So WHAT if a good man is hard to find? No one seems to be looking anymore. The real search -- as any woman knows -- is for the ultimate and loyal BFF.
Recently, Victoria Beckham caused a froth among tabloids and gossip blogs when she celebrated her 34th birthday over dinner with Eva Longoria Parker and Kate Beckinsale. Why didn't she invite Katie Holmes, a nation wondered. The absence of Holmes -- Posh's BFF with matching bob and gargantuan sunglasses for the last year or so -- was widely reported and analyzed and over-analyzed. It was the snub heard around the world. Forever just isn't forever anymore.
"In society, women's friendships are always thought to be steadfast and impervious," says Liz Pryor, author of "What Did I Do Wrong: When Women Don't Tell Each Other the Friendship is Over." "We have these images of great girlfriends like Lucy and Ethel and Thelma and Louise."
Nowadays, the notion of link-armed Laverne and Shirley has been replaced by Paris glaring at Nicole. Or Heidi Montag refusing to be photographed within spitting distance of ex-BFF Lauren Conrad. Lindsay Lohan reportedly snapped at Ashley Olsen with the ferocity of a lioness last week in New York, when the starlet approached Lohan's new BFF, Samantha Ronson. But perhaps it's all for the better. Maybe these feuding and fiercely protective friends make more accurate role models than those musty, bygone tokens of sisterhood.
Haven't you ever bickered with a bestie? Or felt the sting of a friendship ulcer when you introduce two pals and later find out that they're planning a road trip to Baja and forgot to include you? ¿Que?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned -- for another woman. Why else would there be dozens of soothing, pastel pink and purse-sized books geared to keeping BFFs from becoming BEEs (bitter eternal enemies)? Last year saw the publication of "The Friend Who Got Away: Twenty Women's True-Life Tales of Friendships that Blew Up, Burned Out, or Faded Away." Add that to the arsenal of self-help manuals like "Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women's Friendships" and "Between Women: Love, Envy, and Competition in Women's Friendships." There's even a "The Friendships of Women" workbook. What's next: "Gal Pals for Dummies"?
