Dating has never been easy. The time-honored search for a soul mate has always been one part humiliation, two parts aggravation, and a little blind luck thrown in for the fortunate.

Today's version of the game can be a blur of websites, speed lunches and hordes of friends and relatives who know just the "right" person for you.

Thirty-something preschool teacher Sarah Nolan (DIANE LANE) has been divorced for eight months, which is much too long for her family to bear. With the best of intentions and only her happiness in mind, they stage an intervention in an all-out effort to get her out of pajamas and back into the dating scene, one way or another. Leading the charge are Sarah's sisters, Carol (ELIZABETH PERKINS) and Christine (ALI HILLIS), eager to line up potential suitors, and their widowed father Bill (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER), who sets a fine example with his own recent and very successful foray into the internet dating realm. Bill has lately been seeing the free-spirited Dolly (STOCKARD CHANNING), whom he met online, along with a number of other ladies whose names his daughters can't quite keep track of.

Eager to launch their sister's own cyber-dating debut, Carol and Christine pretend to be Sarah and post her profile on perfectmatch.com, with the enticing message, "Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun. DWF seeks special man to share starlit nights. Must love dogs." And wait for the responses to pour in.

Sarah soon endures a series of hilariously disastrous mismatches and first dates as the website offers up a stream of eager wannabes and one possible maybe - awkward but intriguing boat builder Jake Anderson (JOHN CUSACK), an idealist who measures romance by a Dr. Zhivago standard. A little on the intense side, Jake might be looking for more than Sarah wants right now. Meanwhile, at work, there's a new distraction - Bob Connor (DERMOT MULRONEY), the newly separated dad of one of her young students. Charming and relaxed, Bob seems made to order, the perfect guy...but is he just too good to be true?

Based on the best-selling book by Claire Cook, and written and directed by two-time Emmy Award winner Gary David Goldberg, Must Love Dogs follows the comic, bumpy and ultimately rewarding journey of a woman cautiously rediscovering romance and learning to trust her own instincts again. Because, as her family enthusiastically reminds her, it's never a good idea to give up on love.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents an UBU / Team Todd Production: Diane Lane and John Cusack star in Must Love Dogs, also starring Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Perkins, with Stockard Channing and Christopher Plummer. Must Love Dogs is directed by Gary David Goldberg and produced by Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd and Gary David Goldberg from a screenplay by Gary David Goldberg, based on the novel by Claire Cook. Brad Hall and Ronald G. Smith are executive producers. Director of photography is John Bailey, A.S.C.; production designer, Naomi Shohan; and editors, Eric Sears, A.C.E., and Roger Bondelli, A.C.E... Music is by Craig Armstrong.

Synopsis: Must Love Dogs tells the story of Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane), a newly divorced woman cautiously rediscovering romance with the enthusiastic but often misguided help of her well-meaning family. As she braves a series of hilarious disastrous mismatches and first dates, Sarah begins to trust her own instincts again and learns that. no matter what, it's never a good idea to give up on love.

MPAA: PG-13
Rating Comments: PG-13 for Sexual Content
Run Time: 98
Closed Captioning: Yes
Subtitles: English, Francais, Espanol

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.40

Sound Quality:
English: Dolby Surround 5.1
Francais (Q): Dolby Surround 5.1

"A beautiful girl like you can't just give up, Sarah.

There's life after divorce, you know."

"We wanted to explore one woman's search for love in an increasingly frantic world," says Gary David Goldberg, who directs the romantic comedy Must Love Dogs from his own screenplay, based on the best-selling Claire Cook novel, and shares producing duty with Suzanne and Jennifer Todd. "Sarah Nolan is a woman whose life didn't turn out exactly as she expected. Now she's in transition. She has to summon up the courage to get out there and try again, and the world is not as hospitable or forgiving as it should be. It's an uncomfortable and often very funny place to be, rich with human predicaments we can all relate to."

No stranger to the human predicament, Goldberg's career is distinguished by entertainment that addresses themes of family, romance, growing up, breaking up and starting over - and always with a healthy dose of laughter. A writer on The Bob Newhart Show, Alice and M*A*S*H, and writer/producer on Lou Grant, Goldberg went on to create Family Ties and Spin City, earning his first Emmy Award for Lou Grant and another Emmy and four consecutive nominations for Family Ties, as well as a nomination as executive producer for the critically acclaimed series Brooklyn Bridge.  He again struck that balance of humor and poignancy in the 1989 feature Dad, starring Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson as a combative father and son bickering their way toward reconciliation.

Goldberg wasn't looking for a film project when he discovered Must Love Dogs. At home in a small town in Vermont, "I kind of fancied myself semi-retired at the time," he recalls, happily removed from the world of development meetings, casting sessions and 4 AM wake-up calls. Stopping at a local bookstore one day, he saw Claire Cook's novel, a Literary Guild Book Club selection, featured as the staff's pick-of-the-week. He read it and laughed out loud. Before long, he was mulling over possibilities for a script and bidding for film rights.

"Claire does a wonderful job of capturing a moment in time," says Goldberg, referring to that surreal, post-divorce pause in which "you're in shock, retreat. Your confidence is shaken and you don't make great choices. That's where we find Sarah."

Matching Goldberg's enthusiasm for the story are dynamic producing partners - and sisters - Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd, of Mememto (2002 Independent Spirit Award winner and AFI Film of the Year nominee), Boiler Room and the phenomenally popular Austin Powers films. Suzanne shared a 1997 Emmy nomination for the acclaimed HBO movie If These Walls Could Talk, and Team Todd shared a 2000 nomination for its powerful sequel, If These Walls Could Talk 2.

"Unlike a lot of broad high-concept romantic comedies," notes Suzanne Todd, "Must Love Dogs derives its humor from real characters and real situations."

"It's a sweet, honest movie about putting yourself back together," says Jennifer Todd. "Plus, Suzanne and I enjoyed the sister relationship and the family dynamics, which are amazingly true to life. With Suzanne and I working together we've had so many people tell us either that they think it's wonderful and they would love to be able to work with a sibling or just the opposite, that they can't imagine how we do it and remain on speaking terms. Everyone relates it to their own circumstance and the same is true the first time you encounter Sarah's family, which is very much in each other's business."

Having no sisters of his own, Goldberg gratefully defers to the Todds on that subject, specifically for scenes that highlight the often barbed but unmistakably loving interplay between Sarah and her take-charge sibling Carol, played by Diane Lane and Elizabeth Perkins. "They gave me the sister stuff," says Goldberg of his co-producers. "There were times when Diane and Elizabeth were working out a scene and we'd be tossing it around and Jennifer or Suzanne would say, ‘well, we'd do this' or ‘this is what I would say to her,' and it all rang true.

"The kind of comedy that interests me is based in reality," Goldberg emphasizes, "mining legitimate laughs from territory that's familiar to people. I look for laughs of recognition that come from everyday life, where people in the audience will watch it and think, ‘okay, that's me,' or ‘that's my sister, my brother, my best friend.' You can sit there and laugh at yourself and your own foibles and know that you're not alone."

For all of Sarah's difficulties, she is most definitely not alone. Her loving family would never allow that. It's been entirely too long since Sarah has had a date and they're more than ready to do something about it. As the story opens, eight months after Sarah's divorce, we find the entire clan - siblings, sisters-and-brothers-in law and family patriarch Bill - convened in her kitchen for an intervention, armed with the names of every available guy they can think of, plus photos of a magazine model or two for general inspiration.

"As a single woman, it would be easy enough for Sarah to go to work and go about her day without ever facing her romantic issues. But her family, and their love for her, forces her to face what's going on (or not going on) in her life," Suzanne Todd explains. "They raise her dating problems to a whole new level."

"It's a tightly-knit, big Irish family, where everyone feels they know what's best for you and they're going to let you know exactly what that is. At the moment, they think Sarah's moping too much and needs to get out there and find a new man," says Lane, who sees her character as bruised and somewhat disillusioned but ultimately optimistic. Well respected for her remarkable range of dramatic roles, such as A Walk on the Moon, The Perfect Storm, My Dog Skip, an Emmy-nominated performance in Lonesome Dove and, most recently, her searing portrayal of a wayward wife in Unfaithful that earned both Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, Lane also shone in the 2003 romantic comedy Under the Tuscan Sun and was pleased to return to a genre where she could use her sense of humor to connect with audiences.

"As Sarah, Diane's flair for comedy meshes perfectly with Gary's hilarious script about a modern woman's quest for romance and a soul mate in a world where both are in short supply," says Jennifer Todd.   "Her timing is sharp and you really pick up the underlying self-deprecation in Sarah's remarks."

"Sarah is essentially a good girl," says Lane. "She was willing to remain in a marriage even though there weren't any fireworks, and is genuinely surprised when it's her husband who bails out. Truth is, she's never really found the love of her life. But the best thing about Sarah, never mind her current state of mind and the fact that if she didn't have a job she probably wouldn't get dressed for a month, is that she is still open to possibilities. She's willing to try again, which is the most important thing." All she needs is a little push to get started...

"Mate shopping?"

"It's kinda like going online to buy a pair of pants...except there's going to be a guy in them."

Not long content with their advisory status on Sarah's love life, sisters Carol and Christine soon take things a giant step further. They open an account in Sarah's name on perfectmatch.com, along with a provocative profile and her high school graduation photo - complete with cap and gown. (In their defense, it was the only photo they could find that didn't include the ex-husband.)

When asked how she would react if someone did the same thing to her, Jennifer Todd lets out an unequivocal "Horrifying!," before admitting that she and Suzanne actually did post a friend's profile on an Internet dating website, although stressing, "the difference was that we told her what we were doing. Actually, in this day and age it's not as crazy as it seems."

Adds Suzanne, "it may seem unromantic at first but not so if you find the right person and it works out. When you look at the number of people who have met and married people via the Internet you can see it as long-term, if not short-term, romantic."

As part of his preparation for the project, Goldberg consulted renowned relationship strategist Susan Page, author of the book If I'm So Wonderful Why Am I Still Single?, for a realistic picture of what the newly single can expect. "Susan draws a comparison between people looking for love in America today and people who were looking for jobs during the Great Depression," he says. "The traditional ways of meeting people have broken down. There isn't the community that used to exist. Instead, there's this whole new sense of community on the Internet but it's still an alien world to many of us. It's like there's a big dance going on and Sarah doesn't know the steps."

The filmmakers agreed that any story depicting the current dating world would have to involve the Internet. "It's just become so pervasive," says Goldberg, who expanded upon that element for the screen version of Must Love Dogs, whereas the heroine in Cook's novel relied upon the newspaper for her personal ad interaction.

"Internet dating is fascinating in so many ways," says Suzanne Todd. "You can narrow your choices as to age, height, interests, religious preferences - almost anything. But you never know whether or not you'll have that special chemistry with someone just because they looked good on paper."

Additionally, Goldberg notes, "the potential for artifice is high in the cyber realm," although adding that pretense has eternally been intertwined with romance, so in the larger sense nothing has really changed. Frauds have always been frauds and will always be; likewise, diamonds in the rough are always waiting to be discovered. Be it via newspaper, high-speed computer or a friendly set-up through your aunt's dentist's neighbor's cousin, the rules, rewards and potential pitfalls for those seeking a love match are the same today as they were when Grandma debuted at the Church social. Vigilance counts. As does a sense of humor.

Elizabeth Perkins (The Flintstones, Cats & Dogs, Finding Nemo), who stars as Carol, outlines a typical nightmare situation: "There you are online chatting with a guy who says he's six-foot two, dark hair, blue eyes and in great shape. Then, when you walk into the coffee shop to meet him you think you got the address wrong because there's no one in the room who even remotely resembles that description. That would be fun, wouldn't it?"

Must Love Dogs takes this concept to its outrageous but, frighteningly enough, still plausible extreme, in a scene that would make any father, daughter or family therapist squirm. Sarah, still new to the process, answers an ad posted by a man who presents himself as "a young 50," only to find, when she arrives at the appointed alfresco café, that she has responded to her own 71-year-old father's ad. Whereupon, dear old Dad proclaims his innocence, insisting that "in the bottom of his soul" he is only 50 and that "the rest is poetry."

Similarly, when Sarah questions Carol's choice of adjectives on her Perfect Match profile, specifically "voluptuous" and "sensuous," never mind the fact that she doesn't even have a dog, her big sister's response is that the truth in advertising laws don't apply here. The point of a personal ad is to generate interest - and dates - and she can work out the details later. It's a pro-active sentiment echoed by Dolly, one of Bill's Internet girlfriends (played by Oscar- nominated Stockard Channing of Six Degrees of Separation and The West Wing), a vibrant woman with diverse interests who maintains a dozen different dating profiles in which she tries out various personas. "On one she's dressed up like a rodeo girl, fringe jacket and a cowboy hat, and on another she's all champagne and caviar," says Jennifer Todd. "Her philosophy is, increase your visibility and your odds." Besides, how do you know you don't like skydiving, rodeos or opera if you've never tried it?

Thus begins Sarah's hilarious odyssey of first dates, or, as she might later describe some of them: the arm wrestler, the handcuff expert, the one who brought his 14-year-old daughter along and the uncontrollable weeper - and that's not counting the guy who took "must love dogs" literally and howled on her voicemail. Twice. Or the jerk who opened their dinner conversation by bluntly remarking, "I thought you'd be younger."

"I can't believe how stupid guys are," says Goldberg, revealing that the I-thought-you'd-be-younger scenario actually occurred to a friend of his, as did the one in which Prince Charming is accompanied by his sullen teenager. In fact, most of Sarah's dates are based on true stories culled from the filmmakers' circle of friends or their own not-so-distant pasts. "There's a lot of questionable behavior out there."

"You'd think we were pushing it for the sake of comedy, but the truth is, we're not taking liberties here; these are very realistic," Jennifer Todd confirms. "You should have heard the horror stories people volunteered once they knew we were doing this movie."

One definite standout in this eclectic parade is individualist Jake Anderson, played by multi-talented John Cusack, whose facility for both drama and comedy is evident in a career marked by titles such as Being John Malkovich, Pushing Tin, The Grifters, Bullets Over Broadway, The Thin Red Line, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and 2000's High Fidelity, for which actor/screenwriter Cusack earned Writers Guild, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Also recently divorced, Jake is going through his own angst and uncertainty in self-imposed exile and with more than a measure of sardonic humor. Most nights find him alone, working on the specialty wooden racing boats he designs or wallowing in countless screenings of his favorite tribute to doomed romance, Dr. Zhivago.

Like Sarah, Jake is reluctantly pushed back on the market, not by his family but by best friend Charlie (Ben Shenkman, Angels in America) who has, quite frankly, had enough of the Russian winter landscape and mopey Jake.

After Jake refuses to see any of the bimbos on Charlie's speed-dial, Charlie tries another tack. Without his friend's knowledge, he clicks onto Sarah's Perfect Match profile and arranges a date for her with Jake at a local dog park - an event for which they must both borrow dogs or risk appearing disingenuous. Jake shows up nervously with a neighbor's feisty terrier and Sarah brings her brother's imposing Newfoundland, Mother Teresa.

Literate, emotionally oriented and straightforward, Jake also has a tendency to be, well.... a little intense. Not much for small talk, this is man who wants to know upfront who you really are, what you're passionate about and what your thoughts might be on, say, the meaning of life, and will gladly break out his own theories. "He's kind of a throwback guy," explains Goldberg, "looking for authenticity in perhaps the most unauthentic time in human history." For Sarah, who's just starting out on her own again, when wearing her hair up or down is still a major decision for the evening, a relationship with Jake seems like more work than she's looking for.

Meanwhile, there's another "potential maybe" she met the old-fashioned way - in person, at the preschool where she works. Bob Connor, the handsome, charming, easygoing single father of one of her students is played by Dermot Mulroney, the versatile star of About Schmidt, My Best Friend's Wedding, Tom DiCillo's Box of Moonlight and Living in Oblivion and the compelling 1990 drama Longtime Companion. Sarah and Bob have been shyly flirting over the Crayolas and the Curious George collection for weeks, every time the doting Dad comes to collect his son, although Sarah is hesitant to compromise her job by getting involved with a parent. Then again, as her sisters are quick to point out, maybe that's just an excuse because she doesn't want to take a chance or, more likely, because Bob seems so much like the perfect guy it's frightening.

"The trouble is," suggests Jennifer Todd, "at this stage Sarah is afraid of making another mistake and falling into the same trench she just climbed out from. She's far from confident about making the right choices."

"Ultimately it's the simple truths that are most difficult to learn, like that very sensible advice about being yourself," offers Goldberg. "You need to wait for someone who values you to come along instead of trying to guess what other people deem valuable and then trying to make yourself into that model. Until you can honestly assess what you really want and why, you can't make the right decisions and take control of your life. It's a process; trial and error." And luck? "Oh yeah, luck helps. Luck helps a lot."

Casting: Setting Up the Perfect Group Date

"Comedy is collaborative," Goldberg believes. "You really cannot impose it." Consequently, he fosters the kind of open atmosphere on set guaranteed to bring out the best of everyone's energy and instincts.

"The best joke always wins with Gary, the funniest way it plays, whether he wrote it exactly that way or not," confirms Jennifer Todd. "He's tremendously flexible and willing to change anything at the last minute and work around something new; nothing slows him down."

In this case, "Everything starts with Diane Lane because she is in virtually every scene," says Goldberg, who credits Lane for impeccable timing and a flair for physical comedy, as well as the more subtle ability "to play in the realm of heightened reality while never leaving the ground. For Diane to be funny, she doesn't have to step outside herself and present you with a totally different character. Not all actors can play the middle; if they're going to be funny, they really let you know it and that, in my opinion, removes the audience from the moment. You're doing their work for them. But actors like this know how to throw their change-up with the same delivery that they throw their fastball and suddenly you're right there with them."

Lane warmed to the role from her first script reading, recognizing amidst the laughs the ring of truth the story delivers to "so many people who are realistically looking to meet someone special and facing the frustrations that entails. The fact is, there are more women looking for love than there are available men and there are a lot of people, men and women, who are investigating dating services for the first time. It's a story people can relate to."

She also liked the element of traditional role reversal in Sarah's scenes with Jake, noting that, "it's Jake who's looking for something significant from the start. He's the one who clearly doesn't want to waste his time with someone who doesn't feel the same way he does, while Sarah is still testing the water and would rather keep things a little lighter. It's an interesting, refreshing dynamic to see a guy have that view of things, and less stereotypical."

Indeed, Jake is admittedly looking for someone special, versus someone simply available. "If he's going out there again, he wants an epic romance," says John Cusack, who stars as the classically romantic boat builder. "He understands there'll be some ups and downs and some exquisite agonies and he's ready to embrace it all; he's that kind of passionate character." Not that we would expect anything less from a guy whose emotional role model is Dr. Zhivago.

Although the part of Jake Anderson was already drafted when Cusack signed on, Goldberg was happy to bring the actor, a noted screenwriter in his own right (Grosse Pointe Blank and the BAFTA and WGA-nominated High Fidelity), into the process, to help refine and amplify the character into, "a more specific and interesting guy than I had imagined."

Describing their early discussions, the director recalls, "John had a lot of insight into the character, and I just said ‘write some stuff up and I'll write some stuff up and we'll get together in a room and go over it.' He wasn't sure at first, but it came down to me saying, ‘well, out of the 400 ideas you've thrown at me in the last eight minutes, I especially like 17, 21, 43...' and so on. There was certainly no shortage of energy and excitement."

Cusack cites another role reversal in the progress of Jake's and Sarah's relationship, pointing out that, "usually, I play the guy who has to chase the girl and in this case it's Sarah's story and she's the one who initiates everything with her personal ad. She's the one who's actively seeking potential matches and it's Jake who responds."

A working actor since his teens, he likens first dates to auditions, wryly recalling "nightmare scenarios" in which, "sometimes it just doesn't go well at all. You walk in there and lay everything on the line and then they look at you like you completely missed the point."

Representing the opposite end of the dating spectrum is Sarah's new hot prospect Bob Connor, played by Dermot Mulroney with a casual confidence that makes it clear Bob has never worried about making a good first impression. For him, it's always been guaranteed.

Bob is a genuinely great father, a premise that Mulroney does not deny, although admitting his character's parental devotion "has the added advantage of making him look sensitive to women," certainly a plus in the dating market and a fact that Bob clearly trades on, all the better because it's effortless.

"He meets Sarah at the school where she teaches his son, and even though she's in the caregiver role, Bob sees that she's the one who's in need of some attention," jokes Mulroney. "See, Bob is a good guy. He's just doing his part."

It's Bob's precocious son Austin (played by Bobby Coleman) who announces his father's eligibility by repeating in class something he no doubt heard from Mom, that "Dad likes other women" - a potential red flag to any discerning female, but, on the other hand, could just as well be a bitter and undeserved criticism about a man who maybe just hasn't found the Right One yet.

"Bob is the obvious choice," Goldberg acknowledges. "He's handsome, charming, well-spoken, a good father. He really looks like the perfect guy" - so much so that at one point early on Sarah wonders if it's just too easy. But when something is right, isn't it supposed to be easy?

As Jennifer Todd assesses it through Sarah's eyes, "She can relate to this guy whose marriage recently fell apart and who's at a stage where he's exploring his options out there in the world. It's really the same place that she's in. It's a delicious role for Dermot because he starts off playing one kind of character and ends up revealing himself as someone quite different."

"It's refreshing to see an adult romantic comedy," says Mulroney, who launched his career in the Brat Pack era with Young Guns and has since starred in a diverse range of notable films including the acclaimed Longtime Companion, Living in Oblivion, Showtime's Emmy-nominated Bastard Out of Carolina and the romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding. "It's such a well written script and the humor is natural, my feeling is that I shouldn't get caught trying to make it funny. It's my job to keep my head down and let the fur fly around me."

Married for more than a decade to actress Catherine Keener and the father of a young son, Mulroney laughs when asked if he has ever used a dog to attract women. "Well... let's just say no," he responds. "Yeah, let's go with that."

Goldberg and Elizabeth Perkins were undeniably in accord on capturing the personality and function of Sarah's sister Carol in the Must Love Dogs ensemble. "When we were trying to cast that part, I kept wondering aloud, ‘where's Eve Arden? Where's Ann Sothern?' says Goldberg, fondly recalling those great actresses who had a special talent for giving depth and flair to essential supporting roles and whose dialogue always snapped with wit. "One day on the set, after we'd been lucky enough to have found Elizabeth, she happened to remark, completely independently and never having heard me say it, ‘you know who Carol reminds me of? Eve Arden.'"

"Elizabeth is hysterical as the acerbic and loveable big sister," says Suzanne Todd. "It's a classic big-sister portrayal for our times - the meddling, know-it-all, boss-you-around sister who you know would kill anyone who tried to hurt you. Jennifer and I find the relationship between Sarah and Carol especially entertaining because it's so similar to our own. Your sister is your biggest fan and worst critic. It's wonderful to have someone who will always tell you the absolute truth, loves you unconditionally and would do anything to ensure your happiness."

However, as Carol plays fast and loose with Sarah's Internet profile, "wanting Sarah's happiness means, for Carol, wanting the same things for her sister that make her happy, which Sarah may not necessarily want," Perkins admits. "But that doesn't matter because Carol has the whole world figured out. She knows exactly what everyone should be doing and she has no problem telling them about it. In one way, I think there might be just a little bit of jealousy involved too, as Carol is married and has a couple of kids and might enjoy living vicariously through her sister's new love life - not that she'd ever admit it."

As the youngest of three sisters in real life, one of the delights of portraying the eldest was, for Perkins, "the opportunity to play out some of my fantasies of being the bossy one for a change, which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Plus, I think I have some of the best lines because Carol always has to have the last word."

"That's just typecasting. Elizabeth is always bossing me around," claims Lane, tongue in cheek. The truth is, the two share a close friendship of many years and previously co-starred in the feature Indian Summer and the soon-to-be-released Griffin Dunne drama Fierce People. For Lane, an only child, "she's the closest thing I have to a real sister and that connection made these roles all the more interesting to play."

Echoing Mulroney's sentiment and that of the players in general, Perkins says, "it's great to see a script like this where it's not all pratfalls and people tumbling down the stairs, but real intelligent comedy about relationships."

Although focused on Sarah's love life, the sisters are also slowly coming to terms with another potential relationship developing on the periphery of their family circle: Dolly, an effervescent, three-times married free spirit who has lately emerged as the frontrunner for their widowed father's attention through an Internet dating service.

"Dolly has a great appetite for life," says acclaimed stage, film and television star Stockard Channing, whose 1993 performance in Six Degrees of Separation earned an Oscar nomination. "She can be a bit silly and vain with all her wild outfits but she's truly a wise and kind-hearted soul, and realistic about romance and about people in general."

An eleven-time Emmy Award nominee, Channing won the award twice in 2002, for both The Matthew Shepard Story and her series regular role as First Lady Abigail Bartlet in The West Wing, which she has played since 1999. Part of the attraction of the Dolly role was how much it differed from the gravity of her West Wing performance. "I adore good old Abigail," she says, "but my background is comedy. I've been the First Lady for so long, I miss being goofy. Dolly is definitely a little goofy. She's just out to have a good time."

"Stockard makes Dolly irresistible," says Goldberg. "Dolly's a kind of out-there personality, which I think Stockard definitely had some fun with, but at the same time she keeps her grounded and you get a sense that this is a character with a very rich and interesting past."

Unfortunately, Dolly's free-and-easy approach to cyber dating, with her multiple profiles tailored to each of a dozen websites and her creative packaging of the truth backfires on her in a classic Harold and Maude moment when one of her regular Internet correspondents turns out to be a 15-year old boy under the impression that Dolly is a teenager. Worse yet, upon impulsively showing up in person and learning the truth, he isn't the least bit discouraged.

As gracefully as she lets down her would-be high school Romeo, Dolly also accepts the fact that Bill, the man she's grown to care for very much, isn't ready to make a commitment and might never be. "She's aware of his pain and has compassion for him. She knows his late wife was the love of his life and he's not looking to replace her," Channing understands. "She sees him genuinely as a human being, rather than ‘a catch,' or just the hot new widower in town. Consequently, she cuts him a lot of slack when he does things like inviting three women to Thanksgiving dinner and expecting them to sit together. Dolly is willing to bide her time because she thinks Bill is worth it."

That's an assessment Bill himself would no doubt share, with a mischievous smile and an appropriate line of lyric philosophy.

Bill is brought vividly to life by legendary and widely accomplished actor Christopher Plummer, perhaps best known to generations around the world as the patriarch of another screen family, the Von Trapps of The Sound of Music. Plummer has distinguished himself in all acting genres in a career spanning 50 years and including such highlights as The Man Who Would Be King, Somewhere in Time, an Emmy Award-winning performance in Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers, The Thorn Birds, Dolores Claiborne and, more recently, Michael Mann's The Insider and A Beautiful Mind. Six-times nominated for Broadway's Tony Award, Plummer won twice; for Cyrano in 1974 and again for the title role of Barrymore in 1997.

"Bill is based somewhat on my own father-in-law, a genuinely charming Irish gentleman, very warm and generous. If you knew him for five minutes you could have anything in his house," Goldberg reveals. "He was also on the cutting edge of everything, even into his 80s, he never stopped being interested in the world and what was going on."

A father of daughters himself, Goldberg finds "the relationship between Bill and Sarah powerful and resonant. Chris is such a phenomenally skilled actor that he provides all the subtext for the character without having to involve a lot of talking about it. You sense how deeply he feels, how much he cares for his little girl and how seriously attached he was to his late wife. You know, even before he explains it to Sarah, that his decision to start dating again has nothing to do with her mother who, of course, can never be replaced."

Plummer appreciated the way the writer/director avoided "the traps of sentimentality, with a lighter touch and a bit of edginess," and how the script "kept from tying everything up in neat little bundles to satisfy everyone. One of the things I most liked about the story was the fact that it left a fair amount to the imagination. You wondered, for instance, what would happen to the situation with Dolly and Bill, particularly as his true love and loyalty remains with his departed wife. We can't get too cozy with Dolly after all, because he doesn't know where that relationship will ultimately lead," and, true enough to life, neither does she.

Expressing the consensus of cast and crew, Jennifer Todd calls Plummer "incredibly charismatic," and credits him with "bringing invaluable authenticity to the part of Sarah's father. They are in some ways having a parallel experience re-visiting the dating world although it's very different for each of them, and while that's fertile ground for comedy there's also a poignancy to it that Diane and Christopher subtly bring out in their scenes together."

Rounding out the main cast are Ali Hillis (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) as Sarah's conspiratorial younger sister Christine, with "solid gold" dating tips from Sports Illustrated, and Glenn Howerton (ER) as her brother Michael. Julie Gonzalo (Christmas with the Kranks) and Brad William Henke (Nikki) are June and Leo, Sarah's supportive colleagues at the preschool, and Ben Shenkman (Emmy and Golden Globe nominee for Angels in America) is Jake's cynical friend Charlie who, although completely lacking in taste and good sense himself when it comes to women, at least deserves credit for selecting Sarah's Internet ad for Jake.

The Dogs: Unconditional Love

Not a dog owner herself, Sarah is a frequent and willing babysitter for her brother Michael's playful Newfoundland, Mother Teresa, and borrows the sweet-natured bundle of fur for her first date with Jake at the dog park. In contrast to the complications, drama and pretense that characterize adult relationships, Mother Teresa provides only unconditional devotion.

An uncommon breed, and quite large, Newfoundlands are aptly described by Cusack as "great big, lovable, furry teddy bears."

Mother Teresa was played by two female Newfies, Molly and Mabel, selected and trained by renowned animal handler Boone Narr, with head trainer Mark Harden and the team at Boone's Animals for Hollywood, a 33-year industry institution. Although sizeable enough on screen, both dogs were still only puppies, six months old and 80 pounds at the time of production, which is half their potential. Traditionally bred as seafaring rescue dogs, full-grown Newfoundlands will tip the scales at about 150 pounds for females and as much as 165 pounds for males.

Goldberg, a dog-lover who already had four at home and happily adopted Molly and Mabel when production wrapped, admits that, "the dog in Claire's book wasn't a Newfoundland but I'm crazy for Newfies; they have such sweet natures and their eyes are so expressive."

Narr's team located two puppies similar in appearance and began working with them several months prior to filming. "The weak points in one dog's performance will be the strong points for the other," explains Narr, who grounds his regimen in the belief that individual animals will naturally reveal their own talents and personalities in the process.

In addition to hitting their marks, sitting, standing up, laying their heads down, speaking, directing their looks, jumping into a lake and swimming on cue, Molly and Mabel had to master the "go-with," in some cases the most difficult exercise of all, wherein a animal must focus its attention onto an actor as if it were that person's pet, while appearing unaware of the trainer who is providing the cues off-camera.

The trainers' skill at the "go-with" was tested in the film's dog park scene, which matched extras with 26 trained dogs of various breeds who had, understandably, a tough time coping with all the intriguing new scents and sights in the Long Beach public park. "Fortunately, what Gary wanted was a kind of natural, controlled chaos," Narr says, "so it worked out well."

In reference to the industry adage about actors wary of working with dogs or children, he acknowledges that, "the way actors interact with an animal, no matter how well trained, can really make or break a scene. These guys have been great. They spend their own time working with us and there's nothing they won't do to make the situation work for the dog. Diane will give commands and reward the dog if we can't get there in time. She doesn't care about getting slobber on her. She doesn't care about getting her hands dirty."