Hollywood marriage

A Hollywood marriage originally meant a glamorous high society marriage between celebrities involved in the U.S. film industry; the word "Hollywood" is often used to represent the US film industry. However, the term has grown to also have strong negative connotations of a marriage that is of short duration and quickly ends in separation or divorce.^[1] The term developed the negative connotations fairly early; by the 1930s, a "Hollywood marriage" was a marriage both glamorous and short-lived.^[2][3] This connotation may also have related, at times, to moral panics over Hollywood's influence on the culture.^[4]

Issues

Sympathetic views of celebrities point out that in Hollywood, it is mostly the bad marriages that are documented by the media, giving a skewed perspective that might make "Hollywood marriages" appear to have a worse success rate than they have in reality. In 1972 Bob Thomas of the Associated Press remarked specifically about the tendency to ignore lasting celebrity marriages with the examples he gave including Bob Hope's marriage to Dolores Hope and Rosalind Russell's marriage to producer Frederick Brisson.^[5]

Negative views of Hollywood marriages take the position that the divorce rates are indeed unusually high among celebrities and that this is caused by faults within Hollywood as a culture or by personal faults of the celebrities themselves. They point to the usage of weddings as publicity stunts, the egotism or immaturity of celebrities or "celebrity culture", and high rates of infidelity or promiscuity. Bee Wilson, in an article for The Daily Telegraph, critiqued "Hollywood marriages" for often being based on the unrealistic dreams of what she termed "permanent children," although she points to some classic Hollywood couples, like Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart or Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, as exceptions to these criticisms.^[6] While the introduction to the Cultural Sociology of Divorce: An Encyclopedia edited by Robert E. Emery specifically mentions Hollywood divorces as epitomizing a "consumerist, throw-away-marriage view found in the West."^[7]

The actors and entertainers themselves vary in perspective on the commonality or reason for divorce in Hollywood. In 1961 Anne Baxter stated Hollywood was "the most difficult place in America for marriage" due, in part, to the "terrible extremes of success and failure" both spouses may face.^[8] In a 1964 interview Mitzi Gaynor, who would remain married to the husband mentioned in the interview until his death, took the more "defensive" position that "Hollywood" couples look different mostly because "everything we do is magnified." Although she conceded they might be slightly different because "you have to be a little off-center to get into this business in the first place."^[9]

Beyond anecdote or opinion the actual evidence on the matter is complicated by differing definitions of who qualifies as a "celebrity" or "Hollywood." That stated a study from Radford University placed "dancers and choreographers" as the occupations having the highest percent currently divorced^[10] with "Entertainers and performers, sports and related workers, all other" still being above average at tenth. That placed them between "Nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides" at ninth and "Baggage porters and concierges" at eleventh.^[11] In 1900 "actors, professional showmen" were listed as having the highest divorce rate of occupations, but as this predates even the incorporation of Hollywood it refers to the profession itself rather than "Hollywood" or "celebrity culture" as we know it.^[12] A Forbes article placed "professional athletes and entertainers" together and with a high divorce rate.^[13]

Entertainers married a year or less

The idea that the term "Hollywood marriage" equates to something short-term is sometimes displayed by citing celebrities who had marriages that ended in divorce, separation or annulment within approximately one year. The following examples of that are primarily restricted to marriages involving a notable actor or director linked to "Hollywood" in some way.

• Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon: Married for ten weeks; she was also married to Kid Rock for six months, then remarried Saloman again for less than a year.^[14][15] Saloman himself had another brief marriage to Shannen Doherty (see below).
• Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas: Nineteen days from February to March 1994.^[16] Her second marriage, to comedian Tom Green, lasted a little over a year.^[17][18]
• Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman: Married for 32 days, marrying on June 27, 1964 and separating on August 4.^[19] Another of Merman's previous marriages (she had four in all, Borgnine being the last), to agent William Smith, lasted two months.
• Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray: Married for five months from April 2005 to September 2005. Announced separation in September 2005, Bush unsuccessfully petitioned for an annulment in February 2006 and instead was granted a divorce in December 2006.
• James Caan and Sheila Marie Ryan: Married from 1976 to 1977, Scott Caan is their son.^[20]
• Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley: Married for less than four months in 2002, but the divorce took over a year to be finalized.^[21][22]
• Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly: Married for ten months from September 1996 to July 1997 when divorce proceedings started.^[23][24]
• Kim Darby and James Westmoreland: Married for 47 days in 1970. She had previously had a brief marriage to James Stacy; it lasted 7 months, which led to a daughter.^[25]
• Shannen Doherty and Ashley Hamilton: Their marriage ended in divorce in March 1994 after less than six months.^[26][27] Doherty also had a brief marriage, ending in annulment, with Rick Salomon in 2002.
• Patty Duke and Michael Tell: The marriage was annulled after 13 days.^[28][29][30]
• Kelsey Grammer and Leigh-Anne Csuhany: The marriage lasted a year.^[31]
• Woody Harrelson and Nancy Simon, daughter of Neil Simon, married in Tijuana with the intent of getting a Mexican divorce afterward. The divorce did not occur until ten months later as the "divorce stand" was closed.^[32]
• Milla Jovovich and Shawn Andrews: Married in 1992, but annulled two months later.^[33]
• Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Married for 72 days before filing for divorce.^[34][35] It was the first for Humphries and the second for Kardashian.
• Chris Kattan and Sunshine Deia Tutt: Marriage lasted less than a year, separated within weeks of the wedding.^[36]
• Lorenzo Lamas and Victoria Hilbert: Marriage lasted a year.^[37] His second marriage, to Michele Smith, did not last two years but did lead to children.^[38]
• Angela Lansbury and Richard Cromwell: Married from September 27, 1945 to September 1946.^[39][40]
• Michelle Phillips and Dennis Hopper (married October 31, 1970 – divorced November 8, 1970)^[41][42]
• Mickey Rooney and Ava Gardner: A little over a year.^[43]
• Martin Scorsese and Julia Cameron: 1976 to 1977^[44]
• Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele: Less than a year from 1995 to 1996.^[45][46]
• Britney Spears and Jason Allen Alexander: Married in Las Vegas, marriage annulled soon after (56 hours).^[47][48]
• Lana Wood and Jack Wrather, Jr.: Marriage annulled within a year.^[49]
• Renée Zellweger and Kenny Chesney: Four months before being annulled.^[16]

Entertainers married 50 years or more

Entertainment couples that last for decades, and/or life, are occasionally used as a counterpoint when referring to "Hollywood marriage".^[50] In relation to that, here is a selection of entertainers who have or had marriages that lasted over 50 years.

Notes

References

• Brown, Kelly R. (1999). Florence Lawrence, the Biograph girl: America's first movie star. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0627-2.  p 106: Quote:"He is a director, she is an actress. Divorce is inevitable"

• Grazer, Gigi Levangie. The starter wife. Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-0-7432-6502-7.  Lede: Husband dumps wife by cellphone and upgrades to a younger version.(not verbatim quote) p28: Chapter: "Seven stages of a Hollywood marriage"

• Rannow, Jerry (2002). Surviving Hollywood: your ticket to success. Allworth Communications, Inc. ISBN 978-1-58115-255-5.  p69 and onwards, many Hollywood marriage "survival tips" are offered

• "The Sidney Poitiers Enjoy Solid Tinsel Town Marriage, Hollywood Author Reports - Page 32". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 69 (2): 32. September 23, 1985. Retrieved 28 May 2009.