Celebs today know the headline power of marrying other celebrities. But this practice started with the anti-gay Hayes code in the 1930s. Under the code, homosexual activity became grounds for blacklisting actors. “Hollywood tolerated sexually adventurous lifestyles, but most of the rest of the country did not. The studios had to bow to the consumer. If you wanted to work, you did what they said,” explains Laurie Jacobson, author of Dishing Hollywood, an expert on Tinseltown's faux marriages. The Hollywood lavender marriage—a pairing for convenience, magazine covers and maintaining closets—was born.
Back in the day, stars could live their entire lives without being outed in this way. Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine (above), as GLBTQ.com reports, maintained the facade of a perfect couple, gracing the covers of magazines like Ladies Home Journal while in a lavender marriage. Magazines showed the pair as domestic homebodies and they took the secret to their side-by-side graves.
Back in the day, stars could live their entire lives without being outed in this way. Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine (above), as GLBTQ.com reports, maintained the facade of a perfect couple, gracing the covers of magazines like Ladies Home Journal while in a lavender marriage. Magazines showed the pair as domestic homebodies and they took the secret to their side-by-side graves.
