"Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones." --Joan Rivers Do you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour. One would almost think that Tinseltown has come to embrace divorce as an accepted pastime. Some celebrities have seemingly collected spouses over the years, systematically adding notches in their belts of divorces. Cases in point: Zsa Zsa Gabor (nine), Lana Turner (eight), Elizabeth Taylor (nine), and Mickey Rooney (eight). This list appears to make Jennifer Lopez a mere novice with only three marriages, two divorces, and one terminated engagement to date. In The Hollywood Book of Breakups, James Robert Parish looks at scores of hot Hollywood romances that eventually fell apart.
From the decade-long union of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to the "just-for-show" nuptials of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates to the four-and-a-half-year marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to the "other woman" divorce of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Parish covers it all--from the burning embers to the fizzling fires of Hollywood breakups. You couldn't make this stuff up--and James Robert Parish doesn't need to. Hollywood writes its own drama when it comes to scandalous breakups.
"Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones." --Joan Rivers Do you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour. One would almost think that Tinseltown has come to embrace divorce as an accepted pastime. Some celebrities have seemingly collected spouses over the years, systematically adding notches in their belts of divorces. Cases in point: Zsa Zsa Gabor (nine), Lana Turner (eight), Elizabeth Taylor (nine), and Mickey Rooney (eight). This list appears to make Jennifer Lopez a mere novice with only three marriages, two divorces, and one terminated engagement to date. In The Hollywood Book of Breakups, James Robert Parish looks at scores of hot Hollywood romances that eventually fell apart.
From the decade-long union of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to the "just-for-show" nuptials of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates to the four-and-a-half-year marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to the "other woman" divorce of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Parish covers it all--from the burning embers to the fizzling fires of Hollywood breakups. You couldn't make this stuff up--and James Robert Parish doesn't need to. Hollywood writes its own drama when it comes to scandalous breakups.
Acknowledgments. Introduction. Loni Anderson vs. Burt Reynolds. Pier Angeli vs. James Dean. Jennifer Aniston vs. Brad Pitt. Lucille Ball vs. Desi Arnaz. Kim Basinger vs. Alec Baldwin. Ingrid Bergman vs. Dr. Petter Lindstrom. Halle Berry vs. Eric Benet. Cher vs. Sonny Bono. Joan Collins vs. Peter Holm. Joan Crawford vs. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Dorothy Dandridge vs. Harold Nicholas. Bette Davis vs. Gary Merrill. Mia Farrow vs. Woody Allen. Zsa Zsa Gabor vs. George Sanders. Greta Garbo vs. John Gilbert. Ava Gardner vs. Frank Sinatra. Judy Garland vs. Vincente Minnelli. Phyllis Gates vs. Rock Hudson. Whoopi Goldberg vs. Ted Danson. Melanie Griffith vs. Don Johnson. Rita Hayworth vs. Orson Welles. Anne Heche vs. Ellen DeGeneres. Barbara Hutton vs. Cary Grant. Jennifer Jones vs. Robert Walker. Nicole Kidman vs. Tom Cruise. Sondra Locke vs. Clint Eastwood. Jennifer Lopez vs. Ben Affleck. Ali MacGraw vs. Steve McQueen. Madonna vs. Sean Penn. Jayne Mansfield vs. Mickey Hargitay. Mayo Methot vs. Humphrey Bogart. Liza Minnelli vs. David Gest. Marilyn Monroe vs. Joe DiMaggio. Demi Moore vs. Bruce Willis. Jean Peters vs. Howard Hughes. Mary Pickford vs. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Debbie Reynolds vs. Eddie Fisher. Julia Roberts vs. Lyle Lovett. Meg Ryan vs. Dennis Quaid. Barbara Stanwyck vs. Robert Taylor. Elizabeth Taylor vs. Richard Burton. Uma Thurman vs. Ethan Hawke. Michelle Triola (Marvin) vs. Lee Marvin. Lana Turner vs. Johnny Stompanato. Lupe Velez vs. Johnny Weissmuller. Natalie Wood vs. Robert Wagner. Jane Wyman vs. Ronald Reagan. Bibliography. Index.
James Robert Parish is a former entertainment reporter and the author of numerous books on Hollywood, including The Hollywood Book of Death and Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops.
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