Felicia Farr Irony
In the film, Felicia Farr marries Walter Matthau; in real life, Farr was married to Matthau's main screen partner, Jack Lemmon.
shareThat's not irony. It's coincidence.
And don't call me Shirley!
Not mutually exclusive; can be both
shareBe interesting to know if Lemmon met Farr through Matthau.
"Believe not what you only wish to believe, but that which truth demands."
Lemmon hooked up with Farr long before his 1st film with Matthau, The Fortune Cookie. May have known him before, of course. The answer is undoubtedly in one of their biographies.
shareI Googled the Hell out of references to Lemmon-Farr-Matthau, and could find no details about the Lemmons' first connection. That's not definitive, but it suggests that with
1958 - "Onionhead" with M. and F.
1962 - Marriage of L. and F., and
1966 - "The Fortune Cookie", first film with both L. and M. (with some suggestion that it began their acquaintance),
the whole connection between the three was initially a coincidence. Anyway, the whole nature of the Hollywood community is that unless stars work together a lot, their offscreen lives don't overlap a lot, and many aren't necessarily that much concerned with each other.