BALL AND CHAIN

10 Celebrities Avoiding The Altar Until Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, who just happen to have a new movie coming out, told CNN this week that they wouldn’t get married until their gay costars friends could.

That’s very sweet, dears, but don’t wait on our account. We’re trying to get more people married, not less.

The stars of Hit and Run have been engaged for two years, but Shepard says tying the not when so many can’t is in bad taste. “We’re not going to have a party when half of our friends… can’t do that thing we’re doing. We’re not going to ask them to come celebrate a right they don’t have. That’s just tacky! Forget like anything else, it’s like really tacky for us.”

That’s probably the most genuine explanation we’ve heard from straight folks waiting to make it official—and we’re blown away it came from the guy from Punk’d—but are these two showing true solidarity or jumping on the latest celebrity PR trend? We decided to take a look at other star couples who promised to forgo marriage until gays could tie the knot, and see how they’re doing with that vow.

Note: there were a few names we were surprised didn’t make the list, actually, like Kathy Griffin (who won’t have sex until we can marry), Jennifer Aniston (who apparently won’t have a child till gays can adopt either), Cher (who keeps remarrying until we have full equality) and Queen Latifah (not to infer anything about her sexuality.)

Meet 10 stars avoiding the altar until gays and lesbians can get married. Known other celebrities refusing to exchange vows for our sake? Name names in the comments!

 

Charlize Theron

Theron, who’s played everything from a lesbian serial killer in Monster to the glam queen in Snow White and the Hutnsman poo-pooed marrying her longtime beau, actor Stuart Townsend. “Right now the institution of marriage feels very one-sided, and I want to live in a country where we all have equal rights,” she said. “I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself.”

Status: Theron and Townsend broke up in 2010, but the stunning blond didn’t let singlehood keep her from having a family: She adopted son Jackson earlier this year.


Natalie Portman

The former child star once told reporters she wasn’t into marriage: “Why are they making rules that say my lover can stay in the United States if they’re foreign or share my health care benefits because I’m straight — but if you’re gay, you can’t have that?”

Status:  Portman married her babydaddy Benjamin Millieped in March 2012.

 

Jason Mraz

The soulful crooner seems like one of those straight guys who is sooo comfortable with his sexuality he’d cuddle with you as you watch Beaches together for the fourth time. In the winter of 2010, he asked girlfriend Tristan Prettyman to marry him but said they were holding off on sending invitations: “The wedding would be nice for our family, our friends, our community—our moms especially— [but] we can’t get married until marriage is legal and equal.”

Status: Mraz and Prettyman broke up in 2011. Hope  we didn’t have anything to do with it!


Howard Stern

After divorcing his long-suffering first wife, Alison, shock jock Howard Stern swore off commitment. But when leggy blond Beth Ostrosky walked into his life, he opened his heart. Still, in 2007 the King of All media swore he wouldn’t wed “unless gays can get married.”

Status: Well, she goes by Beth Stern, now, so you do the math.

Ricky Martin

An international superstar, Martin could jet off to any number of countries where marriage equality was legal to marry his honey, economist Carlos González Abella. But the Latino singer said he was waiting until gay marriage is legal in Puerto Rico: “Unfortunately, we don’t have the option of marriage in our country. We could go to Britain or Spain or Argentina and do something symbolic, but that’s not what I want. I want to have the rights of anybody else in my home country. I don’t want to be a second-class citizen.”

Status: Martin and Abella got Spanish citizenship in 2011—prompting some to think they would marry there. But in January 2012, they tied the knot in New York City.  At the time Martin said he was primarily concerned with securing the welfare of his twin boys, Matteo and Valentino.

Jodie Sweetin

First the Full House star gained notoriety for her drug habit, but last year she made a stand for same-sex marriage when she got engaged. “We are in no hurry as far as dates or anything like that,” she told the press. “We want to wait until there’s equality for everybody to get married.”

Status: There ain’t no ring on Stephanie Tanner’s finger.

 

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Brangelina have been eschewing marriage since they first hooked up in 2005: “To be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous. Just ludicrous,” Pitt said.

Status:Brad and Angie got engaged! “We made this declaration some time ago that we weren’t going to do it till everyone can. But I don’t think we’ll be able to hold out. It means so much to my kids, and they ask a lot [about it]. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment.”

The Moneyball star says he still hopes marriage equality will become the law of the land before he takes his bride.

 

Photos: Steve Jurveston, Touchstone Pictures

 

 

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