The Dolt Race

Although it looked as though John Kerry was going to win the race for “America’s Biggest Dolt” in a walk, a new contender just jumped out into lead in striking fashion:

Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon and “Flags of Our Fathers” star Ryan Phillippe are separating after more than seven years of marriage, their representatives said Monday.

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“We are saddened to announce that Reese and Ryan have decided to formally separate,” their publicists said in a joint statement. “They remain committed to their family and we ask that you please respect their privacy and the safety of their children at this time.”

Witherspoon, 30, and Phillippe, 32, reportedly met at her 21st birthday party before working together on the 1999 film “Cruel Intentions.” They married in June of that year and have two children, 7-year-old daughter Ava and 3-year-old son Deacon.

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TMZ quoted one unidentified source as saying the breakup was not triggered by any single event but rather by “cumulative” circumstances.

Those “cumulative” circumstances apparently have something to do with a certain Aussie actress, a co-star of Phillipe’s:

Now comes word that the couple, who have two children, are calling it quits, amid rumors that Phillippe has found a new flame in a younger version of his wife, an Aussie actress named Abbie Cornish.

The reports in such reputable rags as US Weekly (ha) state that Witherspoon found saucy e-mails from the little honey on Phillippe’s BlackBerry. Cornish’s rep refuted the claim, releasing a statement Tuesday saying, “It’s not true. They are co-stars and that is it.”

But the timing of these reports is curious, especially after reading our own entertainment guru Roger Friedman’s eyewitness account of a fight between Witherspoon and Phillippe at the premiere for “Flags of Our Fathers.”

While I don’t normally pay any attention to, nor take much interest in, the Hollywood relationship merry-go-round, but it just so happens that my wife and I were commenting recently on the fact that Reese and Ryan had seemed to buck the trend. They genuinely seemed like the fairy tale, happy couple (and I suppose they were, with an emphasis on “fairy tale”). The idea that anyone would leave America’s Sweetheart for a hussy down under just struck me as absurd. And, indeed, it may not be true, but after 7 years, and two kids, wouldn’t you think that he’d try to stick it out?

Anyway, it is what it is. I guess, in Hollywood at least, sometimes having it all just isn’t enough.