Americans have a love/hate relationship with celebrities. The glitz, the glamour, the designer gowns, the receptions held on sweeping personal estates, circled by paparazzi and buzzed by helicopters. Oh, these celebrities... We want to be them even while we are horrified by their opulence. We watch a celebrity wedding with a dichotomy of romantic awe and a secret hope for something gruesome to result. We take bets on the staying power of a celebrity in the marriage, and why they're getting hitched in the first place. Is this one just to further her career? To promote his new movie? To promote himself? Or perhaps to quell those awful rumors? Whatever...
 
Of course, the media helps. Even while they get close-up shots of the Vera Wang gowns and thousands of pounds worth of imported hothouse flowers, they are speculating, in tabloids and on television, about why this celebrity wedding came to be and which celebrity will benefit most. The world of marriage and dating among celebrities has become a betting pool, where you throw the dice and take your chances. If you lose, no big deal. You just play again. Chances happen quite often.
 
This relationship of America with its celebrities, helped along by the media, is nothing new. Whether it was Joan Crawford's shoulderpads in the 1940s or Jennifer Aniston's haircut in the 1990s, Americans have a way of taking a celebrity whim and running with it until it dies out. We turn our celebrities into trendsetters and take their actions one step further until they are ingrained in American life, setting the mainstream behaviour. 
 
This might explain the phenomenons that are creeping into the world of American romance - things like speed dating and online chat and internet personals, which are accelerating the world of marriage and romance faster than anything that's gone before. Inspired by celebrities? Absolutely. Maybe an opulent celebrity wedding doesn't result, but nonetheless we are picking up and dropping potential life partners just as quickly as any celebrity in the tabloids every week.
 
Our world, and the world in which celebrities are gaining their fame today, is in a state of constant and unstoppable acceleration. We always seem to need something to jettison over the side of the boat to make ourselves go faster and change. It used to be fashion, or haircuts. This time around, inspired by our celebrities, it seems we might have picked each other.
 
Nowadays we can watch the same celebrity walk down the aisle with two different mates in the time it probably took our parents to work up to their first kiss. And even while we are appalled by it, we love to watch it. It's a reflection of who we are as Americans; it's something we strive to emulate even while we condemn it. 
 
Once the tabloids get tired of covering yet another celebrity wedding, of course, they will have to move on to the next logical step. Try to guess!
 
Make way for the boom of celebrity divorce!