MovieChat Forums > Lauren Bacall Discussion > Would her marriage to Bogart have been m...

Would her marriage to Bogart have been more or less controversial today?

posted 10 years ago by Kenneth-8
7 replies | jump to latest

I was just thinking how in today's society it seems looked down upon when a man is noticeably older than the woman in a relationship, even in Hollywood. Yeah the columnists write about it dutifully, but there's always an air of disapproval and even disdain when someone like Doug Hutchinson hooks up with Courtney Stodden, James Woods hooking up with a 20 something year old girlfriend, or even when Tom Cruise got together with Katie Holmes. Strangely it seemed like this type of age disparity in relationships was more tolerated in the 30's to 50's than it is today. Back then you had people like William Powell hooking up Jean Harlow, Bing Crosby hooking up with Inger Stevens, and of course Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and yet this often was seen as acceptable and even romantic. Even the movies reflected this with many leading men like Clark Gable, Cary Grant, and James Stewart often co-starring romantically with female stars nearly half their age. With this in mind, if Humphrey Bogart got together with Lauren Bacall in today's world, I wonder would it have gotten the kind of acceptance and reverence it got back then? I think more people would actually think of Bogart as an aging creep trying to hang on to his youth with a budding actress, rather than being in one of the most iconic real-life couples in Hollywood history. Just seems funny how during the "conservative" golden age where repression supposedly ran rampant, it was actually a more acceptable time than today in regards to May-December romances.

[–] n/a

This message has been deleted by an administrator

[–] DelovelyX 9 years ago

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas have the same age difference and their marriage isn't mocked or controversial, so doubt it.

http://33.media.tumblr.com/59f08a4675e38e705925c9dc70a6ea4e/tumblr_noza4oyA7l1qbuwpuo1_250.gif

[–] rck_n_rll 9 years ago

Nobody would care today. I mean, sure, people would talk about it like they talk about the Kardashian's toe nails, but that's normal in today's society. Johnny Depp is with Amber Heard, and there's a pretty big age difference there. Nobody seems to care.

[–] velcronewsletter 9 years ago

considering how actresses in their 30s are being thrown over for ones a decade younger to play wives of 40 something year old men to be cast in hollywood films now, i doubt it. i don't see that older men are looked down on for having younger wives, it's always been accepted

[–] chelleellis 8 years ago

Doug Hutchison was 51 when he married 16 year old, Courtney Stodden. She was a minor who's parents had to sign papers for her to marry someone older than them. That was the problem. Only after that problem did the world muse how a marriage could sustain a 35 year age difference and skeeve out over the notion that a 16 year old child married someone old enough to be her grandfather.

From all I read, people celebrated Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Suri, until they were worried about Tom's cult labotomizing them.

[–] aer71367-313-155069 8 years ago

I read that Courtney was actually 18.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

The only controversial thing about the situation was that Bogie left his previous wife to be with Bacall.