Eddie Murphy's Two Week Marriage Comes To An End Celebrity relationship trends have taken a turn towards the bizarre in recent months.
On top of the unusually public and frenetic courtship of Katie Holmes by Tom Cruise, there was the recent spate of celebrity couples such Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie 'pledging' that they would not tie the knot until gay couples can as well.
Since many celebrity couples don't marry in the first place - see Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, for instance - pledges like these strike most of the public as cynical exercises in trying to look noble for the fans while not doing something they never really intended to do in the first place.
Now we can add a new trend - The 'Symbolic' Marriage that ends after two weeks.
Movie star Eddie Murphy and film producer Tracey Edmonds were 'wed' in a small ceremony in Bora Bora on January 1st. Interestingly they seemed to know that the ceremony performed in French Polynesia wasn't legally binding in the United States, and so press releases describing the ceremony used words like 'spiritual ceremony' and 'symbolic wedding'.
Plans were reportedly underway for a legal wedding in the United States, at least until Murphy's official statement was released yesterday, calling the whole thing off.
"Extra" reported the first news of Murphy's statement ending this 'symbolic marriage', in which he stated: "After much consideration and discussion, we have jointly decided that we will forego having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further. While the recent symbolic union in Bora Bora was representative of our deep love, friendship and respect that we have for one another on a spiritual level, we have decided to remain friends."
Edmonds and Murphy have been dating since 2006, just after Murphy ended a brief fling with Spice Girl Melanie Brown, who gave birth to Murphy's daughter last year.
Having a brief relationship with one girl before moving on to greener pastures is hardly the sole practice of celebrity males. What does make for entertaining reading is the way they often try to make what they are doing look far better than it actually is, with 'pledges' not to marry in order to support 'noble' causes and having 'symbolic ceremonies' with their present lady of the year.
If celebrities like Murphy wish that the public would stop regarding them in a cynical and superficial light, perhaps that could start by their making a choice to stop treating things like marriage in such a superficial light themselves.
