Along with Garbo, Norma Shearer was fast becoming MGM's prestige star in 1930 thanks to some degree to her marriage to the mythic studio head Irving Thalberg. However, she was also uniquely talented as proved by the diversity of her films. Although she is remembered today more for her later roles in the title role of 1938's "Marie Antoinette" and as the virtuous center of 1939's "The Women", Shearer plays Jerry Martin, the blazing center of "The Divorcée" in which she plays a carefree young wife who cheats on her husband after he carelessly cheats on her. Instead of treating her in "Scarlet Letter" fashion, the film takes a refreshing look at the double standards between men and women when it comes to adultery. Naturally, they eventually regret their behavior but not before a lot of alcohol-fueled hell-raising with their fair-weather friends.