Of course not, insists John Luchetti at The Film Stage. Because it’ll ruin her love life. From “Why Natalie Portman Shouldn’t Want the Oscar: The Best Actress Curse”:
It’s become difficult to ignore the recent wave of divorces and break-ups that occur shortly after a star wins the Best Actress trophy. There were rumblings in the earlier part of the decade when winners such as Julia Roberts and Halle Berry both ended their respective long-term relationships after taking home the gold. But in the coming years it has become a forgone conclusion – with only Helen Mirren and Marion Cotillard seeming exempt. Sometimes the curse isn’t even immediate. Consider the case of Charlize Theron (who separated from her beau years after her win) or Hilary Swank (who kept Chad Lowe around after famously forgetting to thank him in 2000. She filed for divorce shortly after her second win in 2005). The curse can start rearing its head even before a starlet wins the award when the gossip magazines get more interested. Remember the alleged infidelities of Ryan Phillippe months before Reese Witherspoon won her Oscar? The couple split a few months later. The most recent wave of post-Oscar divorces have rang especially loud due in part to the mere two week distance between the announcement of Kate Winslet’s split from Sam Mendes and Sandra Bullock’s divorce from her cheating husband.
I’m not sure how a woman’s Oscar win is responsible for her husband’s infidelities — perhaps if the little lady were doing her proper job, servicing her husband, instead of selfishly focusing on her own career, he wouldn’t have wandered.
Luchetti could have asked, “Why do men run away from powerful, successful women?” Instead, he calls out the women for doing too well, and suggests that Portman lower her own expectations for herself: does she really need that Black Swan Oscar, anyway? A woman, after all, shouldn’t overshadow her husband, not if she expects to find happiness the only way a woman should: through her husband.
*grrrr*
