Dating Social

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage. KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

For would-be sugar daddies perusing SeekingMillionaire .com -- "the meeting place for wealthy and beautiful singles" -- there was much to like about profile #160127. "Bree" identified herself as a 23-year-old model from Newport Beach, and the accompanying photos showed an emerald-eyed beauty with a mane of silky brown hair and a wraparound smile that seemed both sexy and sweet. "Just looking for Mr. Right," her brief self-description read. If the pictures -- one in a backless dress at a party, another in a clingy halter top -- seemed somehow familiar, a quick Internet search offered an explanation: Bree Condon, 23, of Newport Beach was a successful model and aspiring actress who'd done a Guess jeans campaign and posed for Maxim magazine's swimsuit issue.

The client-trainer relationship is a unique one and should not be entered into lightly. Client pays trainer to get him or her into shape, but sessions are rarely perfunctory. To put it bluntly, there's all that touching and sweating and grunting and scantily cladness and rippling of muscles going on, not to mention the chitchat between reps about everything from last night's football game to sticky divorce proceedings. Having a bad body image day?

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage. KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010.

We'll call this one Cupid because, with his golden curls and wide-eyed cherubic face, it seems like a decent handle. He's 26, fresh out of the military and, despite his Abercrombie good looks, he tends to panic when he talks to girls. "I'm totally an introvert," he says early on a Friday evening. But now it's into the wee hours of Saturday morning and he's at the Saddle Ranch on the Sunset Strip.

It started as so many relationships do -- the long phone calls, the movie dates, the tentative introductions to family and friends. But the courtship of Mark Passerby and Salwa Al-Saban was hardly ordinary. The two were separated by the Atlantic Ocean, a time difference of six hours and vast cultural contrasts. He lived in Lansing, Mich., she in Cairo. They say they fell in love over Skype, a service that allows people to call each other for free over the Internet.

When I was in ninth grade, I had a crush on a gorgeous senior football player. As I made my way to science class each day, I would usually pass him in the hall. Sometimes he'd notice me and smile, which sent me into a tailspin for at least an hour.

With many workers having an office valentine -- and even canoodling on the job -- some employers don't want to be liable if the romance fizzles. They are asking workers, mostly senior executives, to sign "love contracts" that shield employers from liability if intimacy later congeals into a sexual harassment lawsuit or some other discord.

Dating violence can happen to any adolescent, anywhere. Jenny Crompton was a middle-class 15-year-old in semi-rural Iowa. She had tried many times to break off her tumultuous relationship with boyfriend Mark Smith, but he refused to let her go. Unbeknown to her parents, he spied on her and threatened her life in notes. On Sept. 26, 1986, Smith stabbed Jenny 60 times with a butcher knife in her living room. He is serving a life sentence for her murder.

Helen Fisher thinks dating should be less about romance and more about science. "If you are describing yourself on a dating site or in the personals," she writes in "Why Him? Why Her?

You may already know Alana Semuels from her holiday advice column on The Times' website. With Valentine's Day coming up, she debuts in print as etiquette maven Ask Alana, answering questions about romance and finance. Relationships are hard enough without the economy being in the crapper. Now that money is tight, annoying financial issues in your relationship or dating life have the potential to become huge craters that could run you off-road.

4 So, a man and a woman walk into a theater with a budget of $25. . . . That was the opening of the evening my pal Jevon and I had planned for an informal night of cheap laughs. We had intended to hit the Second City improv, but we walked into the wrong theater on Hollywood Boulevard. We unwittingly stumbled into comedic relationship therapy at iO West -- a date that killed two birds with $10 each.

8 In Ohio, the drive-in was a summer ritual. My mom would pile me, my brother and at least four of the neighbor kids into her faux-wood-paneled Oldsmobile station wagon and roar off into the humid dusk. Snuggled up in a pile of pillows and blankets, we'd be mesmerized by kiddie gems like "Herbie Goes Bananas." We'd stuff our faces with popcorn and other treats brought from home; weeks later, we'd still be picking kernels and smooshed gummy bears out of the Custom Cruiser's back seat.

7 The last time my boyfriend, Aaron, and I went on a date for $25 or less, we were in high school. So we were pleasantly surprised at how much we could do for that price now. We started our day at the Hollywood Farmers Market, strolling around and sampling fresh produce, lavender-flavored goat cheese and apple cider. At a flower stand, Aaron paid a buck to buy me two pink gerbera daisies. We also picked up a pound of grapes for $2 and scored big when the seller tossed in an extra half-pound.

6 My partner, David, and I had missed celebrating the New Year with a couple of our friends, so we made plans to meet them at the Malibu Seafood Fresh Fish Market and Patio Cafe a few Sundays later to satisfy our craving for raw oysters and champagne. I packed a little cooler with a couple of bottles of Blason de Bourgogne's Cremant de Bourgogne, a delicious French sparkling wine sold at Trader Joe's for $9.99. I dug out a box of cheap champagne flutes and tucked an oyster knife into my pocket.

For would-be sugar daddies perusing SeekingMillionaire .com -- "the meeting place for wealthy and beautiful singles" -- there was much to like about profile #160127. "Bree" identified herself as a 23-year-old model from Newport Beach, and the accompanying photos showed an emerald-eyed beauty with a mane of silky brown hair and a wraparound smile that seemed both sexy and sweet. "Just looking for Mr. Right," her brief self-description read. If the pictures -- one in a backless dress at a party, another in a clingy halter top -- seemed somehow familiar, a quick Internet search offered an explanation: Bree Condon, 23, of Newport Beach was a successful model and aspiring actress who'd done a Guess jeans campaign and posed for Maxim magazine's swimsuit issue.

The movie was rated "PG," so he thought it a safe choice for his night on the town. Initial impressions can be deceiving, however. Midway through the film, that modern Hollywood requisite--The Bedroom Scene--staged a surprise attack. So Scott Boyenger, 19, walked out of the theater. "My date was all, 'You're so weird,' " recalled the Huntington Beach resident, employing typical teen-age vernacular.

1 My boyfriend Erik and I decided to take a free walking tour of downtown L.A.'s historic architecture, planned and guided by us (although the Los Angeles Conservancy offers a printable tour of the area online). The first stop: the Bradbury Building, the oldest commercial office structure downtown. More than a century old, the landmark's interior is covered with intricate French ornamental cast-iron lacework.

2 Perched atop Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park, the observatory is an excellent, cheap getaway date that doesn't require much getting away. Go at night and the sparkling sea of lights makes for a view so spectacular that you'll almost forget about the stifling traffic you had to sit through to get there. There's plenty to do at Griffith Observatory to fill the dreaded silence that would be inescapable on a first-date dinner.