Getting divorced was the greatest thing that ever happened to Julia Roberts’ character in Eat Pray Love: The aftermath involves getting down with James Franco and Javier Bardem, not to mention copious amounts of gelato and pizza, and, if the trailer is to be believed, finding “your truth” at the “center” of your life. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert (which has been criticized for glossing over the messier parts of divorce). But who wants mess when you can revive the great ‘70s film trope: the woman liberated by ditching her husband. 
 
 Hollywood has been grappling with divorce since before there were talkies, says film critic David Thomson. Cecil B. Demille, he points out, made a number of films with Gloria Swanson that were flirting with the idea. But those films, like Don’t Change Your Husband(1919), and Why Change Your Wife? (1920) can’t quite let the women revel in their newfound freedom and truly move on. In Why Change Your Wife?, Swanson plays Beth Gordon, a nerdy woman whose husband leaves her for a glitzier babe. Rather than move on with her life, Gordon decides to get a makeover and wins her husband back. 
 
 In the ‘30s and ‘40s, comedies of remarriage like The Philadelphia Story were in fashion. As Willa Paskin described the genre in a Double X article from last year, these rom-coms “dissect the institution and then build it back up again.” The films often begin with a divorce, and then the divided pair ends up back together. Although the female characters in these films are often independent, sassy dames, the genre is an affirmation that happiness comes from the institution. 
 
 The trope of the woman emancipated by divorce didn’t really take hold until the ‘70s—this isn’t surprising, as divorce rates increased exponentially during that decade, as part of a wave of “self-actualization.” An Unmarried Woman, starring Jill Clayburgh as Erica, a jilted Upper East Side wife, is the epitome of the ‘70s divorce-liberation flick: The film turns “the heroine’s unwedded status into a positive growth experience,” according to the New York Times. She even shacks up with the requisite ‘70s “sensitive bearded artist.” 
 
 In the intervening 30 years, many movies have portrayed women in the throes of post-divorce self-discovery. The process has some familiar steps, including dancing in various flattering, decade-appropriate outfits (An Unmarried Woman, Living Out Loud), destroying your ex-husband’s possessions (Waiting To Exhale, The First Wives Club), doing recreational drugs (Living Out Loud, It’s Complicated) and traveling to foreign lands to meet hunky dudes (How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Under the Tuscan Sun, and of course, Eat Pray Love). Herewith, a slide show of ladies who are loving life, sans husband. 
 
 Click here to launch a slide show on divorce in movies. 
 
 Like DoubleX on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. ||||| In the world of celebrity splits, it doesn’t get much bigger than this: Angelina Jolie Pitt has filed for divorce from Brad Pitt, and she’s going for full custody of their six kids. 
 
 From here on out things could go one of two ways: quick and quiet, or long and loud. 
 
 “If you remember the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes situation, you barely read any of the actual details of what happened in that case in New York,” said attorney Robert Preston, co-chair of Greenspoon Marder’s matrimonial and family law practice group in New York. “It happened very quickly. There was a mutual understanding that if this went to the press it would be impossible to resolve and it would end up in court.” 
 
 When two A-list celebrities are involved there’s a common goal of keeping things out of the media and out of the court of public opinion, said Preston, who has more than two decades handling high-profile divorces. By contrast, when a megastar is married to a someone who’s not so famous, “the spouse has a hell of a lot less to lose by going to the press and trying to make the other side look bad.” 
 
 Preston suspects that this case will have little to do with money or property and everything to do with custody. There’s no indication on the divorce petition of a pre- or post-nuptial agreement, he said, and any custody wishes laid out in such a document would be unenforceable because the court has to act in the best interest of the children, not the parents. 
 
 All of this conspires to incentivize Jolie and Pitt to settle their dissolution issues quickly and behind the scenes. Because California is a no-fault state, there doesn’t have to be a complaint alleging lots of bad acts, Preston said, if the parties can reach an agreement out of court. 
 
 “If you go to the next step of the actual complaint needing to be served about why one party is entitled to custody of the kids,” he said, “you’re going to see a lot of very press-worthy stuff.” 
 
 Already there has been speculation in the media about what might have pushed Jolie to file. Unconfirmed rumors spread by social media are kind of thing that can complicate a celebrity divorce even more than it would affect a run-of-the-mill split. 
 
 Stacy Phillips, a family law attorney with Blank Rome in Century City, found one thing about the filing to be “a bit odd”: The fact that Jolie is asking for sole physical custody of the kids but joint legal custody, which includes the ability to make decisions about the kids’ lives. 
 
 “If somebody’s not capable of having custodial time then one would surmise that they’re not capable of making decisions,” she said. But the fact that all six kids — three of them adopted and three of them born to the couple — are listed on the petition with Pitt and Jolie as mother and father is a good thing. 
 
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 “It means that these kids are going to be treated as a unit, that he formally adopted them, because they’ve known him as their dad,” she said. “That’s secure and it’s healthier for the kids.” 
 
 The kids will “sort of go as a pack” when it comes to custody, said divorce attorney Christopher Melcher of Walzer Melcher in Woodland Hills. He was the L.A.-based attorney in Katie Holmes’ divorce. 
 
 Travel for work by Pitt or Jolie is unlikely to affect a custody determination, Melcher added, because in this case both parents have more than enough resources to hire nannies, teachers and others to help out, even in the case of 50-50 custody. 
 
 At 15, eldest child Maddox Jolie-Pitt has the right to express his custody preference to the court, Phillips said, and if the request is reasonable and rational then it must be taken into consideration. 
 
 “Hopefully he won’t have to do that in court,” Phillips said, “because putting a child up in court is scary. Having to ‘choose between your parents,’ no child should have to be put in that position. 
 
 “Especially when you have kids who’ve been adopted, they have a fear of abandonment, and putting them through another go-round of that, that’s really hard on kids in general, especially adopted kids,” she said. “I hope that Angelina and Brad can work this through.” 
 
 CAPTION Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp talk about the top contenders of the awards season, including "Call Me by Your Name" and "The Florida Project." Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp talk about the top contenders of the awards season, including "Call Me by Your Name" and "The Florida Project." CAPTION Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp talk about the top contenders of the awards season, including "Call Me by Your Name" and "The Florida Project." Justin Chang and Glenn Whipp talk about the top contenders of the awards season, including "Call Me by Your Name" and "The Florida Project." CAPTION Oprah Winfrey received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. We look back at how she got there. Oprah Winfrey received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. We look back at how she got there. CAPTION Stars wore black to the 2018 Golden Globes and we asked why it was important to participate. Stars wore black to the 2018 Golden Globes and we asked why it was important to participate. CAPTION It’s the first time that a rock act hasn’t headlined the festival. It’s the first time that a rock act hasn’t headlined the festival. CAPTION We asked celebrities at the 2018 Golden Globes what can be done to help with inequality in Hollywood. We asked celebrities at the 2018 Golden Globes what can be done to help with inequality in Hollywood. 
 
 Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 Angelina Jolie files for divorce from Brad Pitt, seeks full physical custody of their kids 
 
 Revisiting Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's movies in divorce-enabled hindsight 
 
 Why the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt marriage mattered so much in modern Hollywood
– Hollywood has had a long love affair...with divorce. It's the topic du jour once again, thanks to Eat, Pray, Love, which paints the aftermath of the big split as "getting down with James Franco and Javier Bardem, copious amounts of gelato and pizza, and finding 'your truth' at the 'center' of your life," writes Jessica Grose for Slate. It's a classic film trope, she explains: Woman gets ditched. Woman is liberated! But it wasn't an a la mode theme until the 1970s: Movies like Why Change Your Wife? (1920) and The Philadelphia Story (1940) followed sassy women who got divorced...then back with their man. But as divorce rates ballooned, divorce-liberation flicks started popping up, and haven't stopped. Hopeful filmmakers, take note: Grose runs down some standard steps that should be followed. No. 1: Destroy your ex's stuff (First Wives Club). No. 2: Smoke pot (It's Complicated). No. 3: Go to another country, meet hunk (Under the Tuscan Sun). Click here for a slideshow of classics.