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Minnelli's Manhattan marriage
16/03/2002 10:51 - (SA)
Los Angeles - Hollywood survivor Liza Minnelli will on Saturday join a growing list of Tinseltown royalty - including her mother Judy Garland -
who have been married four times or more.
Minnelli (56) is due to celebrate her fourth set of nuptials,
this time to producer David Gest, at a star-studded ceremony and
reception in New York attended by the cream of the entertainment
world.
But following three divorces, the daughter of Wizard of Oz
diva Garland has a long way to go before she joins the serious
multiple wedding competition in an industry - and a country -
where serial marriages have become routine.
Hungarian-born former screen siren Zsa-Zsa Gabor holds one of
the industry records with nine rings to her credit, counting her
marriage to Felipe De Alba that lasted only a day in 1982 and was
deemed null and void because she had not yet been divorced from her
last spouse.
Another cinema goddess Elizabeth Taylor comes in next with an
impressive eight weddings, although two were to the same man,
hell-raising actor Richard Burton in 1963 and 1976.
Jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw dismantled almost as many marriages
as he did bands with eight unions to his credit - including with
Ava Gardner and Lana Turner.
Turner herself tied that batting average, including two short
marriages to Steve Crane in the early 1940s after the first was
annulled after they discovered that his divorce from his first wife
had been invalid.
Garland herself was married five times in her 47 years,
including to Minnelli's father Vincente, the longest of those
lasting 13 years and the shortest for just three months until her
death in 1969.
Minnelli, despite having vowed ten years ago never to marry
again after failed unions to singer Peter Allen, filmmaker Jack
Haley and sculptor Mark Gero, joins stars such as Bette Davis who
also notched up four honeymoons.
A 1997 study by Ball State University in the US state of Indiana
indicated that the United States, which has the world's highest
divorce rate, was witnessing an accompanying phenomenon: the rise
of multiple marriages.
It quoted 1938 figures that listed Hollywood stars who had
married and divorced two or three times. A similar piece 1959
revealed stars who had married and divorced four or five times.
By 1988, that number had risen to eight, thanks to the record
set by stars including Garland's on-screen song-and-dance partner
Mickey Rooney. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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