Ah, there's nothing like love among the beautiful people to capture our attention and warm our hearts -- unless it's the schadenfreude of watching celebrity relationships imploding before our eyes. Join us in reliving 2005's most notorious engagements, marriages, breakups and makeups.   ANGELINA JOLIE & BRAD PITT Somewhere, a professor of publicity is mounting a case study in perfect spin control by studying the genesis of Brangelina.  After all, when the two were first romantically (albeit speculatively) linked during the shoot for "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," Brad Pitt was one half of Hollywood's most golden couple with Jennifer Aniston, while Angelina Jolie was a repeat offender at the altar with a well-documented disdain for convention.  Yet following news of the Pitt-Aniston split and their efforts to achieve "the most civilized divorce in the history of Hollywood" (per the Chicago Sun-Times), Angelina and Brad orchestrated a discreet, deliberately paced romance that avoided messy confrontations.  The paparazzi caught them in family tableaux (with Jolie's adopted son, Maddox, first on a Kenyan beach and later on her English estate), not in flagrante.  And as they gradually took their relationship public, Brangelina showed their best sides including her ongoing social activism and his undisguised affection for Maddox. He was at her side when she adopted an Ethiopian baby girl, Zahara, and on Dec. 2 Pitt announced his intention to legally adopt both of Jolie's charges as a co-parent.  If the duo is still demur at a timeline for wedding bells, is there any doubt it's serious?     KATIE HOLMES & TOM CRUISE Even the most jaded celeb watcher was open-mouthed last spring when Tom Cruise launched the romantic equivalent of blitzkrieg against former "Dawson's Creek" cutie Katie Holmes, newly liberated from her long engagement to actor Chris Klein. With both stars teeing up big summer movies ("War of the Worlds" for Tom, "Batman Begins" for Katie), skeptics sniffed a PR-driven fling, but the sheer scale of Cruise's assault was still impressive, from jet-setting trysts in Rome and Paris to Cruise's unhinged trampoline routine on Oprah's couch. Add in the L. Ron Scandal -- Katie's conversion to Scientology at Tom's insistence, her new BFF conveniently recruited from the church faithful, Tom's antipsychiatric rants to Matt Lauer -- and the lightspeed escalation to an engagement, pregnancy and do-it-yourself sonography, and TomKat took the prize for the year's most extravagantly weird coupling.

JESSICA SIMPSON & NICK LACHEY Did a day go by in 2005 when Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey weren't in the tabloids?  And did a week go by when someone, somewhere wasn't speculating that their very public union was becoming a martini marriage: chilly and on the rocks?  Between red-carpet appearances and buffalo-wing dinners, the MTV "Newlyweds" spent the year keeping an army of gossip columnists, paparazzi and PR consultants working overtime covering the rumors and denials of  trouble in paradise.  Finally, in a Nov. 23 statement that surprised no one, they announced plans to divorce. (One report said Jessica was the one who pulled the plug -- via e-mail.) Stay tuned for a new year filled with messy monetary details: Jessica, whose music career was soaring even before she entered the movie biz this year as curve-alicious Daisy Duke in "The Dukes of Hazzard," allegedly opted not to sign a pre-nup with her then-hot, now not-so-much singer husband.

Hookups & Breakups SIENNA MILLER & JUDE LAW When it comes to light-bulb romances (you know, on-and-off),  few celebs could top Jude Law and Sienna Miller for the strobe-like extremes of their tumultuous relationship. Miller's biggest Christmas gift for 2004 was a massive engagement ring, but 2005 turned into a year of off-screen drama for the tempestuous twosome. Rumors of a spring wedding disintegrated into reports that the 23-year-old actress was getting cold feet. Then came the summer's hottest scandal: Law, who starred (alongside Miller!) as a shameless philanderer in 2004's "Alfie," confessed to an affair with the nanny of his three children (by ex-wife Sadie Frost).  Although he abjectly apologized, a devastated and furious Miller slipped off her ring, then went on a tabloid-documented spree of flirtations, which allegedly included pretty period-piece actor Orlando Bloom, costar and new 007 Daniel Craig and a newly unattached Leonardo DiCaprio. October brought news that the couple had split for good, followed by another public spat, then whispers of reconciliation between Law and Frost. By November Jude and Sienna were reportedly ready to try again, with public cuddling offered as proof. But this just in: Sienna is reportedly "livid" over Law's plans to spend Christmas with his ex and kiddies and buy a house near their English home. Stay tuned...     RENΙE ZELLWEGER & KENNY CHESNEY She had him at hello -- and goodbye: Country heartthrob Kenny Chesney had already saluted the Oscar-winning actress' breakthrough role in "Jerry McGuire" by writing "You Had Me From Hello" when the couple met early in the year. A discreet but whirlwind romance followed; they publicly unveiled their affair when Renιe came onstage for a kiss during Kenny's April 29 concert in Jacksonville. The pair wed on May 9 in a surprise, sunset ceremony on the beach at St. John in the Virgin Islands. By early September, she was denying rumors of a split, and a mere 128 days after the "I dos" they confirmed that the four-month marriage was kaput. Conflicting career schedules, biology (reportedly she was ready for a baby, he was not) and geography (can a country boy be happy in the Hamptons?) were cited as reasons for the break up; Zellweger's petition for annulment curiously cited "fraud," played down by handlers as "miscommunication" about their goals. Bridget Jones is back to singleton status.

When Ashton Kutcher, 27, and Demi Moore, 43, hooked up more than two years ago, jaded celeb-watchers could be excused for suspecting someone was getting "Punk'd."  Yet the May-September duo continued keeping company and by this year, Kutcher was chummy not only with Moore's three teenaged daughters (who dubbed him "MOD," for "my other dad," according to Ashton) but also her ex Bruce Willis. The boyish Kutcher and preternaturally well-preserved Moore bonded further with Kabbalah, and Moore hailed her beau in Harper's Bazaar as her "soul mate." Rumors this spring that Dashmi might be in the family way were denied, but Moore subsequently allowed she wanted "the growth of my partnership, the growth of our family." On Sept. 24, they donned twin red-string bracelets in a brief Kabbalah-themed ceremony before 100 close friends in Beverly Hills.     JENNIFER GARNER & BEN AFFLECK When they first squared off, he was the sightless superhero in red leathers and she was swinging swords and nunchuks in the big screen debut for "Daredevil." But if Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner struck scripted sparks, off-camera he was still one half of Bennifer thanks to his overexposed, bling-encrusted courtship of none other than J. Lo, while Garner was more modestly enmeshed with "Alias" costar Michael Vartan. Following a very bad year indeed with a high-profile string of box office flops and a break up with the Latina superstar, Affleck reunited with Garner. This time, however, Ben and his new squeeze stayed on the down-low and conducted a refreshingly low-keyed romance.  In April, Ben proposed shortly after Jen's 33rd birthday, and in May it was revealed that she was several months pregnant with their first child.  In June, they quietly tied the knot at the Parrot Cay resort in the Turks and Caico Islands, and on Nov. 30, they welcomed a baby daughter, Violet.

LUCIANA BOZAN & MATT DAMON

Occasionally, the stars beat the paparazzi and gossips at their own game, as demonstrated by Matt Damon's low-profile romance with Luciana Bozan. After meeting the Miami bartender and divorced mom, the down-to-earth star (whose previous high-powered partners included Claire Danes, Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver) proved he'd learned from past mistakes. Like pal Ben Affleck, who atoned for his three-ring J.Lo engagement circus by courting Jennifer Garner away from the spotlight, Matt and Luciana dodged headlines with aplomb. In May came word that Damon had purchased a Miami home to be near his steady squeeze. Skip ahead four rumor-free months to September, when they announced their engagement, with Damon clearly embracing his new family, including stepdaughter-to-be Alexa, 7. On Dec. 9, with stealth worthy of Damon's onscreen assassin, Jason Bourne, the couple caught the press napping by getting wed in a private ceremony in New York City.

MISCHA BARTON & BRANDON DAVIS

Mischa Barton, the sylph-like actress/model and "O.C." star, and billion-heir Brandon Davis (son of the late investor and studio mogul Marvin Davis) had marked their first anniversary as one of young Hollywood's "it" couples when rumors first surfaced they were drifting apart.  Her no-show at his mother's glitzy charity affair in late April was attributed to her shooting schedule for the hit Fox show, and they issued denials and protestations of undimmed love in May and June.  But by mid-July, Barton, 19, and Davis, 24 made it official: Once a couple, they were now "close friends."

EMINEM & KIMBERLY MATHERS

When mercurial rapper Eminem split from wife Kim, the resulting divorce and custody battle wasn't just ugly, it was spectacularly public: The notoriously uncensored superstar name-checked both his wife and his mom in unflattering terms while venting both his devotion to and anxiety over daughter Hailie, whose custody he's shared since their divorce was finalized in 2001. Rap fans were understandably caught off guard Dec. 6 when the once and future Marshall Mathers III announced that he and Kim had reconciled and were considering remarriage.  The news, disclosed during a radio interview granted in support of his greatest hits album, "Curtain Call," was punctuated by a reference to "my wife Kim."

SOPHIA BUSH & CHAD MICHAEL MURRAY

Costars on TV's "One Tree Hill," 23-year-old actors Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray became a real-life item in 2004 when Murray pulled out the stops with a romantic proposal noteworthy for its production values: Popping the question while on location in Australia (for the quickly forgotten "House of Wax"), Murray filled their suite with candles and roses, spelled out undisclosed romantic sentiments in lights on the adjacent tennis court, and then dropped on one knee with his pitch. But the union didn't live up to the pilot: They announced their decision to part just three months after their April 16, 2005, nuptials in Santa Monica.

For Christina Applegate, the blond actress long identified with her role as ditsy Kelly Bundy on "Married with Children," 2005 was a professional high-water mark: she followed the big-screen success of her role in the hit comedy "Anchorman" with a brave leap to Broadway. But even as Applegate, 34, continued her mostly triumphant run as the star of the musical revival "Sweet Charity," her four-year marriage to actor Johnathon Schaech (best-known for his role in Tom Hanks' directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!") was drawing to a close. The couple jointly confirmed their decision to file for divorce on Dec. 6.