Hollywood has always been captivated with the concept of using high-powered duos to bring entertainment into our homes. They know the idea works and will often add more intrigue to the mix by using two opposing personalities, or two persons from different ethnic backgrounds.

During the late 70's and early 80's, Hollywood went a step beyond personality differences when it began casting interracial duos in television and movies. One of the first successful ethnic mixes saw Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder team up for a number of comedy-adventures like Silver Streak (1976) and Sidney Poitier's, Stir Crazy (1980) - a comedy about the odd couple's struggles after they were thrown into a western prison for bank robbery.

Later in the decade, Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Phillip Michael Thomas), starred in one of televisions most popular drama series', Miami Vice, which is now being revived in a 2006 movie starring Colin Farrell and Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx. Also in the 80's, movie-goers strapped in for the high-impact action and adventure of two more interracial Hollywood duos: Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) and Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) teamed up in 48 Hours (1982) and Another 48 Hours (1990); and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) collaborated for a total of 4 Lethal Weapon movies.

The star-power continued throughout the 90's and into the new millennium with Clint Eastwood casting Morgan Freeman as his sidekick in Academy award winning movies like Unforgiven (1996) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).

Over the past two decades, we've also witnessed the marrying of music artists -- which has created some of the most memorable interracial duos in recording history.

One of the most famous was Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney joining together in the early 80's to record two hits: "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say, Say, Say". McCartney also sang alongside R&B icon Stevie Wonder in the chart-topping ballad "Ebony and Ivory", which was recorded in 1982.

But it was a landmark collaboration between rock giants Aerosmith and 80's rap sensation Run DMC that really put interracial duos and mixed musical backgrounds on the map. Aerosmith's 1975 hit "Walk This Way" was remade in 1986 with rappers Run DMC which produced one of MTV's most popular videos of all time. The song and video injected a mix of both rap and hard rock into mainstream music for the first time.

In the past few decades, we've seen a number of mixed duos score big-time hits in Hollywood. Some of the most notable include: Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, "Easy Lover" (1985); Chaka Khan and Steve Winwood, "Higher Love" (1986); Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life" (1989); Bryan Adams and Tina Turner, "It's Only Love" (1993); Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, "Own My Own" (1996); Eve and Gwen Stefani, "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" (2001); Linkin Park and Jay-Z, "Numb/Encore" (2004); and Mary J. Blige and U2, "One" (2006).

Probably one of the oddest interracial music combinations appeared in 2004 when rapper Nelly teamed up with country superstar Tim McGraw to record the ballad, "Over and Over". Though the song never got a lot of airplay on R&B stations, it remains a popular tune among crossover fans.

So what makes interracial duos so popular and successful?

Hollywood has figured out that every once in a blue moon, the unique combination of varying backgrounds and musical styles can cross borders and reach a wide audience. After the release of their 2004 single, Nelly categorized the song as "country". But McGraw later told MTV, "It ain't nothing country about this song, but it was fun to get in there and sing with him."

Maybe it's the blending of two people from seemingly totally opposite backgrounds that piques our interests. People are always asking, "Who did you say is making a song together?", anticipating the combination of different genres.

Much of it has to do with the socialization of Americans and the disbelief that music by Blacks and Whites is too varied to be mixed. But ask any recording artist to name some of their favorite songs and artists, and you will likely hear a few surprises.

The uniqueness of an interracial duo has the makings for social harmony and good music -- and it's just a matter of time before the recording industry wows us with another energetic pair.

How about Prince and Jon Bon Jovi? Rob Thomas and Beyonce? Maybe even Nickelback and Lil' Jon.

It could happen.

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