Tbs' `Dinner And A Movie': A Hot Date For Friday Night

NEW YORK - Dating is tough these days.

Obvious angst aside, admit it: Sometimes, you and your sweetie just can't face another Friday night at Red Lobster and the multiplex.

The TBS Superstation knows. So in a marvelously postmodern take on the Friday-night date, the network offers "Dinner and a Movie," which combines a cooking lesson, a popular film and the hip commentary of two appealing co-hosts.

Here's how it works: TBS, like most networks, includes a number of slightly worn movies in its regular schedule. Friday nights, the commercial breaks in those movies are followed by cuts to a cluttered, kitschy kitchen, where hosts Annabelle Gurwitch and Paul Gilmartin cook a meal that ties in (somehow) to the film.

Some inspired pairings: "Diamonds Are Forever" with Bon Bons . . . James Bon Bons. "Urban Cowboy" with No Bull Tequila Fajitas. "War of the Roses" with Kathleen Turnovers.

The show is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., but since this time of year it's following baseball, that time varies.

The recipes, and substantial guidance, come from chef Claud Mann, a veteran of four-star restaurants. But Gurwitch and Gilmartin really do the cooking, and if something goes wrong, so much the funnier, Gilmartin says.

In April, as the duo cooked up Steamin' Pork Buns with Oh What a Filling for a "Flashdance" segment, they found themselves short on kitchen tools.

"We couldn't find a . . . uhhhhh . . . a spatula . . . a umm, turner . . . anything to turn the meat with," says Gilmartin, still a bit flummoxed at the memory. "So we flipped it around with a couple pieces of gingerroot."

Off the set, Gilmartin is a fine cook, fond of ethnic cookbooks and long afternoons at the market and in the kitchen. Gurwitch couldn't cook before she got the role, and hasn't learned much, she admits.

But if Gilmartin and his culinary skills are the meat of the show, Gurwitch provides the salt and pepper. Together, they have an undeniable chemistry, based, it seems, on the attraction of opposites.

"We are NOT married," says Gurwitch. "People always ask that! I mean, we're both married, to other people, not each other."

"We probably wouldn't hang out," says her mild-mannered co-host.

"Viewers take sides," Gurwitch continues. "There are Paul people and Annabelle people. It's really weird."

"Annabelle's L.A. I'm Midwest," Gilmartin says.

Whatever. Both are sexy and likable, although - and this may be the key - not SO sexy that you can't imagine them at home on a Friday night, too.

Gurwitch says the hanging-out-at-home atmosphere is genuine.

"Our families come by when we're rehearsing, and there's always enough food around that we can feed everyone," she says. Friends also are encouraged to stop by. Of course, it helps that the well-connected duo count actors Jon Cryer (who guided Paul and Annabelle through "Pretty in Pink" salmon fillets) and Joan Cusack as friends.

Now, if you're thinking that the movies might not live up to the yummy meals, you're wrong, Gilmartin says.

"The worse the movie, the more fun we have with it," he says gleefully. "When they show really good movies, that's hardest, because we don't want to be making fun of them."

That probably won't be a concern for a while, since summer offerings include "Fletch," "Spaceballs" and a rerun of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."

"Frankly," Gurwitch says, "I don't know what these people are doing home on a Friday night. But since they are, I'm really psyched they're watching us."