A Hollywood icon seems to be really feeling the title of Sydney Sweeney’s 2023 rom-com, “Anyone But You.”
Last week, “Vertigo” star Kim Novak told The Times that she “would never have approved” of Sweeney being cast to portray her in the upcoming film “Scandalous,” which is about Novak’s relationship with the entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.
The drama will be directed by Sweeney’s “Euphoria” co-star, Colman Domingo. David Jonsson, who starred in last year’s “The Long Walk,” is slated to play Davis.
It should be noted that production for “Scandalous” seems to be stalled at the moment, despite Sweeney telling People in October 2025 that she’s “incredibly honored to be bringing Kim to life.”
But the feeling does not seem to be mutual. Sweeney “sticks out so much above the waist,” Novak told the Times, saying that the actor’s overt sexuality would create the wrong kind of implication about her relationship with Davis.
She and Davis were attracted to one another because they had “so much in common,” Novak said. “There’s no way it wouldn’t be a sexual relationship because Sydney Sweeney looks sexy all the time. She was totally wrong to play me.”
Sydney Sweeney at the Los Angeles premiere of “The Housemaid” in December 2025.
Gilbert Flores via Getty Images
Davis also implied that he and Novak had a different kind of bond, writing in his autobiography that “the single thing” they initially had in common was “defiance,” according to the Smithsonian.
Novak has said their shared rejection of racial norms at the time of their relationship was what intrigued her.
“I felt that by seeing Sammy and Sammy seeing me, that we could help people understand and accept interracial relationships of any kind,” she said in 2023.
Kim Novak at the world premiere of the movie “The Eddy Duchin Story” in 1956.
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The two stars’ romance began in 1957 when Novak caught Davis’ eye while he was performing at a nightclub in Chicago, per the Smithsonian. Davis got his friends, Hollywood couple Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, to invite both of them to their home, and things took off from there. Soon after, a blind item was published in a gossip column that heavily implied that Davis and Novak were dating, which jeopardized both their careers at the time.
In 1957, interracial marriage was illegal in many states, and most Americans were against it, including Columbia Pictures’ notorious studio head, Harry Cohn — who didn’t like one of his hottest new stars getting involved with a Black man. When rumors began to swirl that the two might get married, Cohn used his ties to the mob to end their relationship.
“They said they would break both of his legs, put out his other eye, and bury him in a hole if he didn’t marry a black woman right away,” recounted Arthur Silber, a close friend of Davis, per the Smithsonian. “He was scared as hell, same as I was.”
Davis did marry a Black woman, actor Loray White, in 1958. They divorced a year later.
Sammy Davis Jr., 32, and Loray White, 23, cut and serve cake to close friends and celebrities immediately following their wedding in Las Vegas on Jan. 11, 1958. The guests are, left to right: Joe E. Lewis; best man, Harry Belafonte; Davis; White and Donald O’Connor.
Davis went on to marry Swedish actor May Britt in 1960, and the couple received an onslaught of backlash and death threats. Eight years and three children later, the couple divorced in 1968. Davis died in 1990.
Sammy Davis Jr. and Swedish actor May Britt at their wedding reception in 1960.
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
Novak has always downplayed the passion of her relationship with Davis, describing it as more of a deep friendship.
When The Times asked her about the rumors that the two had planned to get married, she denied it.
“No, no. I mean, he loved me. I cared for him deeply. But at that time I never wanted to marry anybody,” she said.
Kim Novak arrives at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in 2025.
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