Truman Capote

Holly Golightly and Paul "Fred" Varjak, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961)

He's a kept man. She collects men. They're both on the make, amoral and completely bereft of any reservations about selling their affections for rent money or some store-window bling.

Yet at the end of Blake Edwards... more' adaptation of the Truman Capote novella, we really want to believe that somehow, some way, Audrey Hepburn's elfin it-girl will find happiness and stability in the arms of George Peppard. That the notion of these two staying together rings as false as Mickey Rooney's portrayal of Holly's bucktoothed Japanese neighbor is beside the point. As Henry Mancini's "Moon River" swells one last time and Paul tells Holly, "I don't want to put you in a cage! I want to love you!" we hope they've both found ways to forgive themselves for the past before they wreck each other's life in the present.