Best Actress Oscar Curse for Sandra Bullock?

Looking at the relationships of the last 13 Academy Award Best Actress winners, only Helen Mirren has escaped unscathed

By Robin Rowe

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Gosh!TV) 3/17/2010 – “I would never have hooked up with him if I thought he was a married man,” said tattoo model Michelle McGee in a tabloid interview spilling the details of her steamy affair with Sandra Bullock’s husband Jesse James. Bullock won the Oscar for Best Actress for The Blind Side just ten days ago. The London premiere of The Blind Side has now been cancelled due to Sandra Bullock being unavailable for “unforeseen personal reasons.”

Is the ordeal of winning an Academy Award for Best Actress a relationship buster? Is there a Best Actress Oscar Curse?

Looking at the relationships of the last 13 Best Actress winners, only Helen Mirren has escaped unscathed. Marion Cotillard neatly avoided the curse by postponing her relationship by four years until after she won the award. Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow were retroactively cursed, suffering breakups the year before winning.

2009 Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side as Leigh Anne Tuohy

May be cursed. Ten days after accepting the Oscar, Bullock’s husband Jesse James is in the tabloids for an alleged affair with Michelle “Bombshell” McGee while Bullock was gone filming The Blind Side.  Bullock married the Monster Garage TV series host Jesse James in 2005. James’ second ex-wife is former porn star Janine Lindemulder. Sandra Bullock was asked the night of the Oscars what her husband thought of her winning, she said, “I’d never divulge what Jesse says unless he divulges it first.”

2008 Kate Winslet – The Reader as Hanna Schmitz

Cursed. Winslet married American Beauty director Sam Mendes in 2003. They have a son Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes. Winslet announced their separation in March 2010, stating that, “The split is entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement.”

2007 Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose as Édith Piaf

Avoided curse by putting off relationship for four years until after receiving award. Cotillard lives with French actor-director Guillaume Canet in Paris. The French media refer to the couple as the French Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The couple began dating in 2007. They co-starred in Love Me If You Dare in 2003.

2006 Helen Mirren – The Queen as Queen Elizabeth II

Not cursed. Mirren married An Officer and a Gentleman director Taylor Hackford in 1997, her partner since 1986, whom she’d met on the set of White Nights. Still married. Apparently, Hackford is an officer and a gentleman.

2005 Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line as June Carter

Cursed. Witherspoon introduced herself to American actor Ryan Phillippe at her 21^st birthday party by saying, “I think you’re my birthday present.” They married in 1999. They have two children, Ava Elizabeth and Deacon Reese. In 2006, Witherspoon filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.

2004 Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby as Maggie Fitzgerald

Cursed. Swank famously forgot to thank her then husband Chad Lowe during her acceptance speech upon winning her first Oscar in 2000. The actors had met in 1992 filming Quiet Days in Hollywood. She remembered to thank Lowe first in her 2005 Oscar speech. The couple announced in 2006 that they were getting a divorce.

2003 Charlize Theron – Monster as Aileen Wuornos

Cursed. Charlize Theron reportedly broke up with her live-in boyfriend of nine years Stuart Townsend in January.  She’d met the actor on the set of the movie Trapped in 2001. Theron reportedly told friends she ended it because, “They had become more like brother and sister than lovers.”

2002 Nicole Kidman – The Hours as Virginia Woolf

Retroactively cursed. Kidman married actor Tom Cruise in 1990, not long after meeting him on the set of the film Days of Thunder. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane, and a son, Connor Anthony. To Kidman’s shock, Cruise filed for divorce in 2001 citing irreconcilable differences. Kidman married country singer Keith Urban in 2006. They have a daughter, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. Note that Nicole Kidman was nominated in 2001 for Best Actress for Moulin Rouge.

2001 Halle Berry – Monster’s Ball as Leticia Musgrove

Cursed. Berry divorced Atlanta Braves baseball player David Justice in 1993. Berry married musician Eric Benét in 2001. While married to Benét, Berry adopted his daughter, India. The couple separated in 2003 and divorced in 2005. The same year Berry began dating French-Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry. They met at a Versace photoshoot. They have a daughter Nahla Ariela Aubry.

2000 Julia Roberts – Erin Brockovich as Erin Brockovich

Cursed. Roberts married country singer Lyle Lovett in 1993 and later divorced. In 1998, Roberts began dating Law & Order star Benjamin Bratt. He was her escort for the March 2001 Academy Awards ceremony. Three months later, they announced their relationship had come to a “kind and tenderhearted end.” Roberts met cameraman Daniel Moder while filming The Mexican in 2000. After waiting to divorce his wife first, Moder and Roberts married in 2002. They have three children: Hazel Patricia, Phinnaeus Walter and Henry Daniel.

1999 Hilary Swank – Boys Don’t Cry as Brandon Teena

Cursed. See 2004 Hilary Swank above…

1998 Gwyneth Paltrow – Shakespeare in Love as Viola De Lesseps/Thomas Kent

Retroactively cursed. Paltrow broke off her engagement to Brad Pitt in 1997, a decision she told Diane Sawyer she regretted. The two had dated for nine years. She married Coldplay lead vocalist Chris Martin in 2003. Children are Apple Blythe Alison Martin and Moses Bruce Anthony Martin.

1997 Helen Hunt – As Good as It Gets as Carol Connelly

Cursed. Hunt dated actor Hank Azaria since 1994. They married in 1999. Divorced in 2000. She has been in a relationship with Dirt TV series producer Matthew Carnahan since 2001. They have a daughter Makena Lei Gordon Carnahan.