“While Shakespeare in Love’s version of how Romeo and Juliet came to be is an imagined one — the movie’s plot has the penniless Will falling for the fictional Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), a wealthy merchant’s daughter who subsequently becomes his muse — many of the characters in the film did exist in real life.

Still, as the old saying goes, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story,” which explains co-screenwriter Tom Stoppard’s argument that it’s okay for the movie to be a far cry from reality