Summer lovin’, had me a blast. Or that’s the idea, anyway.

夏日迷恋，让我澎湃。或许这只是一种幻想。

In song, the lazy months of beach trips and top-down country jaunts¹ are supposed to be a golden time of the year for romance. But in celebrity² circles, the summer of 2015 may be remembered as a buzz saw for famous lovers: a grim season that sliced several of Hollywood’s most celebrated³ couples in half.

在歌中，在这悠闲的几个月里，人们往往去海滩或在乡间远足，本应是一年中谈恋爱的最佳季节。但是在名人圈，2015年的夏季却十分阴冷，它像一把圆锯，把好莱坞最著名的几对情侣分开了。

It kicked in to gear with the endlessly dissected⁴ Ben Affleck-Jennifer Garner⁵ separation in June; continued with the unplugging of the first couple of ’90s alt rock, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale; and culminated⁶ in the news over Labor Day that Jon Hamm was splitting from his girlfriend of 18 years, Jennifer Westfeldt. At least 24 star couples, many of them tabloid⁷ staples⁸, have gone down for the count since Memorial Day, according to a recent US Weekly timeline on the topic.

今年6月，本·阿弗莱克(Ben Affleck)和珍妮弗·加纳(Jennifer Garner)结束恋情，引起媒体的无尽评论；之后，90年代另类摇滚的头号情侣格温·斯蒂芬妮(Gwen Stefani)和加文·罗斯代尔(Gavin Rossdale)分道扬镳；最后，在美国劳动节，乔恩·哈姆(Jon Hamm)和交往18年的女友珍妮弗·韦斯特费尔特(Jennifer Westfeldt)分手。根据美国周刊(US Weekly)的名人分手大事记，从阵亡将士纪念日(Memorial Day)起，至少有24对明星情侣分手，其中很多是八卦小报的固定报道对象。

While all these flameouts were presumably a coincidence, Howard Bragman, a veteran Hollywood publicist, said the relative quiet of summer can serve as a useful shield of sorts for stars looking to duck the worst of the press coverage¹⁰.

虽然这些可能只是巧合，但是好莱坞资深公关员霍华德·布拉格曼(Howard Bragman)说，相对平静的夏季是一个有用的盾牌，明星可以借此躲开最糟糕的媒体报道。

Publicists, for instance, have long labored¹¹ to keep bad news under wraps until Friday afternoons or holidays, in an attempt to duck the news cycle, Mr. Bragman said. By the same logic¹², celebrities¹³ and their handlers may reap some strategic benefit by holding off announcements of a split until many gossip consumers are away on vacation or lounging on the beach.

布拉格曼说，比如，长期以来，公关员们都努力把坏消息保密到周五下午或假期才公布，以躲开新闻周期。按照同样的逻辑，为了获得战略优势，名人和他们的智囊团会等到喜欢看八卦新闻的读者去度假或者在沙滩上晒太阳之后才公布分手的消息。

Historically, Mr. Bragman said: “summer is not prime media season. TV ratings trend lower and magazine and newspapers have generally lower circulation.”

布拉格曼说，从历史上看，“夏季不是媒体的旺季。在这个季节，电视节目的收视率和杂志、报纸的发行量往往偏低。”

While such talk of the news cycle means far less in the era of social media, when bad news has a way of finding any electronic device at any hour of the day, the sheer volume of celebrity breakups this summer “may have encouraged some whose relationships were fraying¹⁴ to jump in, hoping they would be lost in the shuffle,” Mr. Bragman said.

不过在社交媒体时代，有关新闻周期的这种说法就没那么奏效了，坏消息总能想办法在一天中的任何时候传递到任意一台电子设备上。但布拉格曼也说，今年夏天分手的名人太多了，“有些感情变淡的情侣借机分手，希望在混乱中被人们忽略”。

But the news cycle is only one reason summer may prove the best time, relatively¹⁵ speaking, for Hollywood power couples to achieve celebrity mitosis. Stars have to consider work-life balance, too, said Rachel A. Sussman, a New York psychotherapist and author of the 2011 book “The Breakup Bible.”

对好莱坞的著名情侣们来说，相对而言，夏季可能是分手的最好季节。不过，新闻周期只是其中一个原因。纽约心理治疗师蕾切尔·A·萨斯曼(Rachel A. Sussman)2011年出版了一本名为《分手圣经》(The Breakup Bible)的书。她说，明星们也得考虑工作和生活的平衡。

Any breakup is a major stress trigger in life, she said, and it is best not to attempt it at a time when professional obligations are cresting¹⁶. Unless the stars in question are promoting a summer blockbuster, summer is often a relatively quiet season, removed from film festivals, awards season, holiday releases and the like.

萨斯曼说，不管是谁，分手都会给生活带来很大压力，所以最好不要尝试在职业责任最大的时候分手。夏季通常是相对安静的季节，没有电影节、颁奖礼和假日电影上映等活动，除非这位明星正在宣传一部夏季大片。

“If you’re shooting a film or promoting one, you don’t want to do anything that is going to distract you,” Ms. Sussman said. “Celebrities will put off a breakup or a divorce until a time in their career when they can go on the down low.”

“如果是在拍电影或宣传电影，你不想因为任何事情分心，”萨斯曼说，“名人们会把分手或离婚推迟到事业中可以承受心情低谷的时间段。”

Regardless, if celebrities were choosing summer as a strategically sound time to split, it would run counter to the behavior of most mortals, who tend to confine their romantic misfortune to the colder months, according to some recent inquiries¹⁷ into the topic.

不管怎样，如果名人们认为，从战略上讲，夏季是分手的合理时间，那么，这与大部分普通人的做法正好相反。根据最近的一些关于这一话题的调查，普通人往往把自己情场挫折放在较冷的月份。

Writing in Time magazine in 2013, Marina Adshade, an economist¹⁸ in Canada, cited the period of the two weeks leading up to Christmas as the most popular time for breakups because couples are bombarded with evidence on how much the other is invested in the relationship. That is, partners take note of the care put into their gift, say, or the willingness of a beloved to sit through another rubber-turkey dinner at Aunt Mary’s house.

2013年，加拿大经济学家玛丽娜·阿德史德(Marina Adshade)在《时代》(Time)杂志上指出，圣诞节前两周是最常见的分手时间，因为恋人们会在这段时间集中感受到对方在这段感情中的投入。比如，用心挑选礼物，或者愿意在恋人的玛丽阿姨(Aunt Mary)家忍受另一顿感恩节晚餐。

And a post on Snopes.com, the popular urban-legend-vetting site, cited January as a famous relationship minefield, because couples who have put off the big decisions until the new year are finally ready to act. “January, therefore, racks up not only all the unpairings that normally would have accrued¹⁹ to it, but also many of those of mid-November through December,” the post reads.

辟谣网站Snopes.com上有个帖子说，1月份是著名的恋爱雷区，因为那些把重大决定推迟到新年的情侣们最终开始行动。“因此，在1月份分手的不仅包括那些在这个月感情自然走到尽头的情侣，还包括很多在11月中旬至12月已经有点想分手的情侣。”

For most people, summer traditionally was the most unlikely time of year for struggling couples to pull the plug, said Bernard Clair, a prominent New York divorce lawyer. In those relatively carefree months, he said, “people are no longer cooped up under the same roof, the kids are away at camp, so the arguments between spouses²⁰ rarely reach Level 7, the red zone.”

纽约著名的离婚律师伯纳德·克莱尔(Bernard Clair)说，从传统上讲，大部分感情出现问题的情侣最不可能在夏季分手。他说，那几个月相对悠闲，“人们不再被禁锢在同一个屋檐下，孩子们去参加夏令营，所以夫妻间的争执很少能达到七级，也就是危险区域”。

In the view of Rob Shuter, a former celebrity publicist who now runs the gossip site Naughty Gossip, that may be just as true for celebrities as for “normal” people, despite perceptions. Hollywood breakups, after all, are shark-attack stories of celebrity journalism²¹, he said, a summer staple⁹ and nothing more.

罗布·舒特(Rob Shuter)曾担任名人公关员，现在经营八卦网站Naughty Gossip。他认为，尽管看法不同，但是名人和“普通人”也许是一样的。他说，说到底，好莱坞明星情侣分手是轰动性娱乐新闻，是夏季的常规话题，仅此而已。

“Every summer, all the celebrity breakups seem to catch us all off guard, leaving folks to wonder if love is still alive,” Mr. Shuter said.

“每年夏天，我们似乎都会毫无防备地被所有这些名人分手的新闻击中，开始怀疑爱情到底还存不存在，”舒特说。

But, he added: “listing all the splits together in one neat little package is a celebrity journalist trick that has been going on for years. It allows pages to be filled with content, while still allowing the staff to enjoy Labor Day off.”

不过，他补充该说：“把分手新闻放到一起讨论是娱乐记者们的小把戏，已经玩了很多年了。它能轻松填充页面，让员工们轻松享受劳动节。”

Indeed.

的确如此。