Reese Witherspoon Now Only Second-Famous Almost-Divorcee

When Reese Witherspoon decided that the time was right to split up with her anonymous husband of seven years Ryan Phillippe, she must've thought that she'd get a long run at being America's Newly-Single And Vulnerable Sweetheart.

How wrong she was - just days after Reese Witherspoon announced her split from Ryan Phillippe, Britney Spears only went and topped her by splitting up with Kevin Federline. Reese Witherspoon didn't stand a chance - while she won an Oscar for a moving portrayal of a recently-dead country legend, she's never grinded her hips about in a red pleather catsuit like Britney did. And now, in a transparent bid to get her name back in the headlines a bit more, Reese Witherspoon has chosen this moment to formally file for divorce from Ryan Phillipe.

For a while we were under the impression that Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were the perfect celebrity couple. Sure, there was the gaping fame chasm between Reese and Ryan to contend with, but at least Ryan didn't let Reese get addicted to crack like Bobby did with Whitney, or stab her with a broken wineglass like Paul supposedly did to Heather or use her fame to release a genuinely horrible hip-hop record like K-Fed did.

We thought that Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe has a good marriage because Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe stuck by each other through lawsuits against magazines and discovering the dead bodies of kiddie-punching photographers and the aftermath of the lousiest Oscar speech in living memory and - horror of horrors - Reese Witherspoon wearing a dress that someone else had worn before. But more than that, we believed that Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's marriage was fine because Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe told us it was fine.

The bullshitters. In fact, Reese and Ryan weren't fine at all, and less than a fortnight ago it was announced that Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were to split, possibly because Ryan was boffing another actress behind Reese's back. Usually a temporary split is all that a relationship needs to get back on track, but not in this case. As E! Online reports, Reese Witherspoon has just officially filed for divorce from Ryan Phillippe:

Citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split, Witherspoon is asking for joint legal custody and primary physical custody of their two children, Ava, 7, and Deacon, 3, according to documents obtained by TMZ.com. Witherspoon, who had neither scored an $8 million payday for Legally Blonde 2 nor won an Academy Award for Walk the Line when she and Phillippe tied the knot in 1999, also requested in her petition that the court block any requests from her estranged hubby for spousal support. The actors didn't have a prenuptial agreement, so Phillippe, who's currently starring in Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, is entitled to 50 percent of the couple's earnings during the course of their marriage. 

But divorce-watchers shouldn't be too downhearted by Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe's lack of a prenup because - just as Ryan is entitled to half of what Reese earnt during their time together - Reese Witherspoon is also entitled to half of what Ryan Phillippe earnt. And Reese would be a fool if she didn't make a play for that haul, which includes $12.36 and a half-eaten bagel that Ryan stole from the set of The Way Of The Gun when Benicio Del Toro wasn't looking.

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Divorce Underway For Reese And Ryan - E! Online