Melissa Hebeler / E! IllustrationHollywood is a small town, but it just got even smaller. The A-list isn't a new concept in Tinseltown and it's no secret that there's a select group of people who can considered to be stars of the highest caliber. But what people might not realize is that the A-list is basically one exclusive club of interconnected actors and actresses—it's like that old game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only Kevin Bacon isn't actually invited this time because it's just that exclusive.
After some very exhaustive research it's easy to come to the conclusion that, in fact, the group of actors at the top of their craft is so insular that they basically make up one big movie cast. It's no wonder that all of the biggest stars in Hollywood are such good friends, because they seem to spend all their time starring in movies with each other. See what will now be referred to as The Inner Circle for proof.
This time around, it's the ladies-only edition. You see, all of Hollywood's biggest actresses are actually just one tiny circle of exclusivity. Newcomers will wonder why it's so hard to book roles, and this is it. Let's start with Jennifer Aniston. She's most famous, obviously, for her time on Friends and devoted fans will know that her younger sister Jill was played by the one and only Reese Witherspoon. She was but a baby-faced newcomer at the time, more Cruel Intentions than Big Little Lies, and even though she hooked up with Ross we totally forgave her.
As everyone is well aware, Witherspoon's A-list costar from Big Little Lies is Nicole Kidman, who happened to join Aniston in the romantic comedy Just Go With It.
Next up in the circle is Viola Davis. She needs no introduction, especially with her onslaught of Emmy and Golden Globe wins as of late, but people might forget that she has a hearty film career to go with her turn in How To Get Away With Murder. In Eat, Pray, Love she played the best friend of Julia Roberts, who shared the screen with Aniston in the kitschy Mother's Day. She's also starred alongside Julianne Moore for Far From Heaven, about a 1950's Connecticut family embroiled in suburban trouble, and Emma Stone for The Help.
And, to make it all full circle, Stone and Moore teamed up in the movie that brought the world some of the best Ryan Gosling shirtless scenes: Crazy, Stupid Love. In 2015 Emma starred in the Hawaii-based drama Aloha with one Rachel McAdams, who appeared in the 2009 political thriller State of Play with...wait for it...Viola Davis.
Next we come to the venerable Meryl Streep, because truly no discussion of the A-list is complete without her. She's also shared the screen with Kidman, in The Hours, and Roberts, in August: Osage County, playing the disgruntled mother to Roberts' disgruntled daughter. And in Julie & Julia she played a groundbreaking Julia Child opposite fellow A-lister Amy Adams.
Adams, for her part, has also shared the screen with Roberts (in Charlie Wilson's War) and appeared alongside Jennifer Garner in the Leo DiCaprio film Catch Me If You Can. Garner starred in a long-forgotten romantic comedy called Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, whose cast also boasts Emma Stone, and thus the circle is closed.