A volatile mix

David Beckham and “Posh” Spice

Becks and Posh have been tabloid royalty in Britain since they sat on golden thrones at their 1999 wedding. But their reign has been bumpy. Beckham’s soccer reputation is bending the wrong way these days -- he was dropped from England’s national team in August -- and the British press has covered his alleged extramarital affairs like a national crisis. His wife, Victoria Adams, made pop history as a Spice Girl but has since endured cruel tabloid reports of her eating disorders, reported plastic surgery and her feud with Naomi Campbell, whom Posh has called “a massive cow.”

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Rick Fox and

Vanessa Williams

Fox has three championship rings from his run with the Lakers, but he doesn’t wear that wedding band he got from Vanessa Williams, the pop star and former Miss America who’s now in the ABC hit “Ugly Betty.” The reason for the split was one that Williams should have been able to identify with: The publication of compromising photos. This time around it was the National Enquirer and photos of Fox with another woman.

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David Justice and

Halle Berry

The Atlanta Braves star and the future Oscar winner married in 1992 and made every “best-looking couple” list, but, by 1996, with him fresh off of his 1995 World Series heroics, their marriage succumbed. The reasons cited: His alleged infidelities and the tug of two career ambitions and travel had split them apart. A year after the split, he was in a new uniform in Cleveland.

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Andre Rison and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC

The NFL firebrand was nicknamed “Bad Moon” as a play on his last name, but it proved to be apt, considering his brushes with the law. Then there was his romance with the mercurial pop star Lopes (remember her condom-as eyewear fashion statement?). The pair was volatile, especially one in night in 1994 when she burned down his Atlanta mansion after an argument. But how powerful is love? They reconciled for a time after the smoke cleared. They were apart, though, when Lopes died in a car crash in Honduras in 2002.

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Dick “Night Train” Lane and Dinah Washington

Lane was famous for his vicious “necktie” tackle and nose for interceptions (his 14 picks in 1952 still stands as the single-season record). The saucy Washington was the most popular black female singer of 1950s, with such hits as “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” and “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes),” but she was often imperious on stage and driven by reckless appetites. Lane was her seventh husband and her last; in 1963, at age 39, she died after mixing pills and booze. He quit football two years later.

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Chuck Finley and Tawney Kitaen

The ballplayer best remembered on the mound for the then-California Angels married sex kitten Kitaen in 1997; she was best known for a bouncy role opposite Tom Hanks in “Bachelor Party” in 1984 and for cavorting in heavy-metal videos. In 2002, the marriage ended as so many do -- with her getting arrested in Newport Beach for attacking him with her high-heeled boots. Kitaen was back in the news when authorities announced Tuesday that she has been charged with cocaine possession.

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Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe

The Yankee Clipper and Hollywood’s sad bombshell eloped one month before Valentine’s Day 1954, and the divorce was underway by Halloween night. He just couldn’t bear sharing her with the world; she couldn’t take his controlling ways. Still, after her death in 1963, DiMaggio’s gallant devotion to Monroe lived on. The iconic ballplayer barred Monroe’s “bad friends” from the funeral and sent red roses to her crypt three times a week for 20 years. DiMaggio never remarried nor spoke publicly about his lost love.

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geoff.boucher@latimes.com