A Second Opinion

        Barbara DeAngelis

   Why doesn't selling advice come out
of getting it right?  Why doesn't getting it
right precede selling it?

   You can't sell love.  No one can give you the date and time when you will meet the person who loves you above all others.

   But you can sell relationship books.  Take the example of Barbara De Angelis.  Barbara has romped all over North America successfully selling her relationship advice.

   Barbara is nothing if not experienced.  By the end of the last century, she had been married at least five times.  One of her husbands was magician Doug Henning, for whom she was the magician's assistant.

   John Gray, of Mars and Venus fame, was Barbara De Angelis' third husband.  Barbara De Angelis was John Gray's second wife.  Together Gray and De Angelis sold relationship advice.  But they were just another couple selling one of what they didn't have.

   John Gray and Barbara De Angelis each claim a "Ph.D." from Columbia Pacific University, a diploma mill permanently shut down by the state of California.  They got a "Ph.D." so you would accept their authority and stop your thought process.

   After they divorced, each continued selling relationship advice.  It's just what they do for a living. Televangelist Jim Bakker, now out of prison for fleecing his flock, is in Branson, Missouri producing his latest religious television show.  It's also just what he does for a living.

   After five attempts, Barbara has finally found someone she can at least live with, but what does that tell you?  Judging by her own life, what she is selling has less than an even chance of working.

   You can't sell love.  No one can give you the date and time when you will meet the person who loves you above all others.  If you married the wrong one, no one can fix it for you.  No one can make the fox and the hare happy sharing the same burrow.

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• Barbara De Angelis is the author of How to Make Love All the Time, Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know, Are You The One For Me?, Real Moments, Real Moments for Lovers, What Women Want Men to Know, Confidence, Ask Barbara, The Real Rules, Passion, and Secrets About Life Every Woman Should Know. She is the co-editor of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul.  Her infomercial "Making Love Work" won an award as Best Infomercial of 1994.  She appeared for two years on CNN as a relationship expert.  Her TV show "Love Secrets" has been aired on public television (PBS) in the United States.

• John Gray is the author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.  Tribune Media Services, which syndicated his newspaper column, referred to him as a "Dr." with a "Ph.D.," as do many newspapers.  It is not clear that Gray has even a college degree recognized by academic accrediting organizations in the United States.

• For seven sources about Columbia Pacific University and it's proprietor, Les Carr, see the article about John Gray on this website.  Columbia Pacific lacked accreditation from any of the six regional college and university accreditation bodies in the U.S.  More information about it can be found at QuackWatch.org.