I'd imagine that the problems you cite (divorce, adultery...etc) are just as common amongst non-celebrites. Substitute 'contemporary stardom' with 'contemporay life' and I think you'd be spot on.

When they wed, Cheryl was not the forces' sweetheart and ubiquitous face she now is. She was very young, pretty much just moved from South Shields to London's pavements carved from toasted glass, seduced by Ashley Cole's wealth and the supposed glamour of WAG life. They had a very brief courtship, too. Even if someone had taken her aside and let her in on what everybody knew, ie: 'He's a wrong 'un, love', she'd probably still have gone ahead with the nuptials.

cheat" (great name for a band)

I think Fun Prevention Officers would be a good name for a band.

It's one of those Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman contracts

Think about what you know or may have heard about both of them. Then work it out.

I used to play for a half decent park XI. Our manager gets a phone from the goalie.
"Yeah, Dave if the wife calls on a Wednesday, we're training, right?"

For this non-existent training night was the night he went out with his bit on the side. It was a bit hard when he used to bring his kids to watch the game, I can tell you.

Training. A ready made excuse...

..thats a golden wedding in those circles, isn't it?

Sometimes I think there's "the dream" - a decade-and-a-half ago marriage and especially having kids were unfashionable, then, as with the ever-turning spiral of inner/outer/work/home life trends, both became something to aspire to. Having rejected home as outmoded, we all went out to work, craved a forward-facing life set in the future; not one already mapped out by previous generations (especially our parents). Then, the wear and tear of commerce began to tell, and people started looking inwards for nourishment and spiritual security; cue the creation of children, as new people to shower us with real love, prove our genuine existence; and the inevitable fashion accessory tag effect, which, led by the likes of Posh, meant loads of young girls suddenly wanted to have their own little Brooklyn to parade around. Ditto getting married; the outside world is hard, so let's grab some reassurance where we can. Marriage is 'real', shows we're committed as individuals and have a love that is something pure. We live in - and aspire to - our times of keeping (it) 'real'. Cue #2: revival of marriage.

How many people in their twenties do you see wearing engagement rings these days? A lot more than in the 90s, that's for sure.

Equally, I think celebrities and anyone in a creative industry tends to live within a heightened sense of being; emotions are rendered more vivid than in what could otherwise be considered real life. Look how many people in plays have flings, how many couples form during the productions of films. Emotions are being traded front-of-house, and the spill soaks backstage, too. That's not to say that these feelings are wrong, or even right, but I think if you then multiply this effect by the aggrandizing waft of celebrity (and a world crawling with Yes People) you end up with the likes of John & Yoko having to document every single aspect of their relationship - because it's somehow a cosmic thing that needs to be communicated. It was one thing in the 70s, when the Ono-Lennons were at it, but add in the rabid mass media looking out for soap-trains (as opposed to gravy trains) to jump on, and you have relationships that form in public, and run at a heightened sense of experience, and with an exaggerated sense of their own self-importance.

Plus, someone wrote that Cherly-Ashley press release in an attempt to cast their relationship as a Cinderella story-in-the-making.

They have WAGs
We have FPOs

I suspect there is a world of difference between the two...

Despite what Cheryl might have said about being together, I think the assumed "forever" just doesn't figure with that many people any more. For old farts such as some of us, marriage is about a lifelong commitment, for better for worse, in sickness etc etc. But many people see it as a chapter in life. "If it works out, great, if not then move on." I can't remember what song it was (Rod Stewart?) but there's a lyric:

"Marriage vows should be like a dog licence
Renew it when the year runs out."

The other side of the coin would be to revert to the days when divorce was very hard to obtain. Do we want to go back to the days when couples stayed together not just in empty marriages but in utterly depressing, abusive, demeaning and/or rotten ones? Far better we learn how to handle spilts as amicably as possible and hope people can remain, if not friends, at least civilised.

Cupid is blind and he fires his arrows anywhere. Full marks to Cheryl for trying hard to make it work, commiserations for her sadness and good luck to her in future. Move on, girl, and be happy.

I know nothing about football, but it strikes me that if you've paid millions for a player, the relative stability of marriage must be preferable to the alternative.

I'm a single man.

I can see the new model Rabbit sex toy advert now - (said in a Geordie accent) "I've got me mojo back!"

Celebrities only ever marry 2 types of people:
1) Other celebrities (because that's the best way they can guard against the partner just being after the money and/or fame), or
2) Childhood sweethearts (because they knew them before the money and fame came along.)

Whereas us "civilians" tend to marry only for love (temporary as that may prove to be), celebs in segment 1) above can also marry to build their respective "brands" ("the passing of heat from a hotter body to a cooler one" as memorably described in The Larry Sanders Show.)

Marriage is a contract in any case and can be invalidated by infidelity, the difference being that in a marriage for love, the key thing is not to shag around full stop, whereas in a celebrity marriage the key thing is not to let the press find out you're shagging around and make the wife look like an idiot...

David...you make it sound like the two of them had the wisdom of foresight. Is it naive to say that they were smitten and marriage seemed the natural thing to do. In hindsight we all roll our eyes and say, "Ho Ho, that was inevitable...he is a footballer after all." But at the time, he wasn't thinking of the mudanities that come with marriage, his own at-the-time focused libido and the future temptations that were bound to present themselves as a footballer. He only had eyes for Cheryl and quite rightly so.
I agree that they seemed too young for marriage but I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have done the same at that age.

Right...cynic is back. Don't know what came over me.

were young, naive and mistook rampant lust for love. Shall those among us that did the same form an orderly queue?

- Cheryl goes to court on suspicious of racially-motivated assault
- Rumours surface surrounding Ashley's sexuality
- Cheryl and Ashley get married

I realise this comment is a libel case waiting to happen but, basically, we don't know these two people one jot. We know about them and what they do and where they go, but I've no idea of the kind of people they are. So - and call me naive - there's every possibility they got married because they were in love and wanted to make a commitment to each other forever.

Incidentally, I can't get over why he'd ever do such a thing. I mean, you don't stop for a greasy, street-corner burger when you know there's fillet steak waiting for you at home, do you?

Question - are baby books 'ghosted' like autobigraphies ??

Cheryl has probably come to the conclusion that her career is on the up, she's chummy with Cowell, may break into America and Ashley has done enough wrong that she will walk away with a good settlement.

As to celebrity marriages - what about Katy Price and her quickie in Vegas? probably done to spite Mr Andre and to raise £1.5m in exclusive wedding shots.

It is ridiculous that this trend has continued into the £500k pcm era. I can understand that in the 60s, 70s and 80s marriage was seen by clubs as a settling influence, so that footballers could concentrate on their footie and family and not spend the days in pubs and bookies. I'm sure club officials felt it was helpful for them to have a GLW to look after them.

But in the modern era, where clubs do absolutely everything for them anyway and the culture is largely away from pubs and eating chips on the way home from training, there isn't the same imperative. But the early marriage trend continues.

I do wonder if the no-gay-men aloud (sic) culture that exists in footie, contributes to this. Unmarried Freddie Ljundberg got a ? over his sexuality when I believe he did absolutely the right thing - spent his 20s in the company of beautiful female models.

Bleedin' obvious, no?

Could be wrong, but I sense that there is a huge growth in the practice of getting married, just to have a bigger party than anybody else you know.
The amount of money spent by a growing number of wannabees is absolutely staggering. This runs down the income chain and can, by the sheer size of the bill, put the future happiness of the loving couple under great strain.
I'm going to 2 weddings later this year.
One couple barely scrape through the month without adding further to their sizeable overdraft. The wedding is going to cost them £20,000.
The other couple are slightly better off, but are borrowing more than that to really pull out all the stops. Total cost over £40,000.
I'm sure both wedding parties will be fantastic.
Maybe they won't spend quite so much next time.

not sure if Cheryl Cole dreamt of Wag-dom but this is an interesting read...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/16/why-women-wags-john-t...

...I think his "people" might have suggested that it was good for his image to get married in the first place...

re WAG scandals; 'Wife Agrees To Give Husband's Money Another Chance.'

I think Mr. Hepworth's original theory has a lot going for it. A big marriage is all over the media and raises the profile. Jordan is the queen of this kind of marketing.

if celebrities have a sort of inbuilt sense of their life as a narrative and are therefore aware of the need for it to have certain dramatic beats.

Something must be afoot, she's selling her car on Autotrader. Obviously to subsidize the 'hit'...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIAL/CARS/news/AUTOTRADER/CELEBRITYCARS...

The Office for National Statistics (whoever they are, and however reliable they may be) claimed last year that only 10% of first marriages will last 60 years or more, and that 45% of first marriages now end in divorce.

I don't actually think Cherashley are any different from any young professional married couple whose primary commitment is to their career, and they're certainly not worthy of any sociological scrutiny that the rest of us aren't; early marriages are often undertaken because it's something you do if you want to get on and fit in, and in that respect it's no different to the way it was for my parents and grandparents.

Your theory is that: "Contemporary stardom breeds really short attention spans. Today's stars don't believe they're alive unless they're reading about themselves in the papers". You can replace stardom with ambition and reading about oneself with any kind of professional validation, and it applies - or applied - to pretty much everyone of my friends my age or younger.