Once every few months for the last two decades, the same somewhat-grainy 30-second clip is discovered anew. In it, Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling saunter toward one another across a stage as Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved” plays. They have just won the MTV Movie Award for best kiss in The Notebook—but their impassioned recreation of the kiss seems a lot more popular online than the original
Nothing is more American than indulging in nostalgia for a simpler time—an era before social media or DeuxMoi sightings, where an onstage kiss between costars turned real-life couple held true novelty. If the clip isn’t committed to memory just yet, it goes something like this: