Laurie After Larry: A-List Activist?

June 6, 2007 — -- First the enthusiasm, now the marriage. After 14 years together, Larry David, creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and his wife, Laurie David, have called it quits, their spokesperson said Tuesday.

Larry's sitcom fortune and fame helped Laurie become one of the most familiar faces in the campaign against global warming. With his comedic genius and her environmental activism, the Davids were a Hollywood power couple.

But some speculate that her jump in status after producing Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," overshadowed his success and led to their split.

"When that dynamic shifts, that can be a contributing factor to divorce," celebrity publicist Michael Levine said about Laurie eclipsing Larry in the public eye.

And though their marriage may go the way of the polar ice caps, one spouse stands to benefit from the separation. If anything, divorcing Larry could help Laurie.

Free from the funnyman, Laurie may be able to effect more change than she could have otherwise. After all, psychoanalyst Bethany Marshall pointed out, how can the public take seriously the wife of a man who makes jokes about the Soup Nazi and the Bubble Boy?

"His profession is very light hearted," Marshall said. "There's a sense of humor about everything, and she's taking up a cause that's very serious. She may feel that she can't afford to be light hearted. She might think, 'If you're laughing, that means you're laughing at me.'"

As the wife of the super-successful sitcom creator, 49-year-old Laurie stayed in the shadows. As an environmental activist, she stole the spotlight. Marshall, author of "Dealbreakers: When to Work on a Relationship and When to Walk Away," said the role reversal could have damaged their marriage.

"In most relationships, one person is quite content to live through the other: the woman behind the man or the man behind the woman," she said. "Role reversal is very uncomfortable, very stressful."