Half of all Yemeni girls are married by the age of 18. Nujood Ali (right), didn't really have a fighting chance at making it through her teens without a husband. By the age of 10, Nujood had, in fact, been married off — and divorced.

Nujood in one of a handful of landmark cases of child divorce in the Middle East. Fortunately, Saudi Arabian officials and child advocates are looking to end child marriages before there's ever a need for a dissolution.

The Associated Press has reported that the Saudi government is putting pressure on families to hold off on adolescent unions and arranged marriages, such as one 11-year-old boy who was passing out wedding invitations in class (he's to marry his 10-year-old cousin), the article describes, as a young boy would do with birthday party planning.

The Human Rights Commission has stepped in to aide the minors, and, along with clerics who also oppose the marriages, is urging Saudi government to pass legislation setting the minimum age for marriage.

No one can deny that this is a much larger issue than a "way of life." There are politics, religion, and money at stake, as well as a perspective that Western cultures will never have the capacity to understand. Fortunately, there is someone who is chipping away at the rules, the traditions, and most importantly, the inequality.

Tennis star Pam Shriver is taking a passing shot at her husband, former James Bond star George Lazenby. Shriver has filed for divorce this week in California citing "irreconcilable differences" and asking for full custody of the children, with supervised visits for Lazenby.

The couple, who were married six years ago, have three children: George Jr. who was born in 2004 and the twins, Kate and Sam, who were born in 2002. She is also the stepmother to Lazenby's older daughter, Melanie.

Shriver, 46, won 22 Grand Slam doubles titles, 20 with Martina Navratilova, and has worked as a tennis commentator for CBS, ABC, and other sports outlets since retiring. She has also mentored Venus Williams. She became a member of the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2002.

Lazenby, 68, is best known for staring in the Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," and was the first actor who wasn't British to play 007. Lazenby was born in Australia.

Both reside in California.

China. Always been a stickler for rules, regulations, keeping its citizens in line. Now it's barring divorces? Well, sort of.

Due to the tsunami of marriage applications hitting the civil affairs bureau of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, for 8/8/08, divorce applications have been suspended for the day, reports web site china.org.cn. Other cities around the country have suspended divorce proceedings, as well.

In addition to the throngs of couples hoping to pick up a little extra luck by tying the knot on the triple-eight date ("Eight is the most auspicious number among Chinese people, who believe it brings fortune and happiness," says the article), August 8th is also the opening day of the Olympic ceremonies.

The obsession with the nuptial date is an international one; from Asia to the U.S. to Eastern Europe. Moscow has also reported a spike in 8/8/08 nuptial planning, according to international news web site dawn.com.

But there's also a rise in divorces from last year's 7/7/07 marriage boom: A Moscow city official said up to a quarter of those who married on July 7th last year had already divorced. Maybe not so lucky, after all?

The man who abducted his seven-year-old daughter in Boston last month was arrested in Baltimore over the weekend, and the girl was returned to her mother. On Tuesday the father was charged in a Boston court with felony parental kidnapping, assault and battery. He was held without bail.

And then the mysteries deepened.

Who is "Clark Rockefeller"? Could he be wanted in California under another name? Is he, as he presented himself, a secret agent? Or is he, as investigators believe, a former German exchange student? 

Another question: How could his ex-wife, Sandra Boss, a high-powered executive at the London office of McKinsey & Co., be deceived by such a shady character? Actually, any woman who has ever been wooed by a psychopath will know the answer to that one.

The London papers reported that Boss, who made more than $1 million a year, paid "Rockefeller" $1.5 million last year in exchange for exclusive custody of their daughter, Reigh.

The sticking point for shared custody, Boss said, was that she wanted to see "Clark Rockefeller's" valid birth certificate, and to know, finally, who her husband of 12 years really was.

He refused to reveal his identity, took the money, and began plotting their daughter's abduction, including buying an apartment in Baltimore under another assumed name.

She, finally sure that he wasn't a Rockefeller, changed their daughter's last name to Boss.

After suffering a car crash with a woman who was not his wife, actor Morgan Freeman has also announced that his marriage has been seriously bruised.

Although Freeman, 71, has been separated since last December from his wife of 24 years, 67-year-old set and costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee, the widely reported crash this week injured not only the Academy Award-winning actor, but his wife's feelings. Access Hollywood reported today that the couple is involved in a "divorce action."

That car crash — the passenger, Demaris Meyer, 48, who lives in Memphis is described as Freeman's friend — may have put the announcement of their marital problems into overdrive.

Many women suffer in quiet and make Faustian bargains in their marriages. When their private lives become public, political wives like Hillary Clinton and Silda Spitzer opt to soldier on and preserve their marriages.

For others it is a tipping point. Studies show that boredom can give men the desire to shift gears, and perhaps turn down a new road.

Patching up a relationship requires both people to participate in working out their problems.

Morgan Freeman is currently starring in "The Dark Knight" and has been in movies ranging from "Driving Miss Daisy" and "The Shawshank Redemption" to "Kiss the Girls."

Perhaps he’s been doing that last one too much.

However, any marriage that lasts 24 years is considered a great success. Sometimes people grow apart, but they are still likely to remain in each other’s lives because of so much history, so many shared experiences.

Talk about possibilities. Within a year, Carla Bruni went from being dumped by her son’s father to marrying the dashing Nicolas Sarkozy and becoming the First Lady of France.

Even she giggles at the amazing turn of events. In interviews with Barbara Walters and “Vanity Fair,” France's femme fatale shared her secrets for divorce diplomacy and how she juggles a blended family, a recording career, her job as First Lady and a colorful past.

Among the Italian heiress’s ex-lovers, and current pals, are Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, French singer Julien Clerc, and director Leos Carax – who produced the video of her CD “Quelqu'un m'a dit” (“Someone Told Me”). Her new CD, “Comme Si de Rien N'Etait” (“As if Nothing Happened”) will hit U.S. stores tomorrow and includes English songs.

How can the former model and chanteuse be such good friends with so many exes?

The chiseled beauty with a je ne sais qoui shrug points out that time really does heal all wounds and gain us some perspective.

"Sometimes the desire, the passion, makes you fight, but when that goes completely, you have only the good part of it," she told “Vanity Fair.”

And what about the pesky problem of having all the exes around?

“It's not that I had a lot of lovers,” she said. “It's that I never hide them. I think it would be a very bad sign to deny. Everything with denying is sick.”

Well one can't deny that she knows how to cast a spell on the public. Since Sarkozy and Bruni married earlier this year, his popularity ratings have soared while she's being called France's Jackie O.

And she has made history by being the first First Lady to arrive at a state function to meet the Queen of England and – quelle horreur – to have nude photos of her surface and be plastered throughout the Internet.

Remember, there is no denying nonchalance. Works every time.

Evangelist Juanita Bynum made headlines again this week, as her ex's attorney claims she has yet to hand over $10K due to his client, reports The Atlanta Constitution-Journal. The lump sum is only the first of four installments that are due to ex Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III to pay his legal fees accrued during the divorce.

To refresh your memory, Weeks did not pursue spousal support from his ex-wife, with whom he built the Global Destiny Church, in their tangled divorce proceedings; he did, however, ask that she cover his $40K legal bill.

Bynum isn't heading to prison just quite yet; Bishop's attorney has threatened possible jail time or a fine for missing a July 8th deadline to turn over the money.

Also coming Bishop's way? A Land Rover, which Bynum has yet to relinquish. But just as Weeks taketh, he giveth: He has also ordered that Bynum remove some items from their home, as well, including assorted antiques, a sculpture, and a harp. Guess the harp doesn't really scream "bachelor pad"...

If there's anything these settlements reveal, it's the odds and ends that celebrities value (heavy emphasis on the "odd"). Lest we forget David Hasselhoff's victorious claim over the antique barber chair, while his ex claimed the Michael Jackson photograph.

No divorced woman has it easy. But in Russia, it just became harder.

A working mom seeking to become the third woman ever to successfully bring a sexual harrassment case in Russia was dealt a jolting blow when the judge threw out her case citing — get ready for this — that sexual harassment is actually necessary for the survival of the human race.

Well, let's see how women around the world race to rebuke such a retro ruling. (Even Saudi Arabia caved in from global pressure after a judge ruled that a rape was a woman's fault.)

The woman had allegedly been locked out of her office after she refused to have sex with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she told the court. "I didn't realize at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

As reported in Foreign Policy, the judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

According to a recent Russian survey, 100 percent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 percent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven percent claimed to have been raped.

After this ruling, someone has got to say "Nyet"... as in, "No, not yet buddy."