Across a Crowded Room.

RHYS BOWEN: At the beginning of this month I went up to Ashland to the Shakespeare festival and saw a brilliant production of Romeo and Juliet. What made it so poignant was that they played the characters as if they were their true ages--14 and 16. Juliet is carrying a doll when we first see her. She giggles, blushes, acts awkward and embarrassed like a typical teenager. Romeo is equally awkward around her and then overwhelmed by passion.

In the last act everyone was crying because the innocence of their love touched us. And I began to wonder whether such love only happens in literature. In real life does one ever see someone across a crowded room, fall instantly and passionately in love and go off to live happily ever after (or die tragically?)

Only once in my whole life did I ever see someone across a crowded room like that. Our eyes locked. My heart pounded. It was at a rock concert, I went on to have a tumultuous affair with the rock star and it did not end happily ever after. Lesson learned.

So who believes in love at first sight? Can it ever work?

ROSEMARY HARRIS: My girlfriends and I used to refer to it as the "twinkle." Would you or wouldn't you (I'll let you fill in the blank...)We could tell in about 30 seconds. A good time, yes, but love, alas, is a whole other ball game.

My hubby? I fell in love with him the first time I looked into - them there eyes. So far, so good.

(Rhys....tell, tell. Was it Bryan Ferry? Still one of the sexiest men in rock and roll.)

LUCY BURDETTE: Hmmm, the psychologist in me wants to answer this one. Of course I believe in intense rushes of feelings, but are these the same as love at first sight? Me thinks not. That mostly works for movies and books...

As for my most adorable, sweet hub, it took a good six months before I realized I'd be a total fool to pass him by. He still reminds me of that:)

HALLIE EPHRON: I do think it helps to be young for it to be 'at first sight.'

I fell in love with quite a few Mr. Wrongs at first sight. Hey, I was easy. My true love and dearest husband of more than 40 years I did not get right away. He had to woo me. Didn't hurt that he's a great kisser.

I wonder what my daughter would say, though -- 16 years later she married the fellow she fellow she fell in love with at age 14. I think she knew.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, that's a great question. I certainly fell in love with Mr. Ryan at first sight. He did, with me, too. But so much for that. Real life was not so hot.

But then, I met Jonathan. We have not been apart since the day we met 17 years ago. No careful dating, no tentative  phone calls, no worrying or games. We met, that was it. Signed and sealed.  What was that, if not LAFS?

And yeah, Rhys! DETAILS!

JAN BROGAN - It worked for me.  I instantly fell for my husband when I saw him in my brother's apartment when I was only fifteen. I didn't see him again for three years. I heard his voice coming up the stairwell and knew exactly who he was.   Then I snagged a date with him.  That was thirty six years ago. IN all honesty, I'm still in love.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I met my husband when I was nineteen and he was not quite sixteen. Yeeks. LAFS. We went together for a few years, in spite of the cradle-robbing issue, but he was (obviously) too young for a permanent relationship. We went our separate ways. I married someone else. Eventually, divorced. Married my LAFS childhood sweetheart in 1994. Still married:-) Oh, did I mention that we were next door neighbors? My hubby's mom still lives next door to the house I grew up in.

Rhys, do tell, please. Or at least give us a hint!

RHYS: My lips are sealed. You'll have to wait for my tell-all autobiography. But he was a lead guitarist in a Sixties beat group (but not the Beatles or Rolling Stones.) And I met my husband of 45 years at his girlfriend's party. He drove me home and that was that.But it certainly wasn't love for a while. At least not for me. It was only when I had a horrible flu and he sat on my bed and fed me scrambled egg that I knew he was a keeper. (He's never fed me scrambled eggs since, mark you).

So who is going to affirm that love at first sight really does exist?