The Hollywood Book of Breakups

Half of all marriages end in divorce—and then there are the really unhappy ones.—Joan RiversDo 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.