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There’s the one night stand, and there’s the long-term relationship.

Both have their place in the modern world of dating, but can the former become the latter, the heat of the moment transforming into the ever-burning fire?

It’s a perennial question, one that introduces a host of others: does it matter who says “I love you” first? How long should a couple wait before moving in together? When should best friends get involved, and should it be with positive encouragement or by playing devil’s advocate? (And does it matter if the friends’ romantic lives carry their own problems?)

In the insightful, hilarious romantic comedy About Last Night– arriving just in time to become the latest Valentine’s Day movie classic — four Los Angeles singles get a thorough workout in the ups and downs of today’s dating world. On yet another night of playing wingman to...

Watch the first trailer for Steve Pink's About Last Night romantic comedy starring Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Joy Bryant, Paula Patton, Christopher McDonald, Regina Hall, Adam Rodriguez and Bryan Callen. A modern re-imagining of the classic romantic comedy, this contemporary version closely follows new love for two couples as they journey from the bar to the bedroom and are eventually put to the test in the real world. This is quite a solid first trailer, which you can see below via the player. Would you watch? If so, catch it on Valentine's Day, 2014 via Screen Gems. The film is scripted by Leslye Headland based on the screenplay by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue, in turn based on "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" by David Mamet.

The first Chicago bar I drank in was the Old Town Ale House. That bar was destroyed by fire in the 1960s, the customers hosed off, and the Ale House moved directly across the street to its present location, where it has been named Chicago's Best Dive Bar by the Chicago Tribune.

I was taken to the Ale House by Tom Devries, my fellow college editor from the Roosevelt Torch. It was early on a snowy Sunday afternoon. I remember us walking down to Barbara's Bookstore to get our copies of the legendary New York Herald-Tribune Sunday edition. Pogo. Judith Crist. Tom Wolfe. Jimmy Breslin. I remember peanut shells on the floor and a projector grinding through 16mm prints of Charlie Chaplin shorts. I remember my first taste of dark Löwenbräu beer. The Ale House was cool even then.

I returned to the North Avenue drinking scene on New Year's Eve...

Chicago – It’s Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show Weekend, and the stars of TV and movies will be available to meet all their fans at the Hilton Rosemont/Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel (click the link at the end of the article). Also available, lots of vendors with TV and movie items for any collection.

The Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show is a biannual event that brings celebrities to Chicago to meet, sign autographs and interact with their admirers. Every session has HollywoodChicago.com in attendance, and Joe Arce is also there to photograph all the celebs. The last show in September brought out classic TV and movie stars, who sat down for the following interviews.

Marcia Wallace of “The Bob Newhart Show” and “The Simpsons”

Marcia Wallace has created two memorable characters in TV history. As Carol Kester on “The Bob Newhart Show,” she traded quips with Dr. Bob Hartley (Newhart) for six seasons.

O'Rourke's was our stage, and we displayed our personas there nightly. It was a shabby street-corner tavern on a dicey stretch of North Avenue, a block after Chicago's Old Town stopped being a tourist haven. In its early days it was heated by a wood-burning pot-bellied stove, and ice formed on the insides of the windows. One night a kid from the street barged in, whacked a customer in the front booth with a baseball bat, and ran out again. When a roomer who lived upstairs died, his body was discovered when maggots started to drop through the ceiling. A man nobody knew was shot dead one night out in back. From the day it opened on December 30, 1966 until the day I stopped drinking in 1979, I drank there more or less every night when I was in town. So did a lot of people.

Jay Kovar and Jeanette Sullivan behind the bar

Neil Steinberg,...