About That Best Actress Oscar Curse...
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 4:15PM I've noticed a raft of articles popping up about the infamous Best Actress Oscar curse which states that your marriage will fall apart if you win Best Actress.
Recent Oscar-Winning Divorcees
This is undoubtedly on the brain because of the whole Sandra Bullock Brouhaha last year (and because people have run out of things to talk about Oscar-wise?). ABC says scientists have proven it statistically and one of said scientists offers up this unscientific theory.
Winning an Oscar can be construed as a big jump in professional status that an actor or actress has in their world and in the eyes of the broader audience… The general social norm kind of requires a man to have higher professional and economic status over the wife. So whenever that social norm is violated, both husband and wife may feel discomfort.
We do still live in a patriarchal society so this is probably true. It would be especially true for men or women who buy into the patriarchy without having questioned its value system thoroughly (most people don't). This problem of separate status might just be acerbated by Hollywood itself which knows from hierarchies. Who's hot, who's not, etcetera. Star actors undoubtedly have egos.
But here's another happier detail they didn't think to look at. What of the women who win only after they shed their troubled relationships? Perhaps break-ups prompt creative renewal.
Jane Wyman won her Oscar for Johnny Belinda shortly just after dumping Ronald Reagan. Nicole Kidman won her first nomination (Moulin Rouge!) and then her first win (The Hours) back-to-back in the year that followed her high-profile split with Tom Cruise. That's just the two I can think of off the top of my head but I'd be willing to bet that there's more. Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt's break-up was already brewing before she won for Erin Brockovich. Julia's case could theoretically be part of the aforementioned curse or part of this bizarre blessing in disguise; lose a handsome man, get a naked gold one to replace him.
As for actresses who married or will marry their man after they've already achieved major star status (I'm thinking of Amy Adams actor man and Natalie Portman's acclaimed ballet star fiance in this year's Oscar race), I don't think they should worry too much. These men have undoubtedly already evolved or acclimated themselves to their "societal-norm" breaking coupledom.
Then you have women who crossover these categories, defying it. Emma Thompson's marriage to frequent collaborator Kenneth Branagh ended two years after her Oscar win but her relationship with Greg Wise (her Sense & Sensibility co-star) didn't suffer when she won her second Oscar.
His & Hers BAFTAs (Spring 1993); Emma's Oscars (March 1993 and March 1996)
And where does marriage-crazy two-time Oscar winner Elizabeth Taylor fit into all of this?
If you have the answers or just theories to these wedded bliss / wedded miss questions, have at it in the comments.
Reader Comments (13)
My theory that it is indeed a curse, however the curse is if you thank your husband/boyfriend in your speech you are doomed. Oscar cursed this category when Helen Hunt won, with Helen H., Gwyneth, Julia, Halle, Charlize, Hilary (2nd), Reese, Kate, and Sandra all thanking them and then breaking up with them. Hilary (1st), Nicole, Helen M. And Marion did not, and nothing happened. Hilary Swank should be grateful she forgot to thank her husband the first time. It bought her like 6 more years.
People always make it sound like the persistence of the patriarchal system is only the fault of despicable men with an ego so big or a self-confidence so low that they need to feel superior to their woman. It' also the fault of women who just won't feel sexually attracted to a man unless they feel he is in some way superior to them. 50 years, 90 years or even approx. 1 1/2 century of feminism (depending on how you count) are by far not enough to undo 1000s, 10,000s, 100,000s or whatever years of patriarchism... that's a trick of nature, although we only live only about 80 years, things that were true 1,000s of years ago are in a way as much in our system as things that are from our own life experience. Just like it's much easier to gain weight, than to lose weight... because we have to gain weight and fat, because we will very likely have to suffer through a long hunger period soon... yeah, right...
Ok, I just realized you wrote, or at least you quoted a source that wrote "So whenever that social norm is violated, *both* [accentuation by me] husband and wife may feel discomfort" - so your article is not as one-sided as I made it sound, and I suddenly feel like having to appologize right away.
I've seen Swank's acceptance speech for Million Dollar Baby on Youtube and I recall her thanking her husband seemed very forced. Either the marriage was already very much shattered by then, or, even more likely, she felt forced by the public to do it, or maybe a combination of both. And not that I know or even care, but who says she doesn't rather regret than be thankful for those six more years?
So *this* is why Bening never wins... They don't want Bening/Beatty to break up!
In Kate Winslet was married to an Oscar winner when she won. Mendes didn't end it because he was jealous or threatened by the Oscar win .... one can assume.
Great article. Though there are probably plenty gals who win and still keep their hubbies. Is Meryl Streep married? Guess it's really about how much of an ass the guy is. Kenneth Branagh is an ass!
@Mike : Nicole didn't thank "her man" because she was already divorced by that time.
I think the ABC "scientist's" theory is a bit off. Yes, we are programmed that the men are supposed to have superior status/earnings, but that is and has been changing for a long time. But more importantly - in the case of all of the three couples in Nathaniel's photograph (Sandra and Jesse, Hillary and Chad, Reese and Ryan) it can be argued that the woman in all three couples ALREADY had more fame and status - ESPECIALLY in the case of Sandra and Jesse (he was, what, a cameraman, or something? He KNEW he was marrying a very famous and very rich woman; it wasn't a sudden development.)
Of course in his case, I think he was just a jerk, honestly. But the "scientist's" theory also puts the primary blame on the men for being "insecure" about their wives' status, doesn't it? (He says both partners feel uncomfortable.) Especially in the cases of Hillary/Chad and Reese/Ryan, maybe the ladies in question just got bored? Or they each may have had very different reasons.
Big events do tend to reveal the cracks and exacerbate break-ups in ANY couple, even non-celebrities.
There seems to be some sort of implication nestled up there that if Sandra Bullock hadn't won last year, she'd still be married to Jesse James and that whole brouhaha never would have happened. Please. That whole thing with the Nazi stripper—and all the other women who came out of the woodwork, Tiger Woods-style—was going to blow up more or less when it did, Oscar or no.
You can't blame Oscar for that breakup.
Sandra's case isn't so-called "Oscar curse." He had been cheating on her before her win. That jerk's even jerkier mistress wanted to take advantage of the situation so that she could get paid more money and attention. "Oscar curse" should only apply for the case where things start to happen after the win.
well they can only go by facts for statistics (i.e. people breaking up after their Oscar win) because honestly who can know what was going on privately with ANY couple.
For the last fifteen years we have diferent lists:
The Best Actress who lost her husband/partner next to her victory:
-Helen Hunt / Hank Azaria
-Gwyneth Paltrow / Ben Affleck: But in this case is more a rumor
-Julia Roberts / Benjamin Bratt
-Halle Berry / Eric Bennet: But in this situation is more like Bullock's. It was notorious the Benet's sex addiction even with / without Oscar.
-Hilary Swank (2) / Chad Lowe
-Reese Witherspoon / Ryan Phillippe: We know the official story, but there're another rumors about Reese and Jake relationship and the implication with Phillippe before that the official story.
-Kate Winslet / Sam Mendes
-Sandra Bullock / Jesse James: Like they said. It wasn't "per se" an Oscar curse
Actresses which keep her husband/partner:
-Jessica Lange / Sam Shepard
-Frances McDormand / Joel Coen
-Hilary Swank (1) / Chad Lowe
-Helen Mirren / Taylor Hackford
-Marion Cotillard / Guillaume Canet: I have the idea that Canet's divorce with Kruger was notorious in France but next they love more this relationship. Now, they're expecting their first child
Actresses who gain a husband/partner after the Oscar:
-Nicole Kidman / Keith Urban
Actresses who lost the husband/partner, but years later after the Oscar:
-Susan Sarandon / Tim Robbins
-Charlize Theron / Stuart Townsend
Conclusion: I think this "oscar curse" is overrated. Yes, there're cases, but not all the problems were from jealousy or insecurity as expected.
It might be interesting to reverse it - have any marriages fallen apart after a man won Best Actor? I think part of what's going on here is simply the fact that women tend to be more strongly identified for their relationships (or lack thereof) than men are. And this again is a cultural thing (at least "traditional white middle-class culture in America"), not a "celebrity thing."