Roman

Love is always lovelier some place other than home. Well, at least in the celluloid universe. Traveling by boat, train or even bus can lead to romantic entanglements in the movies, as does visiting über-romantic locales such as Rome, Paris and Venice. Of course, these romances may not last, or they may even end tragically - just think of poor Jack and Rose in "Titanic" - but it doesn't matter. Movie audiences crave these idealistic, sexy trysts. Here's a look at some of the best films in the romantic travel genre: All aboard!

Chase Blackburn can work through all sorts of mathematical equations, but his own NFL career dilemma just didn't add up. Although he was the leading tackler on special teams in his first six seasons with the Giants and a team captain last season, his phone never rang when the lockout ended in the summer. The reserve linebacker had figured that if the Giants didn't re-sign him, another team would. So he waited. And waited. Days turned to weeks, weeks became months, and eventually reality sank in. Blackburn, a married father of two young boys, had to get on with his life.

The sale of the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange has been delayed, in part because of a purported 99-year lease brought to the court's attention days before the sale was to be finalized. On Jan. 25, lawyers in the case received a letter detailing an agreement that entitles the Crystal Cathedral congregation to the long-term lease for $1 per year. The diocese, which said it "has serious doubts regarding the alleged lease's existence," demanded signed copies of the lease by Jan. 27. The Crystal Cathedral was unable to produce any documentation.

Sunday was supposed to be the day the sports potatoes got off their couches. This is the NFL's contribution to society. No games — and no, the Pro Bowl is not a game. It is an exhibition. The kids down the block playing flag football hit harder. It is a day to be devoid of five guys, sitting at a table in a TV studio, making six-figure salaries to state the obvious for an audience that will nod in deep appreciation at being told that the Patriots need to establish their running game.

A political system in gridlock, conservatives and progressives at each others' throats, military threats looming in the Middle East: Welcome to the last days of the Roman Republic. In 64 BC, Marcus Cicero, an idealistic outsider and the greatest orator ancient Rome produced, was running for consul - the highest office in the land - in a desperate bid to restore sanity to a corrupt and broken political system. It was a bitter contest to lead the most powerful government on earth, with accusations of incompetence, inconsistency and sexual misdeeds filling the air. Marcus wanted more than anything to save the republic from ruin, but he was hampered by his lowly birth and political naivete.

Philip Vannatter, the Los Angeles police detective who led the investigation of the 1994 slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, has died. Vannatter died of complications from cancer Friday in Santa Clarita, his wife, Rita, said. He was 70. "He was a real blue-collar detective," O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden said in an emotional interview Sunday. "He did his job the best he could and he was a fine detective, one of the best. " Vannatter was among the first detectives to arrive at former football star Simpson's mansion in June 1994 after the stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Goldman.

San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman is a finalist to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State, his agent said Monday. Mike Harrison told the AP by phone that Roman interviewed for the position in November and is on the "short list" to take over the embattled program, rocked in recent months by the sex-abuse scandal. Harrison said he expects to know soon whether Roman will be hired, but declined to offer further details, such as whether Roman would finish out the season with the playoff-bound NFC West champion 49ers (13-3)

Cardinal John P. Foley, a priest who rose from working-class roots in Philadelphia to become the Vatican's longtime spokesman on Roman Catholic social teachings, has died. He was 76. Foley was perhaps best known to American audiences as host for 25 years of NBC's annual broadcast of the pope's Christmas Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. He died Dec. 11 of leukemia at a home for retired priests in Darby, Pa., the town where he was born. Citing fatigue and declining health, he returned to Philadelphia in February after four years as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, a knighthood based in Rome.

Tens of thousands of Dutch children were sexually abused by priests and other Roman Catholic religious figures in the last 65 years, but church officials failed to take adequate action or report problems to police, an independent commission said Friday. Many of the victims spent part of their childhood in Catholic institutions such as schools and orphanages, where the risk of abuse was twice as high as in the general population, the commission said. But complaints were often ignored or covered up by authorities who were more intent on protecting the church's reputation than providing care for abuse victims.