Marriage impossible

By Katharine MacColl

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THE news that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, one of Hollywood's most glamourous and respected couples, are splitting up has rocked the world of showbiz.

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��Press Association

Cruise and Kidman, who balanced their sexy superstar status with a wholesome family image, said marriage had become 'Mission: Impossible' because they just didn't see enough of each other.

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But why is the world so surprised Tinsel Town notoriously creates rocky relationships.�Good solid marriages�are hard to come by in the luxury of Beverly Hills.

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Their sudden bust-up stunned LA insiders, who thought Cruise and Kidman had done a picture-perfect job of juggling their public and private lives.

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But in the end 'the difficulties in divergent careers, which keep them apart' was cited as the reason for the breakdown in their marriage.

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And they are the latest in a long list of celebrity casualties announced recently.

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Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, another seemingly rock-solid pair separated last year, and there was a much-publicised split between Kim Basinger and Alex Baldwin.

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Each mini-saga following hard on the heels of the last, accompanied by a litany of 'pressures of work, irreconcilable differences or an irretrievable breakdown'.

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• Mel B and Jimmy Gulzar married in a blaze of publicity but separated 15 months later.
• Ex-EastEnders' star Patsy Palmer's marriage to Nick Love lasted just six months, and Marco Pierre White's union with Lisa Butcher was a short-lived affair, ending after 15 weeks.
• But the one of the shortest marriages in showbiz history has to be Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra, who shared wedded bliss for just nine days.
• Bruce Willis and Demi Moore - despite three children - were another couple forced apart by the pressures of fame, wealth and careers.

But there are some enduring marriages that have lasted in LA.

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• Sir Anthony Hopkins has been married to his second wife Jennifer for nearly 24 years.�
• Tom Jones remains married to Linda, his childhood sweetheart from the Welsh valleys.