Romance

Paul Murphy grew up on his aunt's truck farm in South Jersey, which he remembers not so fondly as "work, work, work. " So running a family business wasn't on his adult to-do list. But in 2007, after retirement, Paul and his wife, Jane, launched Hickory Hill Heath & Heather, a small specialty-plant nursery near Oxford, in southern Chester County. "I thought the nursery business wouldn't be nearly as relentless as tomatoes and peppers. Ha!" says Paul. "I traded a five-day-a-week job for a seven-day-a-week job. " And he loves it. The love part actually started in the early '90s.

Love and war are the driving themes for this week's new DVD releases. Think Like a Man , Grade A-minus: A relationship expert has trouble with his own love life. Anyone thinking about making a romantic comedy should take a look at director Tim Story's Think Like a Man before shooting the first frame of film. It's not often you see a movie that touches your heart and funny bone so perfectly. It proves romantic comedies can work if you start with the right mixture of love and laughs, toss in a cast that's so endearing you want the best for them, and tie it all together with a smart comical thread.

IN YOUR CLASSIC Hollywood romcom, the meant-for-each-other couple meets, fights through a few obstacles and ends up together. There the movie ends. Tellingly, we never see them actually living together, because nothing intrudes on gossamer fantasies of romantic destiny like the grungy details of real life. And nothing tests real love like the imperfections of your "perfect" mate. "I think love and disgust are a lot closer than people think," Zoe Kazan, the writer and star of "Ruby Sparks" who makes that idea one of the movie's themes, said with a laugh.

It won't be long now before teens across the globe take to the streets in sackcloth and ashes in mourning over Kristen Stewart's swan dive from media grace. K-Stew, whose romance with Twilight costar Robert Pattinson has helped us keep at bay the horrors of a world engulfed in poverty, war, and famine, admitted this week that she had engaged in what she called a "momentary indiscretion" with her married Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders. The fallout has been shocking: Fans, for the most part teenage girls, have unleashed a fury of disappointment and outrage, a wave of hysteria not seen since Sigmund Freud set up shop in Vienna.

New romance, action, comedy, and sci-fi DVD offerings hit stores this week. Friends With Kids , Grade C-: Best friends decide to have a baby together. Adam Scott stars. The film from writer/director/star Jennifer Westfeldt takes one step further the concept of best friends having uncommitted sex. Best buds Jason (Scott) and Julie (Westfeldt) plan to have sex one time so they can conceive a child. They want offspring, but they also want to keep dating. They plan to share child-raising duties equally.

Hurt souls find love with a touch of magic and there's laugh-out-loud courtship of opposites in a continuing shifter series as we survey romance reading for the summer. Spellbound Falls By Janet Chapman Jove, $7.99 Olivia Baldwin runs a camp for families in picturesque Spellbound Falls, Maine. A busy widow with a young daughter, she hasn't had time for romance in years, not to mention a lack of any real contenders to catch her eye in the tiny town.

Queer cinema finally has come into its own, says Ray Murray, cofounder of Philadelphia QFest, the region's leading festival of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender films, which opens Thursday night with director Terracino's romantic dramedy Elliot Loves.   "There are only a few films this year about coming out" of the closet, says Murray. "Those films have almost been retired, whereas 15 years ago they were the staple. " Adds Murray, "That is one of the greatest changes" since QFest was founded 18 years ago, "and it marks real progress.

This week's new DVD options include a romance, classic Westerns, and a religion-meets-science offering. The Vow, Grade B: A woman (Rachel McAdams) wakes up from a coma with no memory of her marriage. The romance film is loosely based on a true story. Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum are the film's biggest assets. She has the kind of angelic face and sweet personality that make it easy to fall in love with her. Tatum brings both a rough physicality and surprising vulnerability to the role.

Is Washed Out just a darling of the blogs? No. The hip-cult music bloggerati surely adore them, but that's not why this Atlanta band is a success. It comes down to this: Their music is an accompaniment to the love story of the mind. Yes, Ernest Greene — the band's tentative crooning singer, composer, and keyboardist — did indeed make his initial electronic singles, epic yet intimate, into online and downloadable favorites. He's credited with being a leading voice in what's labeled "chillwave.

A starving Polish jeweler liberated from a Nazi concentration camp by soldiers from Gen. George Patton's Third Army asked Pvt. Dave Kershaw whether he would like him to make duplicate "pre-engagement" rings from two U.S. silver dollars, one for himself and the other for his girlfriend in South Jersey. Her name would be on one side of each ring, his on the other. Kershaw, a native of Mount Ephraim who was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944 and who survived the Battle of the Bulge, was thrilled by the jeweler's heartfelt gesture.