Hollywood Fiction or a Reflection of Reality
by Tamara Gilkes
Marriage is a sacred union. Or maybe not so much. With the general trend in Hollywood today, marriage seems to be a fleeting romance in which the parties involved last less than a few months and the period of dating beforehand is even shorter. One of the most high profile romances of 2005 was the rapid engagement of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes who are now also expecting a baby. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s split was under investigation by media for months until the couple officially admitted to their split in November after being married for three years. Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger did not even make it to four months when the marriage was annulled and Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush separated after five months of marriage. There seems to be a general trend in Hollywood of quick marriages followed by quick endings. The question is whether or not these celebrities are entering this union of marriage with holy intentions or if there is a general confusion or loss of the meaning of marriage.
One possibility is of course that these celebrities are entering into these marriages completely intending to remain with this person for the rest of their lives with the holiest intentions. This would be the classic scenario of the all-powerful lust disguised as love. Perhaps these celebrities are simply being blinded by all of the glitz and glamour, the flashing light bulbs and the ‘bling’, to the point where they cannot decipher who is meant for life and who is merely a passionate love affair. With so much money being thrown around to the point where these couples have almost endless means to romance each other with, it is no wonder why these young celebs fall hard.
But there is also another possibility and it might all boil down to Hollywood peer pressure. As Tyra Banks stated on her talk show Tyra, many celebrities are told who to date and when to date because it would be good publicity. Agents often pressure celebrities what would be career-boosting in terms of who to date. For instance, celebrity A paired with celebrity B would give the two celebrities both fan bases when they once only had their own. Or perhaps a star is trying to get through the fact that he is an aging star and needs to revive himself. There are many reasons that a celebrity match-up could be beneficial and there have been many speculations as to why certain celebrities find each other.
We may condemn these celebrities and call their antics shallow and selfish, but exactly how far away are we from the people that we watch on TV and the details of whose lives we soak in for entertainment? Are these celebrities from a far away land of the untouchables that we only see on television and on stage, or are they merely high-profile archetypes of who we truly are as a general public? How different are they from the married couple living on a farm in Idaho or the business executive living in the city? Are their reasons for marriage and divorce any different from those of the general public?
There are many times in the lives of average people that lust takes over in the disguised form of love. No matter how moral and religious people are, divorce and annulments still happen and people do fall out of love. What accounts for the fact that at the age of 20, a person can feel a passionate burning love for a person that is so strong that it seems that the flame could burn for eternity, only for the relationship to fall to ashes? There is no denying that divorce is on the rise in the United States. The number of divorced people quadrupled from 4.3 million in 1970 to 18.3 million in 1996, according to a Census Bureau report (Marital Status and Living Arrangements), outgrowing population growth by far. Whether that is because fewer people are marrying for the right reasons or whether divorce is just becoming more socially acceptable is hard to determine, but the point is that people are marrying and it is not lasting in the way it was originally intended.
Celebrities differ from us in the sense that they have agents and the view of the public to worry about. Every decision that they make from adopting a child to what shirt to wear could end up in the news if captured by the paparazzi and this obviously intensifies the act in question. They have to worry about the way people view them, as the public keeps them rich and famous. A strong disapproval could ruin their careers. This obviously leaks into their love lives and whom and when they choose to marry.
There are social stigmas for when a person marries and this could significantly affect a celebrity if they marry too early, too late or not at all. But this is not only true for the rich and famous. The general public may not have agents and the view of their fans to worry about, but society affects us in ways that are more powerful than we may want to believe. The view of society is extremely important especially if our religion has stringent rules regarding who, when, and how to marry. But there is often more than just the hard set rules of religion that affect who we choose to essentially fall in love with and marry, as many religions allow for single unmarried people to be considered contributing members of society. As people get further into adulthood, peers often question them about the existence of a significant other in their lives. Have they found this person? Why not? Do they plan to ever get married and have children? The looks that people may get as a single person in their 30’s or 40’s and the anxiety of being alone forever (and essentially dealing with the looks of disapproval forever) may be enough to drive a person to marriage. It may not be because of their agents or fan base, but there is certainly a driving societal pressure that may force some into marriage. We may be blinded and fall into these relationships that are only doomed for failure. The moral and religious reasons for marriage and the rules of love may no longer apply when society plays a big enough part.
We may look at these celebrities and scoff at their transient relationships, but it may not be as crazy as it seems. Marriage may have lost its denotation and morals may seem to have gone out the door, but by looking at these celebrities we can begin to understand the general trends within our own society. The pressure of agents and the public may be enough to drive a person to love and marriage just as much as societal pressures and expectations may drive the regular member of society to do the same. Before we look at these high profile stars and judge them, we need to take a look at our own society. It may in fact be society that is forcing us to abandon morals for the sake of falling in the norm, but we must cast aside the societal pressures in order to live lives where marriage is still sacred.
