Do Celebrity Splits Come in Threes, Too?

Courteney Cox, Laura Dern and now Christina Aguilera—are their breakups coincidence, or PR strategy?

Courteney Cox. Christina Aguilera. Laura Dern.

Celebrities die in threes (or so we think). Do celebrities split in threes, too?

Here's where our conspiracy-minded mind is going with this:

Star Couple A announces their divorce or separation. Star Couples B and C, looking to fly under the radar (and under the cover of Star Couple A), go public with their own matrimonial woes. 

Using names from the latest headlines, Dern and Ben Harper would Star Couple A, with their weekend divorce headline spurring Cox and David Arquette, and Aguilera and Jordan Bratman to announce their troubles.

Sound plausible?

We ran our theory by PR strategist Maggie Jessup, coauthor of Fame 101. She sorta bought the safety-in-numbers thinking, saying one couple coming forward with bad news might make other couples feel it's OK to say they've got bad news, too.

What she couldn't see, and what even we wouldn't suggest, was stars announcing splits just to announce splits—and just to make news: "Unless," Jessup said, "they're pretty desperate."

Since that doesn't sound like any couples we (currently) cover, we're left to wonder: If this week's run of break-up news isn't the result of careful planning, then is it all just coincidence?  

"I think it's coincidence," Jessup told us.

Oh.

Well, at least that's an apt explanation. Celebrities don't (intentionally) split in threes, and they don't die in threes, either.