"Hollywood" Marriages: What Makes Them Work Or Not

Marriage is a sacred union between a loving couple until death do them part! Well so that's what I thought. . .yet, in the Hollywood it seems that most marriages end before the honeymoon does, lol.

The probability of a celebrity marriage surviving is only 35%, according to Enotalone.com. For the most part, celebrity marriages do not have the fairy tale or "movie ending" fans hope they will. Rates of divorce may seem higher in Hollywood than they actually are due to the heavy publicity they receive. It is more likely that you heard about Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn's split (after 11 years of marriage) rather than your neighbor's divorce.

Hollywood may even hold the record for the shortest marriages in history, or annulments for that matter. Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister were married for only three months, Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney were married for 128 days, Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon lasted two months, and Britney Spears and Jason Alexander take the "wedding" cake for a marriage lasting only 55 hours.

Some surprising Hollywood divorces include Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in 2000 after 13 years (I was a fan of their marriage :-(, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise's 2001 split after 11 of marriage, Eddie Murphy and Nicole Mitchell's 2006 divorce after 13 years of marriage, and Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's divorce in 2007 after eight years of marriage. Who saw those coming?

But why do most Hollywood marriages end in divorce? Is it the overexposure in the media, or are celebrity marriages a power statement like when the two most popular high school students date? Marriage requires work, which can be hard if you are never together.

Some celebrity couples fall in love while they are filming a movie and can't decipher the difference between lust and true love. If they are playing a married couple in a movie and they do it so convincingly, why not do it for real? lol! It has to work out as it did in the movie, right? Not so much. If Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams couldn't make their relationship work after "The Notebook", then what makes Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, think their relationship would last?!

There is always someone hotter, younger and more tempting in Hollywood that may distract stars from their marriages. There has to some major factor that is tearing these Hollywood couples apart! Maybe their expectations are too high. Is being married to Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise, or for the men Halle Berry or Tracey Edmonds not all it is cracked up to be? I wonder!

Then there are some Hollywood couples who simply follow trends and if it is trendy to get married they'll jump right on that bus with no sight of consequence ahead. And why not with divorce so easily accessible then what are the consequences ("I have money and fame who doesn't want to be with me," do you think that this could possibly be a thought in their head?) It may be stereotypical, but celebrities are generally narcissistic (Imagine that). When two rich and famous egos get together who humbles themselves to whom; I wonder do they ever argue about how the bills are going to get paid? ;-)

But for every divorce, there are a handful of Hollywood couples that seem to make against all odds. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have been married for 50 years, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have been married for 26 years, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are still in love after 19 years, and Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas for 11 years.

Also still in marital bliss, John Travolta and Kelly Preston for 16 years, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick for 19 years, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan also for 19 years, Denzel Washington and his wife Paulette for 24 years, Mel Gibson and his wife Robyn for 27 years, Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi for 33 years, and Bill Cosby and his wife Camille for 44 years.

I guess there is a happy ending after all. . . What do you think?