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Rumor Has It is a 2005 comedy film starring Jennifer Aniston and directed by Rob Reiner. It was released in North America on December 25, 2005.

Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The entire movie is told, presumably from the present, as a flashback to events that happened in 1997. It is also, as flashed on the screen at the beginning of the movie, "Based on a true rumor".

In the backstory to this movie, Sarah's grandmother, Katharine Richelieu (played by Shirley MacLaine), had an affair with Beau Burroughs (played by Kevin Costner), paralleling the affair in The Graduate between Benjamin Braddock and Mrs. Robinson (whose first name, incidentally, was never mentioned in that movie.)

However, the backstory to this movie and The Graduate diverge -- while in The Graduate, Benjamin and Elaine Robinson eventually marry, in this movie's backstory, Jocelyn Richelieu (played by Jennifer Bini Taylor in flashbacks) chooses instead to marry Earl Huttinger (played by Richard Jenkins) after a brief affair with Beau. By the time of the movie, however, Jocelyn is dead (she died when Sarah was nine.)

Aniston's character, Sarah Huttinger, was travelling from New York City, where she is an obituary and wedding anouncement writer, to Pasadena for her sister, Annie's (played by Mena Suvari) wedding. She was accompanied by her fiancé, Jeff Daly (played by Mark Ruffalo). While in Pasadena, she discovers that her family might have been the inspiration for the novel The Graduate. Jeff is worried by Sarah's reluctance to wear her engagement ring, which she said she did to avoid taking attention away from Annie.

During the trip, Sarah did not feel any common identity with the other Pasadenans, who were portrayed as either empty-headed bimbos, glad-handling back-slappers or men bossed around by their wives. After talking to her grandmother at the pre-wedding party, she found out that her mother ran off to Mexico for a week before her own wedding. She also "did the math" and found out her parents' wedding was nine months before her own birth. After talking with other friends of her mother, she finds out her mother might have slept with prep school classmate Beau Burroughs.

The timing of Jocelyn's possible affair with Beau, as well as her perceived lack of commonality with the people she grew up with, led Sarah to suspect Beau may be her true father. Determined to find out more about her past, she decided not to fly back home to New York, but to confront Beau in San Francisco, where Beau was giving a speech. After the speech, which was a standard "rah-rah" speech of the dot-com era, several references are made to events that later happened, such as the merger that formed AOL Time Warner and the launch of Google. She meets Beau, who admitted he had an affair with Jocelyn, but that he could not have been Sarah's father, since Beau suffered "blunt testicular trauma" while playing in a high school soccer game.

Sarah and Beau then went out to talk further, and eventually, she (like her mother and grandmother before her), slept with Beau. At first she is horrified, but after some exposure to Beau's glamorous lifestyle, she eventually agreed to go with Beau to a charity ball, and appeared to have started falling in love with Beau. She met Beau's son, and after Beau reassured her that his son was adopted, she kissed Beau. However, she was caught mid-kiss by Jeff, who had been trying to reach her (but Sarah ignored his calls). After being confronted, Sarah continued to express reluctance to be with Jeff, who then leaves Sarah.

Dejected, Sarah returns to visit her grandmother, who flies into a rage when she learns Beau had slept with a third generation of Richelieus. While at her grandmother's house, her father calls, as Annie had suffered a nervous breakdown while flying to her honeymoon and wanted to talk to Sarah. Sarah then told Annie her family's backstory, and reassured Annie that she is truly in love with her husband, Scott. At this point, Sarah realizes she is truly in love with Jeff and wished to marry him.

Beau drives up, and is confronted by both Katharine and Sarah, who accuse him of chasing Jocelyn's ghost. At this point, Earl comes outside and reveals that he was the soccer player that administered the "blunt testicular trauma" to Beau.

Beau drives off, realizing that he has been chasing ghosts. Sarah and Earl see Annie and Scott off on their "second" honeymoon, and while talking, Earl revealed that he knew, all along, about Jocelyn and Beau's affair. Jocelyn returned to Earl, despite Beau being fun, because Earl was someone she could build a life with. It was on the night that Jocelyn returned to Earl that Sarah was conceived.

Determined to win Jeff back, Sarah flies back to New York City and tells Jeff of her feelings. They eventually make up, on the condition that if they have a daughter, that she be allowed nowhere near Beau.

As the movie closes, we see Sarah and Jeff's wedding.

Directed by Rob Reiner

Produced by Ben Cosgrove , Paula Weinstein

Written by Ted Griffin

Cast