For Valentine's Day, 5 Legal Lessons We've Learned From Celebrities
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so let's talk about love -- legal love, that is. When it comes to love and law, there's no better source of inspiration than celebrities.
Whether it's about prenups or paternity, celebrities seem to have a special affinity for marrying the concepts of love and the law.
Here are five legal lessons on love that we've learned from celebrities:
- Prenups. This is officially the first Valentine's Day Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian will be spending solo since they met. But back in 2009, Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian signed a prenup before getting hitched. Albeit a difficult holiday for heartache, Valentine's Day won't be a day to brood about the legal logistics of their divorce thanks to their prenup, which may have spelled out issues regarding property, retirement, spousal support, bank accounts, and taxes.
- Paternity. From Khloe Kardashian's sister, Kim, we can learn the "law of baby daddy." Kim became pregnant with Kanye West's baby before she was officially divorced from Kris Humphries, making for a sticky scenario because California law presumes the husband to be the father. As a result, Kimye had to jump through a few legal hoops to establish paternity and overcome the presumption of parenthood.
- Name changes. As we learned from Chad Ochocinco, who reverted to his birth name for his fiancée's sake: many people change their names in the name of love. Just got married? Just got un-married? Just can't stand your given name? Rest assured, you can likely change your name.
- Domestic violence. Chad Ochocinco changed his name for his love, but he was also arrested for head-butting his wife. Valentine's Day is a challenging holiday for many domestic violence victims. As we learned from "Teen Mom" star Amber Portwood, DV victims can be men, too.
- Stalking/cyberstalking. Like the movie "Swimfan," celebrities know the ugly side of love: obsession. Alec Baldwin went on one date with a Canadian actress who then stalked him for years. She's spending Valentine's Day in jail. From Ashley Tisdale's "Super Tweeter" fan to Alexa Ray Joel's frightening Facebook fan, we learn a lesson on cyberstalking: creepy social media messages are not OK.
Ah, love.
Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Facebook and Twitter (@FindLawConsumer).
Related Resources:
Content for You