Kim Kardashian's short-lived marriage: Will it wreck her career?

After convincing retail sponsors, the media, and a disturbingly large number of Americans to become invested in her "fairy tale" wedding, reality TV star Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her husband, NBA player Kris Humphries, after just 72 days. With many Kardashian fans feeling duped by the precipitous split, rumors are circulating that the whole relationship — not to mention the $10 million wedding — was a sham created to boost TV ratings for the socialite's E! reality show. (Humphries, for example, may not even have been the first choice to play Prince Charming.) Will the bad press surrounding the divorce finally end the vapid Kardashian family's confounding popularity?

The family's media career is over: Kardashian's credibility, "which you were perhaps unaware existed until just now," has been completely destroyed by this charade, says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon. The dizzyingly fast romance and ostentatious wedding have been revealed as "a cynical stunt by a Hollywood network and an attention-hungry family." I won't be surprised if most people never want to watch the Kardashians again.

"It's time to break up with the Kardashians"

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Kardashian may take reality TV down with her: With any luck, the overwhelming disgust surrounding this "obvious sham marriage" will be so potent that "the walls will finally collapse on the whole reality show market," says Tony Hicks at the Contra Costa Times. The genre is already ridiculous: "When camera people follow you 24/7, 'reality' becomes as realistic as a leprechaun strolling up to me with a pot of gold next St. Patrick's Day." So America, let's demand the end of reality TV, and "television networks will have to go back to making real shows with real budgets requiring real writers with real imagination."

"Kim Kardashian will save America"

Sorry, folks. This will only help her career: Kardashian will make millions following the divorce, says Jo Piazza at Fox News, by selling exclusive rights to post-divorce interviews and pictures of her galavanting as a single woman. She'll drive up her appearance fees for the first batch of parties she attends stag. Indeed, "Kardashian can make a profit from anything, whether she's single, engaged, married, dating a girl or a guy," Dorothy Cascerceri of In Touch Weekly tells Fox News. "The more publicity she gets, the higher in demand she is."

"Kim Kardashian will make even more money being newly single, experts say"