It’s hard to imagine there being any negative consequences to being awarded the highest honour in one’s profession.
But a well-known ‘curse’ could be the reason why some nominees might not want a presenter to read out their name following the lines “and the winner is…” at the Oscars next week.
READ MORE: Check out who’s up for the awards at this year’s event here.
According to the superstition, a star who is awarded a best acting Academy Award is doomed to have their relationship fail in the years following the win.
There’s even a Wikipedia page devoted to the ‘fact’ and everything (there is also a page for a horse named Potoooooooo, so take this with a grain of salt).
LISTEN: The period drama Mudbound has been a surprise success for Netflix with a tonne of Oscar nominations. Here’s why it’s one to watch. Post continues after audio…
According to the Hollywood legend, the curse dates all the way back to the 1930s and 40s, when starlets of the silver screen Bette Davis and Ginger Rogers found themselves single just one or two years after they won the award.
Overall there are around 30 examples of the ‘Oscar curse’, with some of the biggest names in showbiz being lumped into the group of ‘those who have lost love after winning an Oscar’.
Overwhelmingly, the examples lean towards female winners of the Best Actress category, with some assuming their divorces are the result of a man not being able to handle a woman’s success (insert eye roll here…).
Like Sandra Bullock, who filed for divorce from her husband of five years, Jesse James, after learning of his affairs just one month after winning the Best Actress award for her role in The Blind Side.

Top Comments
And we're of course comparing those "cursed" relationships to all those long, abiding happy marriages in Hollywood between people who don't win awards, right? Long monogamous relationships are pretty much the default, right?