Jennifer Graham on Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins: Divorce Without Vows

Posted by Kendall Harmon

It's horrible—or, cynics might say, fortuitous—timing for Ms. Sarandon, who has been busy promoting "The Lovely Bones," in which she plays the glamorous grandmother of the dead teenager who narrates the film. In Alice Sebold's book, on which the movie is based, Grandma Lynn wears lots of makeup and a secondhand mink and swoops in to rescue a family collapsing into grief and despair. Along the way, she endeavors to stop her daughter from blowing up her marriage via an affair with a brooding detective. "I know something is going on that isn't kosher," she tells her daughter. "Capisce?"

Capisce, we do. Ms. Sarandon, whose seemingly golden "domestic partnership" with Mr. Robbins was the stuff of Hollywood legend, is desirous of preserving marriages on screen, but not so much in real life. She famously declined to wed Mr. Robbins, the father of her two sons, because she worried such a stuffy and archaic ritual might harm their relationship.

'"I won't marry because I am too afraid of taking him for granted, or him taking me for granted," she once said. "Maybe it will be a good excuse for a party when I am 80."

Read it all from today's Wall Street Journal Weekend Journal section.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Movies & Television • Psychology • * Theology • Pastoral Theology • Sacramental Theology

4 Comments
Posted January 8, 2010 at 9:12 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. magnolia wrote:

great op ed from wsj, thanks for posting.

January 8, 11:08 am | [comment link]
2. New Reformation Advocate wrote:

Yes, I agree.  Very well done.  Great ending.

David Handy+

January 8, 3:07 pm | [comment link]
3. teatime wrote:

Sorry, but I think that the media’s just ticked there’s no juicy, acrimonious divorce battle they can cover ad nauseum. This break-up was quiet and off the radar. Poor media.

Why does everything have to be “public,” anyway? The writer decries the fact that no vows were made in public and in fancy wedding attire. Big deal. The couple was obviously committed to each other, as their relationship lasted a very long time—more years than many, many marriages. And the parting of ways has been private, as it should be, unlike the big-name divorces.

Sarandon-Robbins, as far as I know, haven’t made a big public deal out of their personal decision not to marry. It’s none of anyone’s business but their family’s. Their personal decision to separate shouldn’t be scrutinized by the public, either.

Frankly, I’m really tired of this 21st Century mentality of everyone’s business is everyone’s business. Millions of people willingly put their business out there via Facebook and the like—and they think everyone else should do the same. I can’t tell you how many FB “invites” I’ve gotten. No thanks. I have no desire to participate in the mass voyeurism that our society thinks is grand.

January 9, 6:08 am | [comment link]
4. magnolia wrote:

3. i disagree. these people are celebrities and have taken plenty of opportunity to tell other people their private views and quite honestly they were really great at the ‘holier than thou’ attitude.  as such it is the nature of the business they are in as public figures to have their personal lives scrutinized. as for everyones’ business business…well i hardly think that is any late innovation; gossip has been around since society began, it has just been taken to a new level. not that facebook is anything great really, mostly people putting out the most mundane details of their lives online; who has time for it?

January 24, 3:29 pm | [comment link]
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