Kim Kardashian - Her Made-For-Reality-TV Life

Kim Kardashian

NBA player Kris Humphries' wife Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce. You may have read the report. On the other hand, maybe you didn't. After all, as a cast member of a "reality TV" show, she's one of those people who's famous for being famous, not because of any talent for performing. She's famous for letting cameras record her outrageous off-the-wall behavior. Filing for divorce after only 10 weeks of marriage - that's pretty off-the-wall. And not telling your hubby about it, letting him find out by reading about it - that's pretty off-the-wall, too.

It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder...what's behind this celebrity weirdness? Here are three theories. Which one do you think is the truth?

A. Humphries is a good guy, but Kardashian is a hard-core flake. As a teenager, she relied on her beauty to get by. She didn't exercise strong judgment during the years when the part of her brain that does critical thinking was under construction. Now that the developmental window is closed, it's too late.

B. Humphries is a jerk. As a big tough guy famous for defense on the New Jersey Nets, he handled her the same way. Kardashian didn't find out who he really is until after the wedding, probably because she married him on impulse, not because she thought it through carefully (see A).

C. Kardashian is smarter than she seems. She cynically planned it all for publicity - both the marriage and the divorce filing. All this juicy stuff keeps her in the media. More celebrity based on celebrity.

I didn't list the theory that she's divorcing to sell the rights to the publicity. They did, after all, collect millions for the rights to publicize the wedding, and this was arranged in advance. But to deliberately divorce for the same reason? Too unthinkable!

But I prefer A, because I tend to evaluate bizarre behavior through the lens of teen development. But whether you picked A, B, or C, Kim Kardashian doesn't come off well. My prediction - even though the public loves a train wreck, you can't feed off negative publicity forever. Her star will fall and in a few years no one will remember her name.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength . 2011 photo by Glenn Francis, used with permission under Wikimedia Creative Commons license.