Hollywood marriage

A Hollywood marriage originally meant a glamorous high society marriage between Hollywood celebrities. 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. The term developed the negative connotations fairly early; by the 1930s, a "Hollywood marriage" was a marriage both glamorous and short-lived. This connotation may also have related, at times, to moral panics over Hollywood's influence on the culture.

Opposing views

Sympathetic views of celebrities point out that in Hollywood, it is mostly only 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 the St. Joseph's article from 1938, cited in the above paragraph, the paper only studied "Hollywood marriages" that had ended in divorce and ignored those couples still married at that time. For a more modern example, when Tiger Woods was not experiencing marital problems, the public hardly heard of his married life. But, after his infidelity was exposed, the media continually dealt with his marriage, in sharp contrast to the times when the marriage was untroubled.

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.

"Hollywood marriages" that lasted less than three years

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 or annulment within three years. The following examples of that and reasons may be given when known.

• Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds: Married for 2 years.
• Sinéad O'Connor and Barry Herridge: Married for 16 days.
• Katy Perry and Russell Brand: Married for 14 months. This is the first marriage for both
• Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Married for 72 days. It was the First for Humphries and the second for Kardashian
• Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon: Married for ten weeks. She was also married to Kid Rock for six months.
• Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas: Nineteen days. Her second marriage, to comedian Tom Green, lasted a little over a year.
• Humphrey Bogart and Helen Menken: Married for approximately seventeen months, it was the first marriage for both.
• Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman: Separated after 32 days of marriage, divorced soon after.
• George Brent and Ann Sheridan: Married less than a year before seeking a "Mexican divorce." He had also had a marriage to Ruth Chatterton that ended within two years and a marriage to Constance Worth that lasted two weeks.
• Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley: Married for less than four months, but the divorce took over a year to be finalized.
• Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly: Married for ten months when divorce proceedings started.
• Jackie Coogan and Betty Grable: Married for about two years. The marriage after that, to Flower Parry, was even shorter.
• Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe: Marriage lasted 274 days or roughly nine months.
• Shannen Doherty and Ashley Hamilton: Their marriage ended in divorce after less than six months due to "irreconcilable differences." Ms Doherty also had a brief marriage, ending in annulment, with Rick Salomon.
• Vincent D'Onofrio and Greta Scacchi: 1991 to 1993. They had a child and she dramatized the relationship in theater.
• Patty Duke and Michael Tell: The marriage was annulled after 13 days and was during the "manic" phase of Patty Duke's Bipolar disorder. It was later discovered that Michael Tell, now a newspaper publisher then a rock promoter, was the biological father of her son Sean Astin.
• Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman: Ten days after a marriage in Las Vegas divorce plans began.
• Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan: Ended in a year or so.
• Ava Gardner and Mickey Rooney: A little over a year.
• Kelsey Grammer and Leigh-Anne Csuhany: The marriage lasted a year. He alleged she was violent and hid her mental illness. She denied that.
• 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.
• Dennis Hopper and Michelle Phillips (married 31 October 1970 – divorced 8 November 1970)
• Helen Hunt and Hank Azaria: Married for seventeen months, but had been a couple for about five years before that.
• Larry King: Several of his marriages ended in divorce or annulment within three years.
• Hedy Lamarr and Teddy Stauffer: Filed for divorce after 8 months. It was her fourth marriage and he had been married before as well.
• Angela Lansbury and Richard Cromwell: Married from September 27, 1945 to September 1946.
• Eva Longoria and Tyler Christopher: Married for two years before divorce.
• Debra Paget and Budd Boetticher: Separated after 22 days and divorced within a year. Debra Paget's marriage to singer David Street also lasted less than a year.
• Claude Rains had several short marriages with his marriage to pianist Agi Jambor lasting under nine months.
• Martha Raye and Bud Westmore: Three months.
• Joan Rivers and James Sanger: Annulled in six months due to different views on having children.
• Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett: Married for 21 months from 1993 to 1995.
• Martin Scorsese and Julia Cameron: 1976 to 1977
• Charlie Sheen and Donna Peele: Less than a year. He indicated she was "suffocating him" and around this time he was soliciting Heidi Fleiss's call-girls.
• Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow: Married from 1966 to 1968.
• Britney Spears and Jason Allen Alexander: Married in Las Vegas, marriage annulled soon after (56 hours).
• Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher: Married two years before divorce.
• Elizabeth Taylor and Conrad Hilton, Jr. (6 May 1950 – 29 January 1951)
• Lana Turner and Artie Shaw: Married from February to September 1940.
• Lana Wood: Married and divorced, or annulled, five times from age 16 to 29. This makes her average marriage be less than 3 years.
• Natalie Wood and Richard Gregson: She filed suit for divorce after two years of the marriage.
• Jane Wyman and Myron Futterman: Marriage lasted eighteen months due to her wanting to have kids and him not wanting that.
• Renée Zellweger and Kenny Chesney: Four months before being annulled.

"Hollywood marriages" that lasted fifty years or more

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

• Norman Lloyd and Peggy Lloyd, 75 years, married June 26, 1936, to her death on August 30, 2011.
• Art Linkletter and Lois Foester, 74.5 years, married November 26, 1935 to his death on May 26, 2010.
• Charles Lane and Ruth Covell Lane, 71 years, married from April 12, 1931 until her death on November 30, 2002
• Karl Malden and his wife Mona were married from December 18, 1938 to his death on July 1, 2009.
• Sherwood Schwartz and Mildred Seidman (23 December 1941 - 12 July 2011)
• Bob Hope and Dolores DeFina Hope, 69 years, married from 19 February 1934 until his death on 27 July 2003. It was his second marriage, his first being brief.
• Bruce Bennett and Jeannette C. Braddock, 67 years, married from January 21, 1933 until her death on June 30, 2000.
• Sid Caesar and Florence Levy, 67 years, married in July 1943.
• Jane Wyatt and Edgar Bethune Ward, 1 day short of 65 years, married from November 9, 1935 until his death on November 8, 2000.
• Carl Reiner and Estelle Reiner, nearly 65 years, from December 24, 1943 to her death on October 25, 2008.
• Charlton Heston and Lydia Clarke, 64 years, from March 17, 1944 to his death on April 5, 2008.
• James Cagney and Frances Vernon, 64 years.
• Ricardo Montalbán and Georgiana Young, 63 years from 1944 to her death in 2007.
• Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. 62 years, married since March 5, 1948.
• Robert Young and Betty Henderson, 61 years from 1933 to 1994.
• Fred Zinnemann and Renee Bartlett, 61 years from 1936 to 1997.
• Jack Paar and Miriam Wagner, a little over 60 years. He had been married and divorced to an Irene twice before marrying Miriam.
• Tony Martin and Cyd Charisse, 60 years. Although it was a second marriage for both.
• Jonathan Winters and Eileen Schauder, 60 years from 1948 to her death on January 11, 2009.
• Eva Marie Saint and Jeffrey Hayden, as the article says they married in 1951.
• Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Simpson Bridges, nearly 60 years from 1938 to his death in 1998.
• Henny Youngman and Sadie Cohen Youngman, 58 years to her death in 1987.
• Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, from 1948 to 2005. Second-marriage for her.
• Patrick McGoohan and Joan Drummond, 57 years from 1951 to 2009.
• Robert Mitchum and Dorothy Spence, 57 years, from 1940 to his death in 1997.
• Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara have been married since 1954.
• Mel Blanc and Estelle Rosenbaum were married from 1933 to 1989.
• Bud Abbott and Betty Smith were married for 55 years from 1918 to 1974.
• Danny Thomas and Rose Marie Cassaniti Thomas, from 1936 to his death in 1991.
• Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville were married from 1926 to 1980. Although British, Hitchcock became a naturalized citizen and died in Los Angeles.
• Anita Page and Lieutenant Herschel A. House were married from 1937 to 1991. She had a brief earlier marriage to Nacio Herb Brown that was annulled due to his divorce not being final.
• James Garner and Lois Clarke have been married over 54 years, since August 17, 1956.
• Arthur Penn and Peggy Maurer were married from 1955 or 1956 to his death in 2010.
• Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw were married from 1949 to his death in 2003.
• Frank Capra and Lucille "Lu" Capra were married from 1932 to 1984. It was his second marriage as he had been married to Helen Howell in the 1920s.
• Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, married from 1942 to 1994. It was a second marriage for both.
• Roy E. Disney was married to Patricia Ann Dailey from 1955 to 2007, but the marriage ended in a "collaborative divorce."
• Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, 51 years from 1949 to her death in 2000.
• Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, 51 years from 1947 to 1998.
• Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, 1958 to his death in 2008. It was a second marriage for him.

References

• Brown, Kelly R. (1999). Florence Lawrence, the Biograph girl: America's first movie star. McFarland. ISBN 9780786406272. http://books.google.com/books?id=EgIGe8HSXXwC.  p 106: Quote:"He is a director, she is an actress. Divorce is inevitable"

• Grazer, Gigi Levangie. The starter wife. Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 9780743265027. http://books.google.com/books?id=BstlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1.  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 9781581152555. http://books.google.com/books?id=0PE_E1L9NhsC.  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. http://books.google.com/books?id=D7EDAAAAMBAJ. Retrieved 28 May 2009.