As if anyone who reads celebrity gossip pages and magazines didn’t know already, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson are dating. … big duh.
We’ve been reading with a lot of amusement the headlines that “confirm” Lohan and gal pal Ronson are an item. Lohan was being interviewed on the syndicated radio program “Loveline” Monday night when the DJ asked the “Mean Girls” actress: “You guys, you and Samantha, have been going out for how long now?” Lindsay laughed, and Stryker continued: ”Like, two years, one year, five months, two months?
“A very long time,” Lindsay answered.
Headlines popped around the globe exclaiming that finally, FINALLY, this little snippet confirms that Lohan and Ronson are the real deal — girlfriends who truly are BFFs. In West Hollywood, they call them “Celesbians.”
But did it really need to be confirmed? For months, the pair have been hanging out together and been photographed in public, and only two weeks ago Lindsay lashed out in her own blog against Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin asking, “Is it a sin to be gay? Should it be a sin to be straight…”
Well, so now we know what we already knew: Lohan and Ronson are dating. But questions do remain. Does this mean she is a lesbian? Or, as many men and women do, is the 22 year-old simply experimenting with her sexuality? Put another way, Is she like Clay Aiken, who finally came out of the closet only today and by his own admission is gay? No doubt. Or, is she like actress Anne Heche who was straight, then gay (living with Ellen DeGeneres), then straight again? When Lindsay truly comes out, if she ever does, now that will be a headline.
MillionaireCupid: A real love story happened online.
Five years after registering with MillionaireCupid.com, the matchmaking web site connected Kate wilson, 31 and her husband James with each other. The two married in March last year after dating for nine months. Kate is a pretty office worker, while James is a navy officer.
"I just broke up with my boyfriend when I first registered with MillionaireCupid, feeling a bit lonely and bored with the same old circle of friends and people I met everyday. I hoped the web site will enlarge my world, and allow me to meet new people, " says Kate.
Many guys approached her before, but she turned them down after a few phone calls and dates.
"For some I can tell they're not the right ones just after the first talk. Many guys turned out to be so impolite and tricky I don't hesitate to reject them after the first date. People from the cyberworld can be good or bad, so we have to use our careful judgement with them," she says.
For James, Kate didn't trust him at first.
"He introduced himself in his first mail, saying he wanted to know me, and asked for my phone number. I think that's weird. How can a man I never know ask for my phone number since the first mail? I was afraid he's a psychopath and didn't reply," she says.
But James kept writing to her. He explained he didn't have much time logging into the net, so he would like to get to her on the phone.
After four to five mails, the woman replied. Then they started talking on the phone, and kate felt something click between her and James. He kept calling her everyday.
"He's always nice and polite. We continued emailing and talking, and I felt that despite many differences, we share a lot in common and can get along very well," she says.
Four months after they are connected, she decided they should meet. James at first was reluctant, fearing she would be disappointed when seeing him. But Kate insisted on her decision.
"I felt our relationship had progressed to certain level. I told him we had to meet so as to know if we can go any further. If it didn't work, then we should quit. We're getting older and I don't think we should waste more time with the wrong one," she explains.
"Truly, his look is not my type, but the experiences teach me I can't get all I want. As long as he's a good guy, always nice to me, and we can get along well, I want nothing more," says Kate.
They decided to marry each other nine months after dating.
"We know we're not at the crossroads anymore. We've lived our lives and are ready to settle down with someone. It's our luck that we've found each other," she says.
Millionaire Cupid: Wired for LOVE
The Internet is playing a big role today in almost every aspect of a human's life. We search for information from the net, we study from e-learning programmes, we use emails to keep in touch with people for both personal and business purposes, while many become hard core fans of the popular chat engines like MSN and Skype.
It's no longer surprising internet has also become a tool for singles to search for their right matches and soul mates. Some directly login to the online dating sites, while many start from social networking internet services such as Hi5, Facebook, MySpace and Multiply.
Despite many harms known to exist in the cyberworld - like people giving false identities or women reportedly lured into sexual abuses or even murders - a lot of singles are still willing to jump in and the number of online dating sites as well as their members have kept increasing over the years.
Kasamart Neerapatama, senior vice-president of Sanook Online Limited, which runs the matchmaking web site http://www.thaimate.com/, says after 10 years of service, the number of Thaimate users have increased from 30,000 people at the beginning to almost one million at present.
Among them, 300,000 people are active members, meaning they are still using the service within 90 days. The number of users online is about 6,000 per day.
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Why online dating?
Kasamart said the Internet has an increased role in love relationship as much it has in other life matters.
"Think of what most people do when they arrive at the office every morning - make a cup of coffee, turn on the computer, check emails and browse web sites. If they are feeling lonely or are heartbroken, then tapping into the online dating sites is a likely choice. The way of life today makes the Internet closer to people, and online matchmaking services easier to access," says Kasamart.
He adds that online dating opens a new channel for the singles to find someone to fulfill their empty lives.
''In the past, it used to be difficult for Thais to meet someone out of their life circles. So we've seen many doctors marry nurses, suppliers marry purchasers, salespersons marry marketing people, or judges marry prosecutors. But the internet helps you break through the old narrow circles of friends to meet a variety of people you've never been involved,'' he explains.
He cites a successful case of a Muslim woman living in Chiang Mai who married a Muslim from the deep South after meeting on Thaimate.
''Had they not logged into the web site, they would have missed the chance to meet each other,'' says Kasamart.
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What's a crush?
The appeal of online dating lies with the excitement when you are connected to someone you do not know. For some, chatting online with a stranger living a long distance away may allow them to better express their own selves and attitudes without caring for each other's physical appearances.
One more good point of online dating is that you can search through the web until you find the one you are contented with. Then you may start making contact, wait for the response, and pursue the relationship if you click with that person. If not, you still can quit and keep looking for a better match. Everything depends on your judgement.
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Rules for online dating
As every coin has two sides, online dating also has its pros and cons. Since this kind of relationship develops in a cyberworld, it is difficult for us to know what is and is not true, or whether the persons we talk to are really good or bad. Once we're engaged in online dating, there are a lot of things we have to take into account, and here are some rules for the cyber love.
- Be careful in pursuing a relationship
The risk of online dating is that you can be wooed with sweet words or eloquence that appear on the computer screen, not a personality or appearance that are easier to judge.
It is recommended that you go back to those previous emails since you first contacted each other. Read them carefully. The messages between the lines will tell you something about your date. Has he or she been true to you? And you'll get some clues about what way your relationship is heading for.
- First, clarify the age and status.
Age and marital status are what to be clarified from the beginning. A tricky or dishonest guy will speak hesitantly, or not tell you straightly. If that happens, it's better to click ''delete'' that person so as to screen out those married guys or playboys who only want to play games with you.
- Pay caution to an overly extroverted person
Be careful if your date is so quick to disclose his personal information. This kind of people will push you around and make every attempt to rush the relationship. But things that begin too fast usually end easily too.
Note that online dating is a mutual communication between two persons. It's better to give your relationship some more time, let it grow naturally and gradually.
- Don't rush your relationship
One good point of online dating is that you can take time with your date as long as you want, be it one week, one month or even a year. Nobody can rush you. Make every careful step in your relationship, otherwise a mistake can easily happen. Don't rush to meet a man or a woman just after the first few talks. He or she may not be a person you imagine.
- Be honest to your date
Be yourself and true to your date. Do not overstate your personality to make it sound as if you were a hero or an angel. Your partner may have over-expectation on you, and that may trouble your relationship when you both come out of the cyberworld.
- When having a date, do not go to private places
Once you click with someone on the net, going for a date is unavoidable in most cases as it's a way for both sides to better know each other. Bringing along a friend might not be very useful in case you want to get to know each other well.
For your first date, make sure you'll see each other in a public place. If anything wrong happens, you can ask for helps or run away from the guy.
- Ask yourself what you really want
Study your own feeling. Think of what you really need, a soulmate, a friend, or you're just playing games for fun. If you are serious enough, go on with your date. But in case you already have someone and only want to exercise your charm, keep it to the limit. When you have an online dating, it means you already step into someone else's world, so be careful of each other's feelings, otherwise it can get you in trouble.
Millionaire Cupid: Need to find a date? Stay home
Becca Klinger was always outgoing, and she had more friends than she could count.
But when it came to dating, she felt awkward.
"I was not very confident," Lindsay, 21, said of the way she was only two years ago. "I was just very nervous about talking to guys."
Then, at the urging of a friend, she signed up on MillionaireCupid.com, a millionaire dating site, and her social life spun into the stratosphere.
"I used a picture that showed me exactly how I was," she said. "I decided I wasn’t going to try to be something I wasn’t. I was surprised - the response was overwhelming."
Klinger is one of millions of Americans who have turned to so-called social networking sites. A 2006 report on cyber dating by the Pew Internet and American Life Project said some 3 million Americans had entered long-term relationships with someone they had met online. JupiterResearch estimates the U.S. online dating market will rake in more than $900 million by 2011.
In Pompton Lakes, N.J., the online dating trend has become clear to Rabbi David Senter of Congregation Beth Shalom. Senter estimates that these days, most of the couples he marries who are younger than 50 "were in some variation of online dating."
"Couples who meet though the conventional means are becoming the exception rather than the rule," said Senter, who met his second wife through JDate.com, a Jewish matchmaking site.
"Online dating seemed like a logical thing for me to do," Senter, 47, said. "Rabbis can’t really hang out in bars. I had some horror stories. Some women posted pictures that weren’t really of themselves, and when I met them, I realized it. One woman was talking about marriage before we even met.
"But there aren’t many intrinsically negative or positive things about online dating that aren’t true of conventional dating."
Indeed, single people who have tried online dating tell stories about people who "flirted" with them through e-mails and instant messaging even though they were married or in a supposed serious relationship.
And there are stories about people who misrepresented their age, their income, their job. But many people add that such deception has always been an unfortunate part of dating, online or the traditional way.
That said, Mandi Townsend, who lives in Delaware, does see some important differences.
"It could be overwhelming," Townsend, 33, said, adding that at one point she was going on so many dates she was losing track of the details about the different men. "But it works for professionals in my age range who are busy."
But when it came to dating, she felt awkward.
"I was not very confident," Lindsay, 21, said of the way she was only two years ago. "I was just very nervous about talking to guys."
Then, at the urging of a friend, she signed up on MillionaireCupid.com, a millionaire dating site, and her social life spun into the stratosphere.
"I used a picture that showed me exactly how I was," she said. "I decided I wasn’t going to try to be something I wasn’t. I was surprised - the response was overwhelming."
Klinger is one of millions of Americans who have turned to so-called social networking sites. A 2006 report on cyber dating by the Pew Internet and American Life Project said some 3 million Americans had entered long-term relationships with someone they had met online. JupiterResearch estimates the U.S. online dating market will rake in more than $900 million by 2011.
In Pompton Lakes, N.J., the online dating trend has become clear to Rabbi David Senter of Congregation Beth Shalom. Senter estimates that these days, most of the couples he marries who are younger than 50 "were in some variation of online dating."
"Couples who meet though the conventional means are becoming the exception rather than the rule," said Senter, who met his second wife through JDate.com, a Jewish matchmaking site.
"Online dating seemed like a logical thing for me to do," Senter, 47, said. "Rabbis can’t really hang out in bars. I had some horror stories. Some women posted pictures that weren’t really of themselves, and when I met them, I realized it. One woman was talking about marriage before we even met.
"But there aren’t many intrinsically negative or positive things about online dating that aren’t true of conventional dating."
Indeed, single people who have tried online dating tell stories about people who "flirted" with them through e-mails and instant messaging even though they were married or in a supposed serious relationship.
And there are stories about people who misrepresented their age, their income, their job. But many people add that such deception has always been an unfortunate part of dating, online or the traditional way.
That said, Mandi Townsend, who lives in Delaware, does see some important differences.
"It could be overwhelming," Townsend, 33, said, adding that at one point she was going on so many dates she was losing track of the details about the different men. "But it works for professionals in my age range who are busy."