Better Than One: Celeb Couples Who Are Greater Than The Sum Of Their Parts

Jenny McCarthy‘s recent breakup made me sadder than I expected, perhaps because she and Jim Carrey were a rare breed of Hollywood couple — more appealing together than either member alone.

I’ve never been a big fan of Jenny McCarthy’s views on autism, and while I enjoyed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as much of anybody, it’s hard for me to forget Liar Liar. And yet the split of these two celebs — which may or may not have influenced McCarthy’s decision to close her school for autistic kids — got me down more than most Hollywood partings. I liked that he helped raise her autistic son, and I could imagine them telling a lot of gross jokes together. McCarthy’s questionable ideas about autism therapy aside, they seemed like a happy blended family with a special-needs kid — always a hopeful story. While, say, Heidi and Spencer Pratt just amplify one another’s awfulness, Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey made each other more appealing to me, which puts them in a pretty exclusive club. Other members:

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony

I’ve never been convinced that J. Lo can act or sing (she also has the dubious distinction of being in The Cell). And for Marc Anthony I feel neither affection nor hatred. But after a series of tumultuous relationships (remember the Diddy gunshot incident?), she seemed to settle down with a guy who was less famous than her — at least in the English-language media. For a fame-disparate couple, they’ve endured relatively few split rumors (although of course there are always some). And unlike, say, Knox and Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, their twins aren’t super-overexposed. In contrast to Diddy and Ben Affleck, Marc Anthony seems to have provided J. Lo with a private (-ish) life, which I kind of like.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

This couple is like the ultimate anti-Speidi. Ashton has always struck me as a bit dull and bro-y on his own, and Demi hasn’t done much since the nineties aside from the underwhelming Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. But together, they not only bust the stereotype that younger men never do older women, they seem authentically in love. And Ashton gets along with her kids, even though he’s sort of close to their age. And they all get along with Bruce Willis! We should all have such functional (and fabulously wealthy) families. If these Twitter addicts ever tweet their split (as Carrey and McCarthy did), I will probably cry.