X + Y = Celebrity Wedding Success

 Posted on October 06, 2012 in Divorce

The last place you might expect to find a New York Times science reporter and a statistician perusing is the celebrity gossip mags. But that's exactly how reporter John Tierney and statistician Garth Sundem were able to come up with a formula that can predict the life span of a celebrity marriage.

The original formula they developed five years ago used multiple variables, including each member of the couple's attractiveness, the length of their courtship and their amount of fame. Recently they've announced a new and improved formula that only uses five variables. The five are: length of time dating, combined ages of the couple on the date of marriage, the amount of skin the bride shows on the first page of a Google image search, the ratio of the mention of the bride in the New York Times to her mentions in the Enquirer, and if the mentions appear more in the tabloids, which means the prediction is a short live marriage. The female's celebrity is the fame that really matters, they say.

According to an article in TIME, Tierney says the two used their formula to predict the breakups of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. The formula also predicted the success of the marriages of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner and Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso.

Tierney and Sundem have used their new formula to predict the following celebrity marriages longevity: Chelsea Clinton and Mark Mezvinsky, Kate Middleton and Prince William and Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z.

Formula or not, marriages fall apart and the process can be confusing and painful. If you are going through a divorce, you need to retain the services of an experienced DuPage County divorce attorney to represent you.