Actress Sandra Bullock and then-husband Jesse James divorced after Bullock's Best Actress win at the 2010 Academy Awards (Media Credit/Jordan Strauss, WireImage)

The 2011 Oscars are just around the corner, and the ever-buzzed about “Oscar curse,” which proposes that women who win Best Actress at the Oscars are more likely to get divorced than their nominated counterparts, was recently put to the test by a case study conducted at the University of Toronto.

Amy Lee’s article for the Huffington Post entitled “’Oscar Curse’ Study: Researcher Weighs In” gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some of the study’s findings. The study boasts the intriguing conclusion that Oscar-winning women are indeed more likely to get divorced than Oscar-nominated women. In fact, women who win Best Actress have a 63 percent chance of having a shorter marriage than the non-winning nominees. What’s more, the Oscar “curse” does not apply to men who win Best Actor.

The results of the study draw a link between Oscar “cursed” women and those living in the real world. The study’s results suggest that it is not just Best Actress winners who are fated to divorce, but that marriages of successful women across the board are more likely to go stale than those of lesser achievers. What is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this study, however, is not its statistical findings, but the very ground in which it is rooted: the so-called “social norm.”

The Huffington Post interviewed one of the University of Toronto’s researchers, Tiziana Casciaro, and asked her why she thought that a Best Actress win affected women negatively but not men who won Best Actor. Casciaro said that there are “Multiple possibilities. One has to do with the general social norm that kind of requires a man to have higher professional and economic status over the wife. So whenever that social norm is violated, both husband and wife may feel discomfort – could be either one of them.” She suggests that any imbalance of this accepted norm can cause disruption in a marriage that is grounded in these social roles. It goes without saying, however, that not every man and every woman strive to fulfill these gendered roles, and not every relationship is based on a man who brings home the bacon and a woman who “knows her place” in the home.

It seems as though we have started to look at this particular norm as something to be expected, something that we can accept as a standard baseline. With this thinking, if a man is successful in his profession, he can look forward to greater successes in many other aspects of his private life. If a woman is successful in her professional life, she, too, has a number of things to look forward to: a lot of money, loads of success…and the fear of divorce.

But this study’s conclusion also raises questions: Does the same “curse” apply to women in relationships in which they were the breadwinners from the get go? Furthermore, in what way might this “curse” apply to gay couples, both in Hollywood and in the real world? These questions cannot yet be answered, but with the Oscars around the corner, on Feb. 27, we soon may find out the answer to the following: Will the notorious “curse” strike again this year, as it has stricken Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank and Sandra Bullock in the past?

Television personality and tattoo artist Kat Von D, 28, has been engaged to Jesse James, 41, Sandra Bullock’s ex. She wore the four-carat-plus platinum and diamond ring at the 16th Annual Los Angeles Art Show Opening Night Premiere Party.

Kat Von D told US magazine, “I feel really lucky. I think in the past I thought I knew what love was. I think I am growing up a lot too and realizing the truth in a lot of things and feel really blessed now.”

Instead of flying all the way to Hollywood for the Golden Globes last night (just assuming the invitation was lost in the mail) we watched the celebrity red carpet arrivals in high-definition last night, taking notes on the best and worst dressed:

Trends We Love: Nude & Backless

Light Pinks, Peaches and Nudes were shining on the red carpet. My favorites included the girls from Glee: Dianna Agron, Heather Morris and Naya Rivera, Helen Mirren, Sarah Hyland and Sandra Bullock. Scarlett Johansen’s dress was to die for – but Sandra Bullock will win every time on the best dressed list every time, due to ScarJo’s what-was-she-thinking hair. Also in the peach-pink color was a newly blonde Emma Stone, who is in the running for best backless with Anne Hathaway.

Trends We Love to Hate: Ultra Red-Lips, Emerald, Careless Hair

Christina Aguilera, January Jones, Jayma Mays and Christina Hendricks all puckered-up with Ultra-Red Lips attempting to evoke old Hollywood Style. Attempting is the key word, as they all looked washed out and trying too hard to be sexy. It’s time for this trend to go away and come back again another day. The daring, deep emerald green color didn’t turn out to be show-stopping because it kept popping up all over the red carpet – on celebs including Mila Kunis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Moss and Angelina Jolie. Johnny Depp, we get it. Get a haircut. ScarJo is ending up on all the worst-dressed lists due to her eclectic Cruella-De-Ville inspired hair style. This “I’m-so-cool-I-don’t-care-what-people-think-if-I-don’t-do-my-hair” trend has got to go.

What Were They Thinking??

Helena Bonham Carter wearing a Vivienne Westwood looked like a cross between how my second grade art teacher dressed and the Cyndi Lauper collection circa 1985. Julianne Moore was glowing last night but that pepto-bismol pink asymmetrical puff-sleeve Lanvin gown was something out of a Pretty-in-Pink Nightmare. Olivia Wilde- looked like a prom queen’s dream in that glittery chocolate cupcake explosion Marchesa – but the gold sparkly stilettos were far from complimenting. Would not have been an issue except that she made it a point to show them off repeatedly. Sophia Vergara’s Va-Va-Voom Red Vera Wang is popping up on best dressed lists everywhere. I think those people forgot to check out the back! Leighton Meester, Nicole Kidman, Carrie Underwood and Vanessa Williams all made my most boring list. Yawn.

Men’s Style

Jake Gyllenhaal’s easy, classic style wins him best in bow-tie for his Burberry tux. My absolute favorite menswear look was Robert Downey Jr. for his splash of color – going for a red-tie in a sea of black tuxedos. Although some unique and interesting fashion choices were made with unconventional jackets, Chris Hemsworth in Giorgio Armani and Chris Colfer both looked Hollywood handsome. Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron both went for a more mature look with new hair styles. On the worst-dressed side, Justin Beiber yet again proved he’s too young to be famous – sneakers and 3D glasses dressed down his D&G three-piece suit and no-bow-tie.

NOT

Michelle Williams flower-power dress was a disaster in all areas: style, fit, embellishment and color. Fashionista Heidi Klum is OUT and can leave the red carpet – the dress would be great for a tropical vacation and her make-up artist went way too heavy on the eye make-up. The ladies of Mad Men – Christina Hendricks and January Jones both were a disappointment in red. January mentioned that she requested the stylists on the show make her this dress in the red color – and they should have said no. Christina was a total disappointment. Christina Aguilera chose an ill-fitting, black lace over nude dress – that was as bad as her acting in Burlesque. Note to Xtina -stick to singing.

Notably Bad

We’re still contemplating if Halle Berry, Mandy Moore and Jennifer Love Hewitt checked the mirror before they left. Halle’s black and Mandy blue dresses have both have different personalities above the knee and below – they should have cut them off. I forgot why Jennifer Love Hewitt’s was invited or why her performance in a Made for TV Lifetime movie was nominated, but her dress needed to be tamed at the chest and was just an awful color for her. There’s always next year ladies!

Hot Red Carpet Styles

Mila Kunis wearing a dramatic Vera Wang one-shoulder gown was the envy in emerald. Eva Longoria was the essence of Hollywood glamour in a black, backless, bold and beautiful gown by Zac Posen. Kaley Cuoco pulled off the best of the nude dresses and looked young and fresh in a fitted bodice and tulip-tiered skirt nude dress. And I hate to say it, but a Lea Michele looked so pretty-in-pink with an avant-garde Oscar De La Renta pink princess dress that any Barbie would die to wear.

Honorable Mentions include: Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway in Armani and Jane Lynch for their elegant red carpet styles.

There’s no denying it: There are many women, and maybe even some men, who’d love to give Tiger Woods and Jesse James a piece of their minds. How could a family man like Tiger ruin his marriage? How could Jesse James cheat on Sandra Bullock with tattooed skanks? Both stars are blaming sex addiction for their infidelity. But is it that simple? Are they really sex addicts or are they chronic cheaters who are using it as an excuse? While it’s controversial in medical circles, some experts do believe that sex addiction is real. Although the American Psychiatric Association does not include sex addiction in its handbook, the Mayo Clinic asserts that 3 to 6 percent of American adults are addicted to sex, according to CNN.

Diana Kirschner, Ph.D., author of “Love in 90 Days: The Essential Guide to Finding Your Own True Love,” says sex addiction is a real disorder that is similar to alcohol or drug addiction. She explains that a love of sex crosses the line into an addiction when “the person repeatedly manages their stress, emotional disturbance, suffering, or other problems by turning to a sexual outlet to diminish their upset.” Specifically, she says that the six fundamental signs of sex addiction are the following:

1. Engaging in sexual behavior frequently, to a greater extent, or for longer than the person intended.
2. Having difficulty stopping or controlling the sexual behavior.
3. Spending a large amount of time thinking about, procuring, acting out, or recovering from the sexual behavior.
4. Sexual addiction interferes with current relationships, work and/or financial responsibilities.
5. A sex addict needs to do more of the sexual behaviors over time to gain satisfaction.
6. If not engaging in the sexual behavior, the addict feels anxious, distressed, depressed or angry.

Infidelity expert Ruth Houston, author of “Is He Cheating on You? 829 Telltale Signs," agrees with Kirschner. “Sex addiction is real,” she says, “but it’s not as common as cheating men would like you to think it is. After the fact, many cheating men use it as an excuse for their infidelity or as a way to justify their behavior.”

So are Tiger Woods and Jesse James really sex addicts? Houston has her own theories.

“I believe that Tiger Woods is a sex addict and that Jesse James is not,” Houston says. “The women Tiger got involved with were easily within his reach; he didn’t go out searching for them. They were strippers, night club hostesses, all people he came into contact with while out eating or while out on the town. Jesse went out searching for a specific type of woman; he knew what he was doing, and it was contrived on his part.”

Houston further explains that “Sex addiction means taking risks that a ‘normal’ person wouldn’t take. Look at all the risks Tiger took–he didn’t even bother to use protection, and he had all these incriminating text messages and voice mails. He didn’t take the normal precautions cheating men would take. He was going hog wild! He’s an intelligent man who should know better, but his sex addiction was overcoming his common sense. The sheer number of women he slept with is outrageous. He was most likely engaged in this type of behavior before his marriage, and he never stopped.”

So is it possible to forgive a sex addict for their destructive behavior?

“It’s possible to forgive only if the addict gets help,” Houston says. “It’s a good idea to try to make the relationship work. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ when dealing with infidelity. Every woman needs to think for herself.”

Girlfriends and wives of cheaters often have “flashbacks,” which is the most difficult part of forgiving a cheater, says Houston. For example, when a cheater is on his cell phone, his wife wonders who he’s speaking to; when he’s away, she wonders what he’s doing. And it’s not so easy to forgive when mistresses keep popping up on magazine covers and TV shows spilling the details of perverted texts sent by the cheater.

As for Jesse and Tiger, they have both been kicked to the curb, as both of their marriages are ending in divorce. Houston blames the media in part for the couples’ inability to reconcile.

“Because of the media, their marriage problems were in their faces. It’s hard to put issues behind you when the media won’t let it happen,” she says. “If their marriage issues had not been public, these two couples may have been able to overcome this.”

The Sandra Bullock football drama “The Blind Side” unseated “New Moon” this weekend, raking in $20.4 million in its opening days.

“New Moon” fell to second with $15.7 million after a strong few opening weeks for the vampire drama.

“Blind Side” is about a woman whose family adopts a homeless teen named Michael Oher. It’s based on a true story — Oher is now a rookie for the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaking of vampires, “Transylmania” opened this weekend also with a take of just $274,000 with an average of $272 raised per theater. The movie, in case you’re wondering, is getting bomb (that’s bad) reviews by critics.

While perusing the Internet Tuesday afternoon, I found myself sucked into the wonderfully time-wasting Entertainment Weekly photo galleries. The skillfully placed “stories” are photo accessories to the films opening that week, and this one happened to be “24 Rom-Com Clichƒ©s We’d Like To Retire.”

It only took about four clicks through the slides to realize which movie the EW gallery creator had seen to inspire such a gallery: “The Proposal,” which I had seen the night before. Yes, “The Proposal” had its media maven. Yes, there’s a last minute sprint. Yes, there’s a mischievous dog. Yes, “The Proposal” is nothing more than a collage of need-to-be-retired romantic comedy clichƒ©s.

Coming from someone who loved Sandra Bullock in “Miss Congeniality,” she is past her prime for being a headlining star of a romantic comedy. Playing publishing queen Margaret Tate, Bullock is supposed to be channeling Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” but comes closer to Steve Carrell from “The Office.”

For a character referred to as “it” and a “witch” by her underlings, there is not enough of her alleged cattiness to justify the hatred and fear she instills. In an attempt to make Margaret easier to soften by film’s end, she becomes a caricature that is obnoxious rather than relate-able. The film wants her to be the next Miranda Priestly, but in order to make that evil “witch” believable and not whipped out of thin air, there should not be any falling in love at the end.

The main problem with the film is there is no reason Ryan Reynolds’ Andrew should ever fall in love with Bullock’s Margaret, and especially not over the course of three days after making his life miserable for three years. There are no hidden feelings underneath Andrew’s submissive following of orders at the beginning of the film: Margaret blackmails Andrew with his career in order to get him to agree to marry him. One late-night vulnerable conversation is not enough to make a man fall in love with a woman he didn’t acknowledge as a female until two days before, and I never quite understood why Margaret was any better for him than his young love who was unwilling to leave Alaska to be with him, Gertrude (Malin Ackerman).

What was proven by this film is that Ryan Reynolds should star in every romantic comedy ever made from here until eternity. His delightful combination of earnest emotion with slapstick comedy makes him the perfect male lead that could fit in every rom-com role, and makes the one believable character in the entire film.

Just having him in the film makes up for Sandra Bullock rocking out to “Get Low” while Grandma Annie (Betty White) dances around a fire worshiping Mother Earth. Tell me you expected that when walking into this film.

Even more demeaning (and going back to “The Office” references) is the character(s?) played by Oscar Nuƒ±ez. For an actor whose “Office” character, Oscar, is so offended by the racial stereotypes boss Michael Scott forces on him, I was disappointed to see Nuƒ±ez sink so low in his “Proposal” role. With his shoddy Hispanic accent and far too drawn out strip tease, I don’t know if I can respect Oscar in “The Office” the same way again.

What makes this movie worth seeing? You get to see Ryan Reynolds naked.