Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 period romantic comedy film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, and produced by Harvey Weinstein.

The film depicts a fictional love affair involving playwright William Shakespeare (Fiennes) and Viola de Lesseps (Paltrow) during the writing of Romeo and Juliet.

[5][6][7] The film ultimately won a leading seven Oscars out of thirteen nominations at the 71st Academy Awards: Best Picture (Parfitt, Gigliotti, Weinstein, Zwick, & Norman), Best Actress (Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Norman & Stoppard), Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (Warbeck), Best Art Direction (Childs & Quertier), and Best Costume Design (Powell).

[8] In 1593 London, William Shakespeare is a sometime player in the Lord Chamberlain's Men and playwright for Philip Henslowe, owner of The Rose Theatre.

Shakespeare receives advice from rival playwright Christopher Marlowe, but is despondent to learn Rosaline is sleeping with Master of the Revels Edmund Tilney.

Viola de Lesseps, daughter of a wealthy merchant, who has seen Shakespeare's plays at court, disguises herself as a man named Thomas Kent to audition.

Rehearsals begin, with Thomas Kent as Romeo, the leading tragedian Ned Alleyn as Mercutio, and the stagestruck Fennyman in a small role.

The Rose players repel Burbage and his men and celebrate at the pub, where a drunken Henslowe lets slip to Viola that Shakespeare is married, albeit separated from his wife.

John Webster, an unpleasant boy who hangs around the theatre, spies on Shakespeare and Viola making love and informs Tilney, who closes the Rose for breaking the ban on women actors.

Just after the play has concluded, Tilney arrives to arrest everyone for indecency due to Viola's presence, but the Queen reveals herself in attendance and restrains him, pretending that Kent is a man with a "remarkable resemblance" to a woman.

Viola and Shakespeare say their goodbyes, and he vows to immortalize her, as he imagines the beginning of Twelfth Night, in character as a castaway disguised as a man after a voyage to a strange land.

[9] Norman wrote a draft screenplay which he presented to director Edward Zwick, which attracted Julia Roberts, who agreed to play Viola.

[10] The film went into production in 1991 at Universal, with Zwick as director, but although sets and costumes were in construction, Shakespeare had not yet been cast, because Roberts insisted that only Daniel Day-Lewis could play the role.

After one last screen test with Paul McGann, Roberts pulled out of the production, which Zwick attributed to insecurity about the pressure she was under to succeed in the role.

[19] Among the locations used in the production were Hatfield House, Hertfordshire (for the fireworks scene), Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire (which played the role of the de Lesseps mansion), the beach at Holkham in Norfolk, the chapel at Eton College, Berkshire, and the Great Hall of Middle Temple, London.

His plays (The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil) are known for their 'blood and gore', which is humorously referred to by the child saying that he enjoys Titus Andronicus, and also saying of Romeo and Juliet, when asked his opinion by the Queen, "I liked it when she stabbed herself.

In a foreword to a subsequent edition of No Bed for Bacon (which traded on the association by declaring itself "A Story of Shakespeare and Lady Viola in Love") Ned Sherrin, Private Eye insider and former writing partner of Brahms', confirmed that he had lent a copy of the novel to Stoppard after he joined the writing team,[31] but that the basic plot of the film had been independently developed by Marc Norman, who was unaware of the earlier work.

She claimed that the plotline was stolen from her 1989 novel The Quality of Mercy, in which Shakespeare romances a Jewish woman who dresses as a man, and attempts to solve a murder.

Miramax Films spokesman Andrew Stengel derided the claim, filed in the US District Court six days before the 1999 Academy Awards, as "absurd", and argued that the timing "suggests a publicity stunt".

The Sunday Telegraph reported that Prince Edward, Elizabeth II's third son, was drawn to the earldom of Wessex, which became his title upon marriage, after watching the film and seeing the character.

According to Maslin, "Gwyneth Paltrow, in her first great, fully realized starring performance, makes a heroine so breathtaking that she seems utterly plausible as the playwright's guiding light.

"[36] Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars out of four, wrote: "The contemporary feel of the humor (like Shakespeare's coffee mug, inscribed 'Souvenir of Stratford-Upon-Avon') makes the movie play like a contest between Masterpiece Theatre and Mel Brooks.

The Academy's decision was criticized by many for awarding the film over Saving Private Ryan,[45][46][47] and Gwyneth Paltrow winning Best Actress over frontrunner Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth.

[48] Terry Press, an executive at DreamWorks at the time, stated that Weinstein and Miramax "tried to get everybody to believe that Saving Private Ryan was all in the first 15 minutes".

'"[50] In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter magazine, stating it had interviewed hundreds of Academy members, indicated that, having to choose between Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan, a majority of them would award the Oscar for Best Picture to the latter.

(The same article stated that the results of four other Best Picture winners would also be different, referring to their survey as "a referendum on what films have stood the test of time".

)[51] In 2020, Glenn Close stated in an interview with Peter Travers that she thought Paltrow winning Best Actress over Fernanda Montenegro for Central Station did not "make sense".