Everyone from teen-aged girls to single women to suburban mommies to grandmothers are going crazy over Jacob Black, hottie werewolf and Edward Cullen, the drool-worthy vampire in the wildly popular new Eclipse movie.

Why are women everywhere lusting over Hollywood’s latest bloodsucker? It isn’t just the fact that the vampire Edward Cullen is played by the uber-yummy Robert Pattinson (although that helps.) Twilight author Stephenie Meyer has created the perfect man in Edward: Smart, funny, handsome, and utterly possessed by the girl he loves.

Bring On the Bad Boy Vampires.

Edward isn’t our first vampire to turn our heads, and he certainly won’t be the last. Who can forget Bill from HBO’s popular First Blood, Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and of course, the vampire Lestat from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles?

What’s so appealing about vampires?

Lit and Hollywood vampires have a stunning appeal to our most basic instincts: They are powerful, they are always devastatingly handsome, and they are more than a little bit dangerous. Vampires are the ultimate bad boys: They are self-assured, inherently sensual and hold the promise of eternal youth. And, um, there’s always the possibility they might bite you in bed.

Not only that, falling for a vampire is the ultimate high stakes love affair — if you win his love, it will be forever. (Although, if you don’t, you’ll probably wind up as his dinner.)

In the case of Edward Cullen, there’s something so devastatingly tempting about a man who is so self-sacrificing – so in love with us that he is willing to deny the most basic part of himself just to be with us. He’ll endure the greatest pain and sacrifice he’s ever known to love us, protect us, save us from the bad guy.

SWF Seeks Vampire .

This is the very reason why we find vampire characters so appealing – they illustrate what we want for ourselves: passionate, once-in-a-lifetime, undying love. Someone who would do anything to be with us. Someone who would protect us from those who might harm us. Someone who’s willing to commit to forever.

But all of those appealing traits come in a very dark package. Our minds know this, but sometimes the appeal of the bad boy, (vampire or otherwise,) is pretty difficult for our hearts to resist.

Why would any woman be willing to risk so much?

Certainly there are some women who like the curl-your-toes challenge of trying to get a leopard to change his spots. But most women who are attracted to such bad boys are suffering from low self-esteem. The only way you feel worthy of love, is if some man deems you so worthy he’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths to win you. You’re looking for someone who sees something in you that you can’t see for yourself.

The problem with this is that dating a high-stakes guy means the odds are a lot higher that you’re going to lose. So, instead of finding that amazing guy who finally makes you feel like you’re worth something, you’re way more likely to end up as roadkill – your heart broken by yet another man to reinforce what you already believe – that you aren’t worth it after all.

And there’s nothing more tragic than that. Because as steamy as Edward and his brethren might be, the truth is, we never find true love until we know we deserve it.

XO,

PS — You deserve it

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Need Advice for Dating? Dating Coach and Relationships Expert Lisa Daily is the bestselling author of two dating books, Stop Getting Dumped!, How to Date Like a Grownup and the totally funny novel Fifteen Minutes of Shame. You’ve seen her everywhere from Entertainment Tonight to the HITCH movie DVD.

After decades of round-the-clock tv commercials offering health, car and life insurance quotes in fifteen minutes or less, featuring ducks and gekkos and who knows what else, we all know all about insurance for cars, homes, life insurance, funeral insurance, and even that some celebrities insure their various body parts.

The first celebrity known to insure a body part was a guy that most of us have never heard of — Ben Turpin, a cross-eyed silent movie star, insured his eyes for $20,000 in case they uncrossed. Other celebs followed, Betty Grable insured her legs for a million bucks, and Bette Davis reportedly had a $28,000 policy against gaining weight. (I don’t know about her, but it would be REALLY tough for me to step away from the Twinkies if I knew I’d be getting a $28,000 check in the mail.)

Rumors abounded a few years ago that Jennifer Lopez’s various body parts (specifically, her booty) were insured in the billions, and Michael Flatley, the Lord of The Dance guy’s legs are supposedly insured for $25 million. Tom Jones insured his chest hair (ewww) for $7 million. Keith Richards’ hands are only insured for $1.6 million, which seems paltry by Lord of the Dance standards.

And if all that doesn’t seem odd enough, I recently I learned that you can actually purchase marriage insurance. As in, if you stay married for 25 years or longer (and the Census Bureau says you have about a 33% chance of that happening,) you get to collect some sort of cash payout. The insurance also covers you in case of divorce, one of the leading causes of going broke.

How about insurance for daters? Like if you go out on 15 bad dates in a row, you get $1000. If your boyfriend cheats on you, you get $5000. And if you date some loser for 8 years and he won’t commit, you get $25,000 and a free plane ticket to Jamaica and all the banana dacquiri coupons you can stuff in your purse.

XO,

The Worst Cities to Meet Single Women

If you’re having trouble finding the woman of your dreams, you may be surprised to find that you’ve been looking in all the wrong places.

On yesterday’s post, I talked about the Best Cities to Meet Single Women

I compiled this list based on a number of important criteria — number of women to men ratio (all our top 10 cities have a surplus of women, low divorce rates, level of education, social opportunities to meet these fabulous women, fitness level, and finally, good restaurants. After all, most early dates happen in restaurants — I want to make sure you have something yummy to eat while you’re making your love connection.

But, many of you have written in to ask if I’d list the worst cities to meet single women as well. I know, I know, you’re wondering if you live in a dating wasteland.

Below you’ll find the 5 most difficult cities to meet single women:

5) Dallas, TX
Dallas has loads more single men than women. (As do Houston and Austen.) The good news is, there are more women in Brownsville, Corpus Christi, and El Paso. If you’re a Texan looking for love, try taking a road trip.

4)Seattle
There are about 40,000 more men than women in Seattle.

3 ) Phoenix, AZ
Phoenix also has around 40,000 more women than men, and generally speaking, retirement communities aren’t best known for their nightlife.

2) Las Vegas, NV
Vegas is more of a place to hook up than to live — there are more than 20,000 more men than women in Vegas. But hey, at least you can drown your sorrows in 25 cent lobster.

1) Los Angeles, CA
LA is about as tough for guys as NYC is for women. There are about 40,000 more men than women in LA, which makes for some pretty competitive dating.

Depressed? Don’t be. Just check out yesterday’s post: Best Cities to Meet Single Women

Lisa appears every week on Daytime, check your local TV listings for times and stations.
XO,