Celebrity Marriages: What Makes Them Work (Or Not) & Why It May Be Better To Not Marry At All

Marriage is a sacred union between a loving couple until death do them part. Yet, in the Hollywood community it seems that most marriages end before the honeymoon does. Take Eddie Murphy, for example. He and Tracey Edmonds split this past January after just two weeks of (un)happily wedded bliss.

The probability of a celebrity marriage surviving is only 35 percent, according to enotalone.com. For the most part, celebrity marriages do not have the fairy tale or "movie ending" fans hope they will. Rates of divorce may seem higher in Hollywood than they actually are due to the heavy publicity they receive. It is more likely that you heard about Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn's split (after 11 years of marriage) rather than your neighbor's divorce.

Hollywood may even hold the record for the shortest marriages in history, or annulments for that matter. Nicky Hilton and Todd Meister were married for only three months, Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney were married for 128 days, Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon lasted two months, and Britney Spears and Jason Alexander take the "wedding" cake for a marriage lasting only 55 hours.

Some surprising Hollywood divorces include Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise's 2001 split after 11 of marriage, Eddie Murphy and Nicole Mitchell's 2006 divorce after 13 years of marriage, and Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's divorce in 2007 after eight years of marriage. Who saw those coming?

But why do most Hollywood marriages end in divorce? Is it the overexposure in the media, or are celebrity marriages a power statement like when the two most popular high school students date? Marriage requires work, which can be hard if you are never together.

Some celebrity couples fall in love while they are filming a movie and can't decipher the difference between lust and true love. If they are playing a married couple in a movie and they do it so convincingly, why not do it for real? It has to work out as it did in the movie, right? Not so true. If Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams couldn't make their relationship work after The Notebook, then what makes you think your relationship would last, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn?

There is always someone hotter, younger and more tempting in Hollywood that may distract stars from their marriages. There has to some major factor that is tearing these Hollywood couples apart! Maybe their expectations are too high. Is being married to Brad Pitt not all it is cracked up to be? I doubt it!

Some Hollywood couples simply follow the trends, and if it is trendy to get married they'll jump right on that bus with no sight of consequence ahead. It may be stereotypical, but celebrities are generally narcissistic. When you couple two rich and famous egos together it could end in disaster.

But for every divorce, there are the couples that seem to make it in Hollywood against all odds. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have been married for 50 years, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw for 11 years, Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas also for 11 years, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are still in love after 19 years, and Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have been married for 26 years.

Also still in marital bliss, John Travolta and Kelly Preston for 16 years, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick for 19 years, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan also for 19 years, Denzel Washington and his wife Paulette for 24 years, Mel Gibson and his wife Robyn for 27 years, Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi for 33 years, and Bill Cosby and his wife Camille for 44 years.

Another trend in Hollywood seems to be a domestic partnership where couples decide they want to spend their lives together without taking vows. Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have been together for 20 years, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell for 25 years, Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed have been a couple for 22 years, and Elton John and David Furnish for 15 years.

Is the domestic partnership better than marriage? It currently seems that way in Hollywood. The trend for young couples now appears to be having children early and out of wedlock. Once looked upon as a sin, now it seems to be the new Hollywood "it" factor. Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, Djimon Hounsou and Kimora Lee, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and Halle Berry and Gabriel Aubry are all unmarried couples who had children.

Although the arrow seems to point to divorce in most Hollywood marriages, we are all still rooting for adorable married couples like Heidi Klum and Seal, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner and Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. Come on power couples, prove us wrong!