Actress Anna Faris of “Scary Movie,” “Bad Teacher,” and (let’s redeem her a bit) “Brokeback Mountain” admitted on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that she stalked an ex-boyfriend. Faris, who’s publicizing her new romantic comedy “What’s Your Number,” uses her stalking story to charm, nay, even to boost her sex appeal. Her story gets laughs from her host and their studio audience and is getting play online (video up on HuffPost and elsewhere).

I don’t mean to judge Faris — I think it can be positive for shiny Hollywood stars to talk about these very human moments. But the delighted, knowing guffaws in response speak volumes. It’s safe and fun to see what Faris did as amusing, titillating, identifiable (we’ve been there too!), and harmless. What gets lost is that she was confessing to a moment of great darkness in her life, when she listened to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” over and over again (you’ve got to be pretty down if you’ve got PF on repeat) and couldn’t stop herself from tracking down the guy who’d once given her a promise ring. He probably was in a pretty low place himself. Contrary to our fantasies, research shows few men take any pleasure in being stalked, no matter how “hot” their pursuer.

I’m reading Great Expectations to get insight into the Miss Havisham effect. Recent research suggest pining for a lost love can be a physically addictive pleasure, so perhaps that’s what kept her wearing that wedding dress all those years.

I first heard about Dear Lemon Lima at the Woodstock Film Festival last year, but missed the screening. I finally Netflixed it this week. A powerful and delightful story of a teenage girl in Alaska who turns her longing for her self-absorbed ex-boyfriend into a triumphant victory in their private school’s Snowstorm Survivor competition. The film explores the strange (but common) mix of romanticizating and stereotyping of Native American culture and, of course, unrequited love. I can’t wait to watch it with my daughter when she approaches tweenhood.

The Museum of Broken Relationships, based in Zagreb, Croatia, is on tour, showing the world various real life break up artifacts the lovelorn donated to the museum. For many of the heartbroken, giving away certain objects associated with their ex lovers liberates them “from the haunting memory of the past, giving them a fresh chance to start all over again,” said Drazen Grubisic, one of the founders of the museum. Here’s an article in the NYT about the tour and the museum’s web site.

This is a blog about unrequited love. I invite your comments on the subject!