Oscar love curse

The Oscar love curse or Oscar curse is a superstition that the woman who wins the Academy Award for Best Actress will have her boyfriend or husband cheat on her or divorce her soon after. It has also been applied to the Best Supporting Actress.

In their paper published in Organization Science, Michael Jensen and Heeyon Kim use the "Oscar Curse" to examine the negative consequences of upward mobility following a sudden positive status shift. With an empirical study, the authors find "Oscar nominations/wins have positive professional consequences for male and female actors but more enduring negative personal consequences for female actors, thus emphasizing an important conundrum for female actors: Oscar nominations/wins can help a career but can also ruin a marriage."

Occurrences

Best Actress

• Claudette Colbert (1935 It Happened One Night) and husband Norman Foster.
• Bette Davis (1936 Dangerous and 1939 Jezebel) and husband Harmon Nelson.
• Luise Rainer (1937 The Great Ziegfeld and 1938 The Good Earth) and husband Clifford Odets.
• Ginger Rogers (1941 Kitty Foyle) and husband Lew Ayres.
• Joan Fontaine (1942 Suspicion) and husband Brian Aherne.
• Jennifer Jones (1944 The Song of Bernadette) and husband Robert Walker.
• Joan Crawford (1946 Mildred Pierce) and husband Phillip Terry.
• Olivia de Havilland (1947 To Each His Own and 1950 The Heiress) and husband Marcus Goodrich.
• Jane Wyman (1948 Johnny Belinda) and husband Ronald Reagan.
• Elizabeth Taylor (1961 Butterfield 8 and 1967 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and husbands Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton.
• Julie Andrews (1965 Mary Poppins) and husband Tony Walton.
• Barbra Streisand (1969 Funny Girl) and husband Elliott Gould.
• Maggie Smith (1970 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) and husband Robert Stephens.
• Glenda Jackson (1971 Women in Love and 1974 A Touch of Class) and husband Roy Hodges.
• Jane Fonda (1972 Klute) and husband Roger Vadim.
• Liza Minnelli (1973 Cabaret) and husband Peter Allen.
• Louise Fletcher (1976 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and husband Jerry Bick.
• Faye Dunaway (1977 Network) and husband Peter Wolf.
• Cher (1988 Moonstruck) and boyfriend Rob Camilletti.
• Kathy Bates (1991 Misery) and boyfriend-later-husband Tony Campisi.
• Emma Thompson (1993 Howards End) and husband Kenneth Branagh.
• Holly Hunter (1994 The Piano ) and husband Janusz Kamiński.
• Jessica Lange (1995 Blue Sky) and longtime partner Sam Shepard.
• Susan Sarandon (1996 Dead Man Walking) and longtime partner Tim Robbins.
• Helen Hunt (1998 As Good as It Gets) and boyfriend-later-husband Hank Azaria.
• Gwyneth Paltrow (1999 Shakespeare in Love) and boyfriend Ben Affleck.
• Julia Roberts (2001 Erin Brockovich) and boyfriend Benjamin Bratt.
• Halle Berry (2002 Monster's Ball) and husband Eric Benét.
• Charlize Theron (2004 Monster) and longtime boyfriend Stuart Townsend.
• Hilary Swank (2000 Boys Don't Cry and 2005 Million Dollar Baby) and husband Chad Lowe.
• Reese Witherspoon (2006 Walk the Line) and husband Ryan Phillippe.
• Kate Winslet (2009 The Reader) and husband Sam Mendes.
• Sandra Bullock (2010 The Blind Side) and husband Jesse James.
• Jennifer Lawrence (2013 Silver Linings Playbook) and boyfriend Nicholas Hoult.

Best Supporting Actress

• Donna Reed (1954 From Here to Eternity) and husband Tony Owen.
• Shelley Winters (1960 The Diary of Anne Frank) and husband Anthony Franciosa.
• Shirley Jones (1961 Elmer Gantry) and husband Jack Cassidy.
• Goldie Hawn (1970 Cactus Flower) and husband Gus Trikonis.
• Mary Steenburgen (1981 Melvin and Howard) and husband Malcolm McDowell.
• Jessica Lange (1983 Tootsie) and longtime partner Sam Shepard.
• Anjelica Huston (1986 Prizzi's Honor) and boyfriend Jack Nicholson.
• Geena Davis (1989 The Accidental Tourist) and husband Jeff Goldblum.
• Kim Basinger (1998 L.A. Confidential) and husband Alec Baldwin.
• Angelina Jolie (2000 Girl, Interrupted) and husband Billy Bob Thornton.
• Renée Zellweger (2004 Cold Mountain) and boyfriend Jack White.
• Rachel Weisz (2006 The Constant Gardener) and fiancé Darren Aronofsky.
• Jennifer Hudson (2007 Dreamgirls) and longtime boyfriend James Payton.

Exceptions

Some actresses have managed to "break" the curse. On even rarer occasions, actresses (e.g., Maggie Smith) both experience and break the curse.

Best Actress

• Joanne Woodward (1958 The Three Faces of Eve) and husband Paul Newman were married on January 29, 1958 and remained so, until Newman's death in 2008.
• Susan Hayward (1959 I Want to Live!) and husband Floyd Eaton Chalkley were married on February 8, 1957 and remained so, until Chalkley's death in 1966.
• Simone Signoret (1960 Room at the Top) and husband Yves Montand were married on December 22, 1951 and remained so, until Signoret's death in 1985.
• Sophia Loren (1962 Two Women) and husband Carlo Ponti were married on September 17, 1957 and remained so, until Ponti's death in 2007.
• Anne Bancroft (1963 The Miracle Worker) and husband Mel Brooks were married in 1964 and remained so, until Bancroft's death in 2005.
• Geraldine Page (1986 The Trip to Bountiful) and husband Rip Torn were married in 1963 and remained so, until Page's death in 1987.
• Jessica Tandy (1990 Driving Miss Daisy) and husband Hume Cronyn were married on September 27, 1942 and remained so, until Tandy's death in 1994.

Best Supporting Actress

• Kim Hunter (1952 A Streetcar Named Desire) and husband Robert Emmett were married on December 20, 1951 and remained so, until Emmett's death in 2000.
• Jo Van Fleet (1956 East of Eden) and husband William Bales were married in 1946 and remained so, until Bales' death in 1990.
• Wendy Hiller (1959 Separate Tables) and husband Ronald Gow were married in 1937 and remained so, until Gow's death in 1993.
• Margaret Rutherford (1964 The V.I.P.s) and husband Stringer Davis were married in 1945 and remained so, until Rutherford's death in 1972.
• Ruth Gordon (1969 Rosemary's Baby) and husband Garson Kanin were married on December 4, 1942 and remained so, until Gordon's death in 1985.
• Eileen Heckart (1973 Butterflies Are Free) and husband John Harrison Yankee Jr. were married on June 26, 1942 and remained so, until Yankee's death in 1997.
• Beatrice Straight (1977 Network) and husband Peter Cookson were married on June 2, 1949 and remained so, until Cookson's death in 1990.
• Maggie Smith (1979 California Suite) and husband Beverley Cross were married on August 23, 1975 and remained so, until Cross's death in 1998.
• Judi Dench (1999 Shakespeare in Love) and husband Michael Williams were married on February 5, 1971 and remained so, until Williams' death in 2001.

See also

• Academy Award for Best Actress
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress