Two new movies starring four very attractive people pose the questions: (1) Can “friends with benefits” arrangements work? and (2) Natalie Portman?! On (1) I’m leaning no, if only on the grounds that I would definitely fall for Justin Timberlake.

But Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon.com gives the matter deeper consideration. But her bottom line is basically this: “When you talk to people who have been there and done that — and even those who are continuing to do that — the response is overwhelmingly negative. As my own former ‘friend with benefits’ put it, ‘I’ve been in so many of these situations and, basically, they work until they don’t.'”

Read the rest (Tracy does a bunch of reporting and covers a lot of thoughtful ground) and let us know what you think: Does FWB ever benefit anyone? Under what particular circumstances? Share away, ’cause don’t worry; we won’t expect anything more from you than a good time. 😉

Here, your weekly installment of Ask Lynn, BG’s alter ego’s column at MSN.com (powered by Match.com). This week, we meet “Hopeful, Yet Hopeless.” (Hmm! That sounds promising, yet not.)

So HYH has this friend. They’ve got “so much in common,” and they’re even attracted to each other. Cue: the catch! There’s a 15-year age difference (check the letter to find out which way), and neither of them is Ashton Kutcher. But how much should age matter here — and is it really the issue in the first place? Which side of the “Yet” should HYH be on? Read the letter and response for the deets, and then come back here to comment!