It’s really a matter of availablity. I recall in 2005 I read about a study regarding the urban versus rural when it came to monogomy. The differences were outstanding. The divorce rate and the rate of cheating was three times higher in urban areas. When they dived deeper into the data, it was found that rural people didn’t cheat, simply because they lacked access to others who would accomodate them.
That coupled with the close nature of rural communities and gossip, it was a simple fact, rural people said, they would’ve cheated but were never given the opportunity. This fact immediately brought rural people up to the same level as their urban friends.
In Hollywood, you have actors and actresses and people throwing themselves at the actresses and actors feet. And same for producers and such too. Too much availability. The more times you’re subject to temptation the more likely you’ll give into it.
My own non-famous cousin got married at age 20 and has just celebrated her 30th wedding anniversary. Her husband travels all over in his line of work and comes home on weekends. (there are no women he works with, BTW, it is a physical ‘dirty job’ job).
That, she says, is the secret of their success!..It’s different with actors who go off on distant locations with other actors of the opposite sex, leaving spouses at home.
The fact is, they can afford divorces. Not everyone can afford an ex-wife, but like anything worth having you need to save up for it. Hollywood folk make enough money to have more ex-wives, it’s as simple as that.
I’d also speculate that you’re marrying a “screen legend” or a persona, “becuase I can” and to enhance you own celebrity status. But dazzling each other with stardom and feeding off each other’s fame is no substitute for love and a personal connection.
Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks–40+ years at her death.
In reference to comments such as sqweels’ above–Shortly after Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel got married, they told a cute (at the time) story in an interview. Apparently, they were standing at the altar, and Billy Joel was thinking “Holy shit! I’m marrying Christie Brinkley!” And Christie Brinkley was standing there thinking “Holy shit! I’m marrying Billy Joel!” 9 years later, splitsville. So there’s an anecdote that supports that theory.
I’ve noticed that when a celebrity woman changes her public/stage name upon her marriage, that practically guarantees a divorce.
Some random example off the top of my head:
Rebecca Romjin-Stamos
Patty Duke-Astin
Jamie Lynn Whatever from the Sopranos
Pamela Anderson Lee Anderson
Roseanne Barr Arnold Just Roseanne
Chris Evert-Lloyd (Not Hollywood, but a celebrity)
I notice that in most (all) of the long-standing marriages between Hollywood celebrities, the woman maintained her own name as a stage name throughout her career. Of course, there are countless cases where a woman maintained her own name and had short marriages, but that doesn’t invalidate the above point.
Note–This doesn’t apply if a woman changed her name before she achieved fame.
Counterexamples? Thoughts?
p.s. I actually was quite sad to see that Jada Pinkett changed her stage name to Pinkett-Smith, because I’d hate to see those two get divorced.
Bob & Dolores Hope: 69 years
Sid Caesar & Florence Levy: 66 and counting
Jane Wyatt & Edgar Bethune Ward: 65
Ricardo Montalban & Gerogiana Belzer: 63
Alec Guinness & Merula Salaman: 62
Robert Young & Betty Henderson: 61
Dennis Weaver & Gerry Stowell: 60
Henny Youngman & Sadie Cohen: 59
Joey Bishop & Sylvia Ruzga: 58
Jack Haley & Florence McFadden: 58
Ray Bolger & Gwendolyn Rickard: 57
Robert Mitchum & Dorothy Spence: 57
Ray Walston & Ruth Calvert: 57
Bud Abbott & Betty Smith: 56
Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara: 55 and counting
Larry Hagman & Maj Axelsson: 55 and counting
Kirk Douglas & Anne Buydens: 55 and counting (Note: 2nd marriage)
Danny Thomas & Rose Marie: 55
Richard Widmark & Jean Hazlewood: 55
Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne: 55
Danny Aiello & Sandy Cohen: 54 and counting
Alfred Hitchcock & Alma Reville: 54
Don Ameche & Honore Prendergrast: 54
Phil Harris & Alice Faye: 54 (his 2nd marriage, her 1st)
Dana Andrews & Mary Todd: 53
Walter Pidgeon & Ruth Walker: 53 (2nd marriage)
Mitzi Gaynor & Jack Bean: 52
Alan & Arlene Alda: 52 and counting
Mark Harmon and Pam Dawber have been married for many years, though I am not sure exactly how long. Wiki has their wedding in 1987, and yahoo has it in 1978.
Robert Mitchum and his wife were married for 57 years when he died.
Larry Hagman and his wife have been married for 56 years.
Olympia Dukakis: 48 years.
Gregory Peck and his (second) wife for 48 years.
Dolly Parton: 44DD – excuse me, 44 years.
Patrick Duffy: 36 years.
Sissy Spacek and her husband for 336 years.
John Larroquette and his (second) wife for 35 years.
Jeff Daniels: 31 years.
Peter Boyle: 29 years, despite being a former monk.
The list could go on. I have to wonder whether the perception of short marriages is confirmation bias. On the other hand, Paula Abdul was married to Emilio Estevez for two years, so some things are just inexplicable.
You know, that’s something that “everybody knows”, but I don’t think it’s actually accurate. I just read this somewhere - first marriages end in divorce much less than later marriages. The statistics I saw were something like 70% of third marriages ended in divorce.
Sorry for being so vague. I can’t remember where I saw this, and very cursory googling doesn’t help - I’ll come back to the thread when I find something.
Another skewed factor in the old “50% of marriages end in divorce” has to do with who you are talking about. I remember reading that many of the same people are married and divorced several times, thus making the statistic seem that ALL people are married and divorced.
For example, my idiot younger brother has been married and divorced EIGHT times! (Really!) So just using him as an example, he has screwed up the statistics for at least 7 other couples.
Okay, the numbers I remember seeing seem to match up with one particular study that a lot of websites cite:
I saw the same numbers in a lot of places, but I copied this from here. They’re all citing a study by Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri. I’d never heard of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, but I looked at their website and it does appear to be an actual thing, so I’m going to assume this is a valid cite.
