Many frowned on Uta Hagen's affair with Paul Robeson not because their skin tones didn't match but because she happened to be married to Jose Ferrer at the time.

Hagen was playing Desdemona to Robeson's Othello; Ferrer was Iago. That is, he thought he was Iago until he discovered that offstage he was really an alternate-universe Othello, where Desdemona really IS screwing around!