When two stars who are as adored as Ryan Gosling and Sandra Bullock get together, the world takes notice. And perhaps their near-universal popularity is why their 16 year age gap didn't even feel like that big a deal when they started dating back in 2001. But, ultimately they turned out to be in it for a good time, not a long time - so what happened along the way? How it Began Ah, another good old-fashioned workplace romance. In this case, the workplace was the set of 2001 thriller Murder By Numbers.