The Oscar Curse!?!

SANDRA BULLOCK is not the first woman to win the Best Actress Oscar . . . and then LOSE HER MAN.  In fact, it happens so often that people think there's a LOVE CURSE on that statue.  Seriously . . . once you look at the numbers, even if you've never believed in a superstition in your life, you might think twice about this one.

Almost every single winner in the past 12 YEARS has lost her guy… It started in 1998, when HELEN HUNT won the award for "As Good As It Gets".  She thanked her boyfriend, HANK AZARIA . . . then married him later that year.  Within six months of saying their vows, they were done.

GWYNETH PALTROW won for "Shakespeare In Love" back in 1999.  Two months later, she and BEN AFFLECK broke up.

HILARY SWANK won the Oscar for "Boys Don't Cry" in 2000 . . . and her marriage to CHAD LOWE remained intact. But in 2005, she won again for "Million Dollar Baby" . . . and a year later, they split up.

JULIA ROBERTS and BENJAMIN BRATT broke up just three months after she won Best Actress for "Erin Brockovich" in 2001. 

The following year, HALLE BERRY won for "Monster's Ball".  And the following year, she and husband ERIC BENET were through.

REESE WITHERSPOON won Best Actress for "Walk the Line" in 2006.  Before 2007 had begun, she and husband RYAN PHILLIPPE were hammering out a custody agreement.

KATE WINSLET was last year's Best Actress, for "The Reader".  And we just found out that she and husband SAM MENDES have separated. 

And maybe we can give an honorable mention to CHARLIZE THERON.  She took the Oscar in 2004, for "Monster" . . . and she and her longtime boyfriend, STUART TOWNSEND, just broke up this past January. Yes, that's definitely stretching things.  But hey, why not, right???

So if you count Charlize, that means NINE out of the last 12 Best Actress Oscar winners lost their men very soon after taking home the trophy.

The exceptions would be Hilary Swank after her first win . . . 2007 winner HELEN MIRREN and 2008 winner MARION COTILLARD.  Helen has been married to director Taylor Hackford since 1997, and Marion has been dating the same guy since 2004.