The Smoking Gun says Bill Murray’s wife is suing him for divorce, on the grounds of adultery and abuse:

Murray contends that the comedian physically abused her on several occasions during their marriage (they were wed in 1997) and that the star hit her in the face during a November 2007 confrontation in her home. During that incident, the May 12 complaint alleges, the 57-year-old performer “told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her.’” Jennifer Murray charges that the actor would often leave town without telling her, and sometimes “travels overseas where he engages in public and private altercations and sexual liaisons.” She also claims that he “repeatedly…left threatening voice messages on the home telephone which the minor children have heard.”

I don’t have an opinion about the suit, but it reminded me of Lost in Translation, whose script was based on a willful misrepresentation of the lives of movie stars. The subtext of the film bears some interest—an aimless woman alienated from her photographer husband and drawn to an older man in the movie industry, all of it quite redolent in the context of the life of its writer, Sofia Coppola, then-wife of director Spike Jonze and, of course, daughter of Francis Ford.

And certainly the film is handled with some skill. But the premise of it was crazy, and its success in terms of creating audience suspension of disbelief was based on the heavily romanticized image of its star. Movie stars aren’t alone when they travel. If they want to be, they bring someone along to make sure they do get left alone.

In the film, Murray’s character pouts about his hardship posting in a Tokyo luxury hotel. He’s so lonely he goes to the bar—and then rolls his eyes when, surprise of surprises, someone recognizes him. If he’s famous enough to be useful in a liquor ad in Tokyo, it means he’s a star there, and presumably has been there before. Do you think when Bill Murray personally goes to a foreign country he has no contacts?

And yet we’re supposed to believe the character really just wants to be home with his wife, who doesn’t seem to have time for him. I don’t think most movie stars have to endure that relationship dynamic.