• Celebrities Meryl Streep and her husband, sculptor Don Gummer, confirm they have been separated for six years
  • Hugh Jackman and his ex-wife Deborah Lee's divorce: A $290 million empire hard to divide

Between July 22 and September 3, the planet Venus was at a point in its orbital path with respect to Earth that astrologers call "Venus retrograde." This is an optical effect that produces the sensation that the planet in question is "going backwards" in its orbit. The implications (for those who believe in such things) of retrogradation are best known in the case of Mercury. Mercury retrograde is, since it became fashionable to know of its existence, the excuse we make for many things that go wrong for us. Venus retrograde is similar. You can blame Venus for your sentimental problems, because it's the planet of love for a reason. It's not you, it's me. It's not me, it's Venus, who's going backwards.

The latest Venus retrograde could therefore be the reason for the separation of Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness. Stars believe a lot in stars (I can't believe I just wrote this) and I'm sure more than one has been tempted to write astrological reasoning ("reasoning") in their divorce statement. Meryl Streep's couldn't be further from that. "Meryl Streep and Don Gummer have been separated for over six years and although they will always be there for each other, they have chosen to live independent lives," read the brief text with which a representative of Streep confirmed the couple's separation. Meryl, iconic among other things for her portrayals of women caught between passion and domesticity (Out of Africa, Sophie's Choice, The Bridges of Madison), thus showed her most cerebral side. The one who starred in turbulent separations on screen (Kramer vs. Kramer, The Cake Is Over) communicated hers calmly and without scandal.

Hugh Jackman with Deborra-Lee FurnessGTRES

After recounting more than once, in a coldly adult way, her marriage to the sculptor Gummer, Meryl made public the end of the couple with equal serenity. Her ex appeared in her life when the death of John Cazale, the actress' great love, was still fresh. Cazal, who starred in The Godfather and The Hunter, died of cancer in March 1978. In September of that same year, Streep married Gummer. He rescued her from the well. They had four children. They were one of the most discreet marriages in Hollywood because they weren't a Hollywood marriage. Far above the gears of the film industry, which practically forces actors to reside in Los Angeles, Meryl Streep raised her children on the East Coast and always had residences in New York.

Hugh Jackman was also a regular in the Big Apple. Closer to the artistic atmosphere of Broadway than to the plasticized parties of Hollywood, Wolverine's was also another of those super-stable marriages that stopped being so a few months ago. His separation statement from Deborra-Lee Furness, to whom he had been married since 1996, dated the end of the couple in the middle of Venus retrograde in the summer of 2023. Jackman, like Streep, was always falsely transparent about his private life. By implying that it was not at all interesting, he managed to stop the media from being interested in it. And for Deborra-Lee, whom he met, years before she rose to international fame, on the set of an Australian series.

Meryl Streep with Don GummerGTRES

It's not that Meryl Streep and Hugh Jackman have protected their private lives tooth and nail, it's that they haven't played the game of offering it as part of their public image. Unlike Jennifer Lopez, Liz Taylor or Brad and Angelina, they chose to have less media presence in exchange for not having to manage it permanently. They were never characters and, therefore, never became archetypes: the femme fatale (Angelina), the fascinating, slightly passive-mannered man (Brad), the vengeful panther (Lopez) or the uncontrollable diva (Liz). It's possible that, behind closed doors, both Streep and Jackman are blaming their woes on Venus retrograde or a poorly set quartz amulet, but behind closed doors their message is clear: my life isn't interesting, so don't be interested in it. In a world, that of artists, where magical thinking is commonplace, his, at least publicly, is Cartesian and clear.

I have no doubt that, sooner or later, a star locatis will come to include astral reasons in its divorce statement. I'd bet on Gwyneth Paltrow, but she's very smart and only says those things when she has a product to sell on her website ("don't worry, friend, with these $8,000 lapis lazuli panties there will be no Venus retrograde that can beat you"). I'm more inclined to a Lady Gaga, a Kiko Rivera or a Cher, always so given to the esoteric, the chaladura and the boulders. But maybe all that stuff about the planets and their energies is true and we should be on the lookout for the next retrograde. It's Mars, starting Oct. 30. It will affect Geminis. Let's see what havoc the red planet wreaks on Hollywood.

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