Celebrate National Best Friends Day with a heartwarming movie.
The world is full of stories about best friends whom everyone else thinks should be enemies: Romeo and Juliet, Lady and the Tramp, and now . . . Ernest and Celestine. Since National Best Friends Day is June 8, we would like to introduce you to the unlikely friendship depicted in the French movie Ernest & Celestine (rated PG).
Based on the classic Belgian book series by Gabrielle Vincent, Ernest & Celestine is about a society of mice that live underground in constant fear of the bears that dwell in the city above. In this world, bears eat mice. But when the mouse, Celestine, comes face to face with one of those bears, an unlikely, but beautiful friendship begins.
What do you think? Who are YOUR favorite fictional or famous BFFs? Leave a comment!
Ernest & Celestine won France’s César Award for Best Animated Feature and a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 86th Academy Awards®, and it will be available on Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD June 17.
This Sunday is National Women's Friendship Day, an annual celebration sponsored by Kappa Delta Sorority that offers all women the opportunity to remember their special friends.
Dr. Irene Levine, author of
Best Friends Forever, a must-read book about female friendships, offers a few tips and a
few free books on her Friendship Blog:
1) Call, email, or get together with one or more of your best friends. Show and tell your friend how much you care. Don't wait until Sunday because by then, you may forget. Last night I attended a memorial service for a very dear friend (once my elementary school teacher!) whom I had known for most of my lifetime and I only wished that we had had one more hour to chat.
2) If you are a blogger, write a post about Friendship Day. (I'll be happy to help with a quote.) On this special day write your own or repost one of my posts from
http://www.thefriendshipblog.com/ (with attribution, of course). Email me (
[email protected]) the URL of your post by Sunday midnight and
my three favorites will receive 2 free copies of Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend (one for you and one for a best friend).
3) If you aren't a blogger but have a Facebook or LinkedIn page, please use your status box to remind your friends about Women's Friendship Day.
4) If you Twitter, cut and paste this tweet: 9/20 is Women's Friendship Day.
5) Please email AT LEAST 5 of your best friends about
Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend. All of us have suffered the pain, at least once, of losing a best friendship that we thought would be forever. After spending two years thinking about female friendships and surveying more than 1500 women from all walks of life, I've learned that falling in and out love with best friends is universal.
Tune in tomorrow to radio stations all across the country - Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, Austin, Washington DC - to hear Dr. Irene Levine discuss her new book Best Friends Forever: Surviving the Breakup with Your Best Friend. Widely known to readers of The Huffington Post as "The Friendship Doctor," Dr. Levine will appear on many top rated programs to talk about the book.
Best Friends Forever is a groundbreaking and heroically honest book for abandoned friends seeking solace in the aftermath of a breakup of a best friend. Drawing on years of research and personal testimonials from thousands of women, Dr. Levine offers the first self-help guide for saving, ending, or re-evaluating a relationship. On sale now, Best Friends Forever is an indispensable addition to every woman's library.
ForeWord magazine reviews Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend, by Irene S. Levine , Ph.D. in the current issue: "Many women are brought up to believe that they should have one special friend in their lives, a BFF—Best Friend Forever. Unfortunately, this belief often leads to heartbreak, since friends are rarely forever. As people grow and change, so do the dynamics of their friendships, and many friendships lose their initial intimacy or fizzle out altogether. Levine, a psychologist and professor at New York University Medical School, guides women through the myths that set up unrealistic expectations of friendship. She discusses the various reasons a friendship can fail, offers suggestions for saving those worth saving, and tips on bowing gracefully out of those that are no longer working. “Most women relish being the chosen one, the best friend,” Levine writes about the BFF myth. However, chances are slim that one person can fill every niche in another’s life. It is more practical to think of having a close friend for different aspects of one’s life, she says, such as a mom-friend for play dates with the kids, a philosophical friend for intellectual conversations, and an outgoing friend who can introduce you to new people and experiences.
This book is of interest to all women. While much of it focuses on what can go wrong in a friendship and how to deal with endings, there is also great advice on how to make friends and keep them. Forgiveness, avoiding ruts, and apologizing when warranted are some of the ways to save a worthwhile friendship. After all, friendships are important even if they don’t last forever, and a BFF is a wonderful asset. As one woman put it, “Your best friend isn’t the person you call when you are in jail; most likely, she is sitting in the cell beside you.” - Christine Canfield
Coming next month is the much-anticipated Best Friends Forever: Surviving the Break-Up with Your Best Friend, by Irene S. Levine, Ph.D. Known to readers of The Huffington Post and many other publications as the "Friendship Doctor," Levine offers the first guide for women recovering from a breakup of their best friend.
Here's a sampling of the advance praise for Best Friends Forever:
“For anyone who has ever had a friend, but especially for those who’ve ended close relationships, Irene Levine has written a beautiful guide to recovery and healing. It’s a book filled with honest reflections and heartfelt advice.” —Jeffrey Zaslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls from Ames and co-author of The Last Lecture
“Finally, a book that helps you get through the other type of breakup.” —Andrea Lavinthal and Jessica Rozler, authors of Friend or Frenemy?
“The end of a friendship is painful and sad, regardless of the circumstances. Dr. Irene Levine explores this difficult subject with insight and heart, plus a look at the latest research. Her guidance is especially interesting and helpful regarding Facebook and other new developments that are changing the meaning of friendship in today’s world.” —Florence Isaacs, author of Toxic Friends/True Friends and What Do You Say When...
“Dr. Irene Levine’s Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend should be every woman’s BFF! Written in a breezy yet thoughtful style and peppered with stories from real-life best friends, this guide shows that female friendships are rich, life-affirming, joyful—but often very complicated too. We women love our friends, but we feel completely alone and confused when those friendships get troubled or even disappear. In her unique self-help guide, Dr Levine gives essential advice and tips for navigating the ups and downs of female friendship.” —Joanne Rendell, author of The Professors’ Wives’ Club and Crossing Washington Square
“Best Friends Forever explodes the myths about female friendships and is a readable, entertaining survival manual filled with practical advice for girls and women of all ages. The book reminds us that it is the nature of relationships to change over time, and helps us understand and cope with those changes. We don't expect to marry our elementary school sweethearts, and it is equally rare for our best friends from childhood to be there for us forever. This book will help you navigate the choppy waters that complicate friendships, advise you on how to salvage the friendships that can and should be saved, and guide you to move on when necessary.” —Diana Zuckerman, PhD, Psychologist, President, National Research Center for Women & Families
“A fractured friendship can be as painful as any other break-up, whether you’ve been jilted by a friend or been the one to do the jilting. Irene S. Levine understands the complications of friendship—the lulls, the obstacles, and yes, the dissolutions, and offers kind, practical and realistic tools to recover from a break-up and emerge strong, healthy and complete.” —Allison Winn Scotch, New York Times bestselling author of Time of My Life
From Irene S. Levine, author of Overlook's forthcoming Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend, comes this this hopeful blog post: "Set your cell phone alarm, mark your calendar, and write it across the top of your hand in red ink. Get ready for Best Friends Day (BFD), sponsored by DoSomething.org and BFF Entertainment. The two groups have declared June 8th, 2009 a national day of celebration for best friends to do something together to change the world. What can two best friends do on that day to have fun, show affection for each other, and do something that has a larger impact by helping others?" Check it out on Irene's FracturedFriendship blog.
