The XX Factor: What women really think.

Brangelina and the Power Divorce

When Brad and Jen broke up, I started finding US Weekly around the house. Finally, mystery solved: My husband, as is turns out, just cannot read enough about Angelina's humanitarian efforts on behalf of children around the world! (Here, included in the magazine's 24/7 coverage of her, is a recent story about her buying her son a bag of Cheetos.) Maybe there is no surplus of Brad Pitts out there—although if we asked Jen, she might say even one was one too many. But I'm not sure there's a shortage of men who are proud of their big-deal wives, even in Hollywood; off the top of my head, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, and J Lo are all in marriages with less prominent men. And unless you're Norman Maine or something, wouldn't it be a career-booster to have a famous mate in the movie business? In any business, come to think of it. Plus, I don't think we should assume those Oscar-winners who divorced three minutes after saying they couldn't have done it without their mister's love and support—Kim Basinger is another—got left by jealous men; maybe it's the women who were trading up.