Hollywood's Most Influential Couples

For a culture of star gazers, the only thing more intriguing than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is the star couple "Brangelina."

The public need only flip open a tabloid or surf the blogs for the up-to-the-minute happenings of the duo, better known by their one-word media moniker. That widespread fascination with the minutia of their lives earned the couple a spot atop Forbes' first-ever list of Hollywood's Most Influential Couples, a look at which celebrity pairings have the greatest impact on popular culture.

To determine which couples landed on the list, we looked at both Web presence and press clippings for more than 50 A-list couples -- some still together, some not -- over the course of the last year. Then, with a whittled-down list, we reached out to both Encino, Calif.-based E-Poll Market Research's E-Score Celebrity for appeal data, and celebrity weeklies -- People, Life & Style and In Touch -- for a tabloid cover count.

Pitt and Jolie score high across the board, thanks to their humanitarian lifestyle, ever-expanding brood, and general likeability as a couple. And according to People magazine Deputy Managing Editor Peter Castro, the duo, like so many star couplings, are far more appealing as an entity than they are on their own.

"[Pitt] is pretty to look at, and he's a fabulous actor, but he's not the most scintillating person on his own," Castro says. "But hook him up with, arguably, the world's most beautiful woman, and then you have the makings of a really interesting tableau."

But while the public's access to couples like Pitt and Jolie has grown, thanks to the proliferation of celebrity weeklies and blogs, the fascination with Hollywood romance is nothing new. In fact, it was once the workings of the movie studios to publicize -- if not manufacture -- such scandal-prone courtships.

The relationships offer a real-life soap opera with daily, if not hourly, twists for the public to feast on. And it's that drama that keeps the public interested, explains Castro, who likens the ups and downs of A-list couplings to a modern-day version of the 1980s TV drama "Dynasty."

Consider supermodel Kate Moss's on-again, off-again romance with rocker Pete Doherty. Though the second-place couple finally called in quits in July 2007, the duo was long known for serving up dish-worthy news. Whether it was their celebrity looks, rocky relationship, or hard-partying ways, they quickly became a tabloid staple.

What's more, the particulars of a star's relationship give the public a window into that celebrity's life, adds Jill Stempel, the New York bureau chief of photo agency World Entertainment News Network.

For Nicole Kidman, that window has served up a host of highs and lows in recent months. Thanks to the buzz surrounding her country-singer hubby Keith Urban's stint in rehab and her "is she or isn't she" pregnancy (for the record, she is), the pair ranked third on the list.

But it isn't simply the details of getting -- and staying -- together that garner big buzz. In fact, many times it's the breakup that sends the tabloids swooning.

Case in point: longtime lovers Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, who famously split in early 2007. The end for the ninth-place couple didn't happen happily or quickly: Upon seeing her ex flirting with "Seventh Heaven" star (and Timberlake's current squeeze) Jessica Biel at a Golden Globes party shortly after their split, Diaz reportedly snapped at both stars, garnering plenty of media mentions in the process.

Embarrassing? Sure. But Diaz's visible vulnerability had an upside: It made the Hollywood beauty more real to her fan base. The way Castro sees it, the emotions she exhibited were those the average person can relate to.

But there's another reason for the public's fascination: "Let's face it, these are fabulously wealthy, gorgeous people, and I think there is a certain amount of, 'Oh goody, something bad is happening to them,'" he says of the perverse delight the public takes.

According to E-Poll President and Chief Executive Gerry Philpott, it comes down to this: Marital bliss alone doesn't sell tabloids. Rather, a couple has to offer constant relationship developments (think: getting together, getting pregnant, or getting divorced) to maintain the public's interest.

"If a couple is just happily married, it gets boring for the average person," he says. "It's probably wonderful for the couple, but it's not too exciting for the press or [its] readers."