Aug. 7 is known for being the birthday of the Kennedy’s son, the day Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run, and the 58th anniversary of the launch of the first spaceship sent into space to photograph the Earth.
But this year, the day will be forever remembered as the day “Park and Recreation” star Chris Pratt and “Mom” star Anna Faris announced that their eight year marriage was ending. The two comedians grew up only twenty minutes apart but did not meet until 2007 while working on the set of “Take Me Home Tonight,” and have since given birth to a son, Jack. Due to the recency of the breakup, no confirmed details regarding the reason for the breakup have been released, but Faris’ autobiography, “Unqualified,” is due to be released in the near future including a foreword written by Pratt.
Pratt and Faris are not the only beloved Hollywood couple to have broken up, obviously. Last year, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie shocked the world when they announced their split. In 2011, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony ended their relationship with a steamy dance number on “American Idol” and then called it quits in a statement weeks later. Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise ended their five year marriage in 2012, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were married for ten years and broke the hearts of thousands when they didn’t make it eleven, and, most infamously, the iconic duo behind “Twilight,” Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson gave a new definition to the term ‘tragedy’ when they went their separate ways.
Today more than ever, fans of couples take to social media to express their disbelief and heartbreak over breakups of people they have never met. Why are we, as American youth, so obsessed with celebrities, their relationships, and their opinions? According The Washington Post, social media is the cause. “When you see Faris and Pratt’s Instagram photos of their movie nights and funny tweets about family vacations pop up in your feed, it’s easy to feel like you actually know them. You automatically get more invested in their relationship,” says Post journalist Emily Yahr. From brand sponsorships on Instagram to celebrities’ endorsements of political candidates, the seemingly direct connection between fans and celebrities brings regular people to see the Hollywood elite as friends. This is also true in the YouTube community. YouTube is the third most visited website in the world, making the community of vloggers and makeup artists on the site household names, much of which can be attributed to YouTubers’s frequent connections with fans on social media and in the comments section.
Is the celebrity obsession we have grown to accept as customary a problem? Is people questioning the true nature of love because of Anna Faris and Chris Pratt’s breakup worrisome? Let’s just hope Beyoncé and Jay-Z never end things so we don’t have to find out.
Photo courtesy of ETOnline
