Manhattan Love Story's Analeigh Tipton

Welcome to Analeigh Tipton’s breakout moment. The America’s Next Top Model alum earned unexpected raves for playing the lovestruck babysitter in Crazy, Stupid, Love a couple of years ago, now she’s headlining two new projects: Two Night Stand, an NYC-based rom-com with Miles Teller, and ABC’s sweet new sitcom Manhattan Love Story. The latter follows two opposites as they try to navigate romance in the age of Tinder. Tipton plays a naïve New York newcomer in a role that is imitating her own life. Like her character, 25-year-old Tipton is adjusting to life in the big city,“I can’t navigate the subway to save my life!” and dealing with the reality of a 5th-floor walkup. Tipton has also found love—dating her co-star Jake McDorman. To top off the New York-ness, she sat on a downtown stoop to talk to Yahoo Beauty, surrounded by construction workers and a guy yelling next to her.

SB: You’re playing a newbie New Yorker on Manhattan Love Story, which is your story, too. How has it been navigating life in New York? Has it been as tricky for you as it is for your character?

Analeigh Tipton with co-star and real life love Jake McDorman promoting

 Manhattan Love Story in the New York City subway 

AT: I think some of the things she has trouble with are very relatable.  Like I can’t navigate the subway to save my life! North, south, east, west doesn’t make sense to me. I live in a 5th floor walk-up and I don’t have a laundry unit in my building, which I thought was a great idea, as far as my buttocks. But it is not a great idea for any part of me after a long day!  So I have learned to do what I like to call homeopathic laundry, which is just buying some good old-fashioned Febreeze and letting the wind in your home work its magic. 

SB: You just moved from LA to NYC, two cities with seriously different styles. How has your look changed since moving to New York?

AT: In LA I was never a cool dresser. My style is very classic mixed with a kind of chic and simplified tomboy look. I like boy’s jeans, oversized sweaters, long jackets and buttoned-up shirts. But in LA you have to be really cool and trendy so I felt like I didn’t fit in. Whereas in New York every different type of style has this place where it is accepted and appreciated.

Analeigh Tipton and Jake McDorman, the real life couple starring in the new ABC romantic comedy series Manhattan Love Story, have decided to make their own love “story” and share it with their fans!

To help promote the series, the stars have been capturing moments all over the Big Apple and compiled it into one big clip. You can see the exclusive premiere of the video below.

“The whole cast decided from the moment the show was picked up that we wanted to do more. The show and the city of New York have so much to offer that we couldn’t possibly fit all of it into a half hour or even an hour of television,” Jaketold JustJared.com in a statement. “We moved to the city together, we’ve been experiencing the city together, and we wanted to share as much of that experience with people as possible. Making these videos and involving the fans by asking them to send us to the places in New York that they love has been such a priority in addition to our work on the show. There’s an abundance of life here and we hope to continue for as long as we can.”

“We love what we do, we love working on this show. Filming in this city has been one of the greatest adventures of my life,” Analeigh told us. “We began these films in an effort to capture what a commercial or even a show can’t always say. We hope to remind people of the magic, possibility and adventure of love. It’s our ‘behind the scenes’–it’s our effort to put something meaningful and honest in something that is often void of such. This is not just promotion for the show we love making, but hopefully a little message to pass on love, to take creativity into your own hands and go against the grain for something you believe in.”

Analeigh Tipton & Jake McDorman Make Their Own ‘Manhattan Love Story

Tune in for the all new episode of Manhattan Love Story TONIGHT at 8:30/7:30c on ABC!

       13 Simple Tricks To A Long And Happy Marriage

It's no secret that marriage takes work. After all, we're only human, and humans make mistakes, have bad days and sometimes even forget to load the dishwasher (again).

Nevertheless, some couples are able to foster happy, healthy, totally awesome marriages that actually do last a lifetime. How?

A a Reddit thread emerged Sunday asking the happily hitched to reveal their secrets to marital success. Here's what they had to say:

1. Be nice. 

"Choose kindness whenever you can -- you should be AT LEAST as nice to your spouse as you would a stranger or you were when you started dating."

2. Enjoy each other's company. 

"My wife and I are each other's best friend. We like each other's company. We like having fun. We like doing stuff together. We are honest and direct with one another."

3. Say "I love you" as much as possible. 

"Overuse 'I love you'. Seriously. Just say it to him/her like five times and MEAN IT. This lets your SO know that you care. Look at them and say 'I love you so much, you mean the world to me, I appreciate all the things you do for me and our family.'"

4. Be honest. 

"Be honest about shit that pisses you off, don't sweat the small stuff, and have good sex."

5. Limit outside influences.

"Out of state in-laws."

6. Small tokens of love go a long way. 

"Lots of wee lovings. Frequent demonstrations, in the form of gifts, and expressions of affection, which indicate your emotional addiction."

7. Distance can and will make the heart grow fonder. 

"Have alone time. I believe that it helps if you or your partner goes away for a couple of hours, a weekend or maybe a week once in a while. My wife travels to Europe every four months and I get to play video games and eat fried dumplings all day long and I enjoy it -- until day four at which I start missing her and wish she was here. So when I pick her up from the airport we are both happy to see each other again."

8. Be realistic. 

"Me and my wife constantly acknowledge what we love about one another, but also we never forget about the 80/20 rule. No one person will ever give you a 100 percent of what you need, we estimate that we each give each other about 80 percent of what the other person needs in a relationship. Recognizing this allows you see the reality of your partnership and not over-romanticize it."

9. Cherish each other. 

"Don't forget how important the little things are, like a hug or a compliment. Don't take each other for granted."

10. Be your own person. 

"One must understand the importance of we, but also remember there will always be a you and I. It's so easy to the think of yourselves as one person once you get married or start dating. But you always have to remember that you're both completely separate individuals in that, as close and as similar you are, you will have differences in opinion and taste."

11. Build a strong foundation of friendship. 

"You have to be friends. Your husband or wife should be someone that you'd want to hang out with. Of course you have to have the sexual aspect but that's not enough to sustain a relationship. You're going to go through hard times and you need someone who you want to spend your time with."

12. Know that relationships are a two way street. 

"Be honest about what you want and need and listen to your spouse about what they want and need."

13. Lastly, no marriage is perfect -- and that's okay. 

"Understand that nothing is perfect forever. There are going to be disagreements. There will be times when your partner says or does something that hurts you. The happy relationships will talk about it and work through it. The bad relationships will let it stew until it becomes an even bigger problem."

                                     ABOUT FIRST DATE

The consternation caused by first-dates with a new person is a timeless, age-old dilemma that
never goes out of style. The decisions abound, from what to wear, what to say and where to go?                                                                                          

While we can’t advise you on what to say the first time you go out with someone, and we’re not about to deliberate on fashion choices, here are 10 suggestions to facilitate your decision of where to take someone on a first date:

1. Meet her/him for dinner. It may not break new ground in the pantheon of dating ideas, but there are few better ways to get to know a person on a first date than over dinner. Do it at a casual restaurant rather than a four-star establishment. And don’t make the mistake Mark Ratner did when he brought Stacey to the German restaurant on their first date in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”—for Gosh sakes, bring enough money to cover the meal!
2. Take them to lunch. It represents less pressure on the part of both parties on the date if the meeting is taking place in the daytime. Not only is it light out, but lunch usually brings with it inherent time limits—a key component just in case you two don’t hit it off and are looking for the escape hatch soon after getting together.
3. Coffee or ice cream. This takes the lunch philosophy and dials it down even more. Although, quite famously, when someone asks, “Wanna come in for coffee?” they don’t always mean coffee, in this case, meeting over coffee or an ice cream cone implies little pressure and more of a breather until (if) you two are able to reach a greater comfort level with one another.
4. A sporting event. Get tickets to a baseball or basketball game and take your date there. It isn’t romantic, but it’s wide open, public, fun, and you’ll have a natural focal point of conversation (the game that you’re both watching) to fill in the gaps in conversation that can be a first-date hazard.
5. Concert. If you both have similar tastes in music, whether it’s rock, hip-hop or classical, then concert tickets might be a good point to start off your potential relationship. Like a ballgame, you’d be meeting in a public place with lots of people around and a common point of interest to generate conversation.
6. Movie. A movie ticket is a lot more expensive than it used to be, and there isn’t a lot of opportunity for get-to-know-each-other conversation in a darkened theater, however the movies are a reliable go-to choice for a first date. You could also combine the movie with suggestions 1, 2 or 3. Or you could hang out at home with a DVD or Netflix movie choice, saving the gas and the money, but upping the ante in terms of possible first-date tension.
7. Picnic. Enjoy the great outdoors by packing a picnic lunch and heading to the park to get to know each other. It’s breezy, casual and a nice chance to connect without having to tip a waitress or concern yourself with the niceties of dining out.
8. The zoo. If you both like nature and wildlife, a visit to the zoo can be just as much fun with a first date as it is with a wide-eyed child.
9. The mall. Another public place where you can walk around, discover common interests and quietly make fun of the people passing you by is the mall. There’s plenty to do, plenty to talk about and the pressure quotient is
   fairly low.
10. Be active. Take your first date bowling, roller skating, ice skating, mini-golfing or apple picking. You’ll be doing something together, hopefully having fun, and you both might enjoy the dynamic of a plan that involves something other than sitting across a table or in a theater or concert hall with one another.

These tips are no guarantee of date success. Just relax, don’t be dull, and, again, make sure you have enough money on hand.
Good luck.