You know that weird feeling when you find out a family secret that's so bizarre it actually sounds like a movie plot? Well, that is literally the entire premise of the 2005 film Rumor Has It..., which brought together the queen of 90s sitcoms and the man who basically owned the 90s blockbuster. But despite the star power, the Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner movie remains one of those Hollywood projects that people remember more for its "creepy" premise than its box office success.
Honestly, the setup is kind of genius. Imagine finding out your mom and your grandmother were the real-life inspirations for Mrs. Robinson and Elaine from The Graduate. Sarah Huttinger (Aniston) is a journalist for The New York Times who specializes in obituaries and wedding announcements—ironic, right? She’s stuck in a quarter-life crisis, terrified of marrying her fiancé (Mark Ruffalo), and then she heads home to Pasadena for her sister’s wedding. That’s where things get wild. She starts digging into the family history and realizes that her family is the blueprint for the most famous scandal in cinematic history.
The Weird Connection: Why the Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner Movie Still Gets People Talking
The heart of the story revolves around Beau Burroughs, played by Kevin Costner. He’s the "Benjamin Braddock" figure, now a wealthy Silicon Valley tech mogul. Here is where the movie gets truly polarizing. Sarah goes to find Beau because she thinks he might be her biological father. It’s a logical search, given the timeline of when her parents got married. But instead of a paternal bonding moment, she ends up sleeping with him.
Yeah. You read that correctly.
Basically, Beau managed to seduce three generations of women in the same family: the grandmother (played with incredible sass by Shirley MacLaine), the mother, and now Sarah. It's a plot point that feels a bit icky when you say it out loud. Critics back in 2005 weren't exactly thrilled about it either. Roger Ebert was actually one of the few who found it "watchable," mostly because Kevin Costner has that natural charm that makes you almost forgive the fact that his character is essentially a multi-generational homewrecker.
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Behind the Scenes Drama That Almost Killed the Film
If you think the plot is messy, the production was arguably worse. Most people don't know that Ted Griffin, who wrote the screenplay, was originally supposed to direct it. He was actually fired only twelve days into principal photography.
That is almost unheard of in Hollywood.
Rob Reiner stepped in to save the day, but the transition wasn't smooth. They had to recast several roles and basically restart the whole thing. This might explain why the tone of the movie feels a little bit like it’s having an identity crisis. Is it a screwball comedy? A heavy drama about infidelity? A tribute to The Graduate? It tries to be all three and sort of lands in the middle.
Does the Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner Movie Hold Up in 2026?
Looking back at this film through a 2026 lens is fascinating. We've moved past the era where a "shady older man" seducing a whole family is just a lighthearted rom-com trope. Today, Beau Burroughs comes off as a bit of a predator, yet Costner plays him with such a relaxed, "aw-shucks" energy that it creates this weird cognitive dissonance.
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Aniston, for her part, does exactly what she does best. She’s neurotic, relatable, and has that perfect "I’m about to have a mental breakdown" comedic timing. If you’re a fan of her work in Friends or The Morning Show, you’ll see those early flickers of her dramatic range here. She makes you care about Sarah, even when Sarah is making arguably the worst decisions of her life.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Ending
There’s a common misconception that the movie ends with a big romantic gesture between Aniston and Costner. It doesn't. And thank goodness for that. The film actually concludes with Sarah realizing that her fiancé, Jeff, is the "real" life she wants, even if it feels safe or boring. It’s a movie about the fear of becoming your parents, or in this case, the fear of becoming a literary cliché.
The box office numbers weren't great—it grossed about $88 million on a $70 million budget—which is basically a "flop" in Hollywood math once you account for marketing. But it has found a second life on streaming. People keep finding it on HBO Max (or whatever they're calling it this week) and texting their friends, "Wait, did Jennifer Aniston really sleep with the guy who slept with her grandma?"
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If you’re planning to revisit the Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner movie, or if you've never seen it, keep these things in mind to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch The Graduate first: The movie is 100% better if you understand the references to the 1967 classic. Without that context, the jokes about Pasadena society and "Mrs. Robinson" won't land.
- Focus on Shirley MacLaine: Honestly, she steals the show. Her character, Katharine Richelieu, is the sharp-tongued grandmother who has zero regrets about her past. She provides the best lines in the film.
- Look for the Cameos: Kathy Bates shows up in an uncredited role as Aunt Mitsy, and even George Hamilton makes a brief appearance.
- Pay attention to the 1997 setting: The movie is set in the late 90s (despite being released in 2005), which explains the lack of modern smartphones and the specific "dot-com" wealth Beau Burroughs flaunts.
Ultimately, Rumor Has It... isn't a masterpiece, but it’s a fascinating relic of mid-2000s star-driven cinema. It’s the kind of movie they don't really make anymore—mid-budget, slightly experimental, and built entirely on the charisma of its leads. Whether you find the plot "creepy" or "clever" is up to you, but you can't deny that the chemistry between Aniston and Costner makes for a very strange, very entertaining 97 minutes.
To really dive deeper into the lore, check out the original novel The Graduate by Charles Webb. It adds a whole other layer to the "true rumor" that inspired this film.