Is because women almost always marry up. Speaking for myself and most men I’ve talked to, they don’t care a whole lot about their partner’s career. But ask any woman, and you bet she cares. She cares enough to make it one of the first questions she asks a guy on the first date.

The newsflash isn’t that these women are getting married. It’s that these women are marrying down. That truly is something rare enough to comment on.

This is kind of a non-issue.

Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charlize Theron, Heidi Klum, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Courteney Cox, and Susan Sarandon

Can someone tell me why Sarah Jessica Parker is in this list?

I still don't get it.

R. Traister posits the predictably rhetorical question "Would it cross anyone's mind to write a story about whether the less successful wives of Hollywood's leading men feel threatened by their husbands' economic success? Duh. "

Well?....that was just done(by one of Salon.com's less self-congratuledly "feminist" writers) about.... five days ago?

See the article on Mrs. Francis Ford Coppola.....

I've become aware that a surprising number of Salon's purportedly "feminist" writers/BLOGGERS (!!!!!) haven't and don't read much, but I'd assumed that they at least read Salon.com.

when IS this publication going to go back to hiring writers who could get their tails published anywhere else?

-----David Terry

I guess I fit the definition (minus the celeb status) of having 'married down.' It makes me sad that such a definition even exists (as does 'marrying up'). Apparently, we haven't come far enough to consider that marrying one's 'equal' might mean more than just money, looks or fame. How about marrying for equal love, respect and partnership?

Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charlize Theron, Heidi Klum, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Courteney Cox, and Susan Sarandon

Okay, lets see.

Gwen is with a musician.

Sarah JP is with an actor.

Charlize is with an actor.

Heidi Klum is with a singer.

SB, okay I don't know who she is with.

Drew Barrymore is with an actor.

Courtney Cox is with an actor from a famous family.

Susan Sarandon is with an actor.

Levels of fame come and go, so who is currently more famous doesn't really cut it. You see, the above list are paired with people who's fame can skyrocket at any moment with the right song, film or TV show or they were famous before their wives, their noteriety has just petered out over the years so I don't see any of the above women as marrying or pairing down.

As opposed to when Nic Cage and George Clooney date or marry waitresses. Plus, Madonna still married a director, not her personal trainer and I think the rumors about them getting a divorce are because that's what tabloids always do. Because one day, they'll probably be right as famous people's marriages don't generally last. Also, she likes his movies, he hates her music so it doesn't really change the central idea that women need to respect their mates professions or be impressed by them while men really don't care what you do for a living.

Perhaps you would have been better off listing Julia Roberts and her cameraman. Christina Augulera and her DJ husband.

I doubt a cameraman or a DJ are going to become super duper famous other than by being with those gals.

Your comment about it being all about the relationship is, of course, a truism. The rest of the stuff about gender stereotyping, not so much so. Most high profile marriages that get in trouble do so not because of gender stereotyping but rather from the outsized egos of the individuals involved. Plus, beautiful women have a special disability - their beauty. Lots and lots of men don't get past the beauty to discover the woman underneath it which is the source of the lines from a 50s or 60s tune that go like this:

If you want to be happy for the rest of your life

Never make a pretty woman your wife

You want my personal point of view

Get an ugly woman to marry you.

Wealth, fame, success? They have their place, I guess but not as a personality descriptor.

Interesting that most of these famous women seem to marry partners who are also on the retail side of the entertainment business.

Jazz virtuoso and bandleader Artie Shaw was married several times, including Lana Turner and Ava Gardner.

He said that the trouble was that you would go to a party and meet this gorgeous creature who had the hots for you, so how could you possibly resist?

In no time you would be married and soon find out that both of you had fallen in love with an image, and that once reality set in neither of you was really anything like what their partner initially thought.

To some extent this probably explains why many dual-celebrity marriages tend not to work out in the long term.

or at least with men who aren't willing to worship them with the unquestioning, total and subservient devotion which they believe their success "competing in a mans world" has earned them and which they falsely believe, or claim to believe, that men get, or have ever gotten, from women.

...is "marrying down." Julia Roberts marrying a cameraman is "marrying down." Jennifer Lopez marrying a backup dancer is "marrying down."

Of course, all of this says NOTHING about greater trends in the world, since all of these women could easily financially support themselves and a whole litter of children without any man at all--which is the big impetus behind women's "marrying up" (or at least not marrying down more than a notch or two on the socioeconomic ladder).

Right On! I am so glad to hear that someone has finally addressed this subject...Madonna is no more immune to the "divorce bug" then anyone else; sorry to hear that her marriage isn't working(if that's really true)especially since there are 3 children involved, but I bet Mr Richie knew it was a "dangerous job" when he signed on...