cover image Bad Dates: Celebrities (And Other Talented Types) Reveal Their Worst Nights Out

Bad Dates: Celebrities (And Other Talented Types) Reveal Their Worst Nights Out

Carole Markin. Carol Publishing Corporation, $9.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-8065-1158-0

Markin is at the mercy of her contributors, so there is dross mixed in with the gold, but these 101 brief encounters could, collectively, persuade any rational person never to date again. Take, for example, actress Kimberly Russell's dinner with a man who admired the way she smelled (he claimed to have been a dog in a past life). Or lawyer Peter Nichols, who discovered at the end of an excruciating blind date that he spent the evening with the wrong woman altogether. Unfortunately, author James Ellroy did find the right blind date: she wore a giant crucifix and her first words were ``I don't usually go out with un-saved guys, but my brother said you were tall!'' And Alice Cooper relates his outing with Linda Blair to see The Exorcist: ``It was sort of like `The Addams Family' going to the movies.'' Occasionally a disastrous date ends happily--Anne Bernays marries Justin Kaplan despite her distaste for his choice of brains for lunch. Markin is an independent filmmaker, writer and artist. Photos not seen by PW. ( June )