Carey Mulligan and Shia LaBeouf, Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, David Arquette and Courteney Cox, Billy Ray and Tish Cyrus, Laura Dern and Ben Harper, Christina Aquilera and Jordan Bratman, have all recently announced they are splitsville. Yes, we do expect these marriages to be as short lived as the life of a fruit fly- however, it looks like an epidemic has hit Hollywood. Some of these couples actually have a number of years together, especially Billy Ray and Tish. So, why so many, and why now?
Maybe it’s in the water but certainly it’s in the environment. Hollywood is a culture defined by an affluent lifestyle, fast pace, long separations from home, temptations coming from groupies and hanger- on’s, work that brings actors into sexually intimate contact with other actors- and most of all, an expectation that marriage is a short term contract between two people who fell madly in love, impulsively got together and married, and then got bored or realized this is not what they need or want.
What I would propose to all “stars” who are contemplating marriage is that they:
* Have a long courtship
* Experience separations (due to work or separate activities)
* Plan vacations together with their families of origin- (complete with sleeping on couches, low budget activities, lots of reality)
* Pre-marital counseling for at least three months
Maybe if these folks really thought about what they were doing, had a little reality sprinkled into their dating lives and got to experience some real world temptation before they said “I do,” they’d realize that marriage is for grown-ups and that they need to know what they want and be ready for a real relationship before they make a commitment they can’t keep.
