Hemsworth and Cyrus, soon to be husband and wife. (© Mario Anzuoni / Reuters - REUTERS) As noted earlier today in Celebritology and all over the Internet, Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth are now engaged. The news, perhaps not surprisingly, elicited cynical responses from some Celebritology commenters.
One example of said cynicism, via Mags0829: "Omg. Barf." Gawker readers were even more, uh, candid in their skepticism. "In hillbilly years, Miley is 45, so this news is much delayed," wrote Sprockett.
Indeed, Cyrus's age may be a key reason why some greeted word of this matrimonial union with a loud snort that, by the way, everyone in a cubicle within 30 miles of yours' can totally hear. The actress best known as Hannah Montana is 19, which is still a little young, by most standards, to enter into an "as long as we both shall live" commitment.
Still, Cyrus is hardly a pioneer in this department. Other famous females have gotten engaged or married at roughly the same age. Here are five examples, none of whom — spoiler alert — found a happy ending with their grooms or grooms-to-be. (On the plus side, all of these women continued to have decent careers and other long-term relationships following their early engagements.)
These less-than-successful pairings are not meant as evidence that Cyrus and Hemsworth can't make their relationship work. What they do suggest is that after extensive (fine, extensive-ish) online research I couldn't find an example of a famous person who decided to wed at Cyrus's age and stayed married. If you dear, cynical readers can think of some, by all means, share them in the comments.
Elizabeth Taylor: Taylor became a bride for the first time at age 18, when she wed Conrad "Nicky" Hilton in 1952. The marriage lasted only nine months. But Taylor remained a believer in love, so much so that she married seven additional times afterwards.
Drew Barrymore: She's happily married now. But she got engaged for the first time, to Leland Hayward, at age 16. (They never married). She then became a bride for real three years later, when she tied the knot at 19 with bartender Jeremy Thomas. That marriage lasted less than two months.
Winona Ryder: Ryder was just 18 when she got engaged in 1991 to Johnny Depp who, like Hemsworth, was older than his bride-to-be. (Edward Scissorhands was 28 at the time.) They broke off the engagement in 1993.
LeeAnn Rimes: Rimes's first marriage, to dancer Dean Sheremet, took place in 2002, when the country crooner was 19. The two separated in 2009 and divorced in 2010, paving the way for Rimes to marry current husband Eddie Cibrian.
Kate Hudson: The "Almost Famous" star said "I do" to first husband, Chris Robinson, in 2000, when she was 21 — still young, but at least of legal, drinking-age. Their divorce was finalized in 2007.
