Marriage mayhem of celebrities including latest Hollywood divorcees Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes

WITH some celebrity marriages lasting as little as 55 hours you'd think they'd learn.

But no, it seems that every other day another high-profile union hits the skids. The latest Hollywood divorcees, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, were married for five years.

This doesn't seem long but is light years longer than Britney Spears, who was hitched to childhood friend Jason Alexander for just 55 hours.

Even that was long-lived compared to much-married actor and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was wed to Mexican lawyer and character actor Felipe DeAlba for less than 24 hours after it was discovered that her previous marriage hadn't been properly dissolved.

When actor Dennis Hopper's union with The Mamas & the Papas' Michelle Phillips lasted eight days, she reportedly said: "We were married for eight days and truly they were the happiest days of my life."

Those are extremes, but many celebrity marriages still crash and burn in record time, such as reality star Kim Kardashian, who lasted just 72 days with Kris Humphries last year. In comparison, Russell Crowe and Danielle Spencer who separated this week, were wed for nine years, which is an eternity in Hollywood.

So why do they fail so fast compared to us mere mortals, who usually try for a few years at least before throwing in the towel?

Essentially, the constant scrutiny celebrities face can magnify other problems. When you add the temptations, long separations due to conflicting schedules and the huge fortunes, instant failure is not so surprising.

Celebrities also face the same issues as anyone else, such as a big age difference (Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher) or a partner falling for someone else (Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt).

Relationships Australia Victoria manager of social inclusion services, Sue Yorston says the added pressures celebrities face put them into a group of professions at higher risk of marriage failure. Other professions include police officers, doctors and "fly-in, fly-out" workers.

In the celebrities' case, it largely comes from being in the public eye and having their every move and fight with their partner scrutinised. For example if seen bickering, the media may speculate that a star couple are about to split, even if the argument was quickly resolved.

Yorston says stars who willingly live in the spotlight can make things even worse for themselves. "Being a celebrity, it can be a 24/7 job," she says. "There isn't much time away from it. If they have time that's away and that's respected then they have probably got a better chance."

After her marriage crumbled, Kardashian admitted she had rushed into it and was swept up in the media frenzy. "I want a family and babies and a real life so badly that maybe I rushed into something too soon," she wrote on her website.

"I believed in love and the dream of what I wanted so badly. I felt like I was on a fast rollercoaster and couldn't get off when now I know I probably should have. I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show so when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn't know how to and didn't want to disappoint a lot of people."

Social media is affecting all relationships, and celebrities even more so as they tweet to thousands of followers. Kardashian has 16.3 million twitter followers.

Yorston says research found Facebook, Twitter and forums can be a tool for maintaining relationships, but a trap for those who tweet first and think later.

An RAV survey found that while most found social media a great relationship tool, 43 per cent were extremely or very concerned about trust, privacy, safety, impersonal communication, addiction to chat rooms and sex sites, jealousy, infidelity, emotional affairs, and less time, effort and communication in relationships.

The same survey included 120 RAV counsellors and found eight in 10 had counselled clients concerned about social media usage. Yorston says the etiquette and effects of social media on relationships are still being debated, so it is best to be careful whether you are a celebrity or not.

"There's a permanency and people are still coming to grips with it," she says. "It's (what you post) everybody's business."

On a positive note, some well-known unions do last the distance, although some rather optimistically define this as anything longer than 10 years. Those who have lasted more than 30 years include Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Bono and Alison Hewson and Meryl Streep and sculptor husband Don Gummer. Paul Newman and Joanna Woodward married in 1958 and stayed married until he died in 2008.

Yorston says successful celebrity couples, such as Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton, tend to keep their relationships out of the spotlight, separate work and family and ignore the rumour mill. "The ones that seem to fare best seem to be the ones that ignore that," Yorston says.

Couples who share similar goals and dreams and discuss things, such as whether they want children before committing, also seem to fare better. "One of the things that we say makes relationships strong is where people have an alignment in their values and beliefs and expectations," Yorston says.