The Demise of the Hollywood Power Couple: Will A-List Dating Ever Be the Same?

It's been eight months since Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made their breakup official, and the fallout is still developing. The actor's recent GQ Style interview brought out new questions and topics of debate for the divorce that shook Hollywood: Is Brad Pitt the victim? Will they be able to co-parent smoothly? What's going to happen to Brad Pitt's love life now—especially what with all that pottery.

But it also shined a light on an issue that's been slowly coming to the surface: Was Brangelina the last true Power Couple?

Now there will always be powerful couples in Hollywood. Success attracts success, beauty attracts beauty and money attracts money.
That will never change. But anyone with a slight inclination toward nostalgia will recall an era in which the biggest A-listers dated the biggest A-listers, creating a hybrid of influence that was truly unmatched.

Before Brangelina, there was Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Jen was at the height of her Friends fame and Brad was deep into his movie career, with Oceans Eleven and Troy, among other blockbusters.

They were, arguably, Hollywood's most beautiful couple, and were definitely the one that garnered the most attention. Any time they set food on a red carpet simultaneously, that moment became instantly iconic.

Ben Affleckand Jennifer Garner gave the world the same feels—whether they were canoodling at a Red Sox game or attending the Golden Globes, the world was enamored.
Ben was in the middle of his career-high resurgence (although most would argue that, despite missteps like Gigli, his star factor never really wavered) thanks to Gone Baby Gone and Argo and Jen was deep into her track record of being so absurdly adorable that she was irresistible to America (see the many many magazine covers for proof).

This golden era of power couples also gave way to the likes of Leonardo DiCaprioand Gisele Bündchen (remember them?), Gwyneth Paltrowand Chris Martin, and Katie Holmesand Tom Cruise, among others.

It was a time when most huge stars flocked to other huge stars—before there was Tinder, one simply made the Hollywood party rounds or asked her people to talk to his people. It made for seamless A-lister stalking, because all of the biggest and brightest were, basically living together.

But things can't stay the same forever. Slowly, those couples and their collective power status began to erode. (That is of course to say nothing of their individual star power). Brad and Jen ceased to be and their status was transferred over to Brangelina.

Ben and Jen are deep into conscious uncoupling and coparenting, much like their counterparts-in-separation Gwyneth and Chris. Leo's actress dating history gave way to his current penchant for Victoria's Secret models.

There are constantly new couples cropping up in Tinseltown, but none has been quite so simultaneously A-list, and there certainly hasn't been a Movement like there used to be.

So, should we be mourning this demise? Quite the opposite actually.