Las Vegas. This was on January 29th, 1958, just months before Joanne won her Best Actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), in which she plays a woman with Multiple Personality Disorder.