Entertainment

LOVE COULDN’T BE VERSE – MEN MOAN NEW DATING BOOK IS KILLING ROMANCE

MEN just aren’t into this book.

That’s the verdict on the new romance bible that’s changing the rules for New York women and the men who date them (or just string them along).

“This is killing me,” says attorney George Cahill, 28, of the phenomenon surrounding the red-hot title, “He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys.”

Cahill recently went to dinner with a woman he had been dating for a few months and told her that due to a hectic work schedule, he wasn’t looking for a serious relationship.

“But I know that she’s read the book, so I felt like a huge liar,” he said. “Except that it’s true: I am really busy at work!”

The dating manual – which tells women to stop making excuses for men who don’t call them – is now an unavoidable topic of conversation at parties, dinners, and in offices across the city.

“I was at a party with a few guys, we were basically attacked by the women, who couldn’t stop talking about this book,” says stand-up comic Mick Stingley, 36. “But then they gave us all these scenarios of guys who weren’t calling back, and they wanted to know what we thought about it.

“And I just thought, ‘Why are you putting eggs in one basket? Because a guy certainly wouldn’t!’ “

Though few men interviewed by The Post admit to having read it, they’ve heard plenty about it.

“This stupid book is going to mess up my dating life,” says graduate student Dan Grushkin, 27.

“Now I won’t even be able to wait the normal two or three days to call, because the girl will be convinced that I’m just not that into her – even if I really like her.”

And if nice guys finish last, then the romantic race could be made all the more difficult by the black-and-white maxims presented by co-authors Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

“Um, we all aren’t alpha males!” says Brian Lebo, a 36-year-old marketing manager. “I’m short. I’m shy, and I’m from Minnesota. That isn’t exactly the trifecta in the dating derby.”

For the past few months, Lebo has been nursing a crush on a cute brunette he would see at the dog run. They’d make small talk, and he’d want to ask her out, “But then I look down and see that I’m holding a bag of dog crap in my hand, wearing my messy dog-run attire, and I think better of it. If she’s one of the thousands of people who has read this book, I’d be finished at this point – ‘I’m just not that into her.’ But I am!”

Other guys, inspired by “He’s Just Not That Into You,” have tried to be more honest, with disastrous results.

Writer Ben Harris, 28, discovered that when he broke off a casual, six-week romance by saying, well, he just wasn’t into her.

“She started fighting with me. I was shocked!” he said. “She got really aggressive, saying things like, ‘You haven’t given me a chance, you haven’t gotten to know me that well, how can you possibly say you’re not into me if you don’t really know me?’ It was seriously uncool.”

For other men, the self-help tome has only convinced them of the importance of kinda, sorta, not really telling the truth.

College student Matt Montgomery, 23, recently spent a lazy afternoon sitting in a Barnes & Noble, reading the book his female friends were buzzing about. He emerged resolute in his desire to stay a self-described “serial dater.”

Despite the book’s blunt message, he still thinks it’s important to cushion the truth a little. “A guy who goes around saying he’s ‘not into’ people is going to be seen as a jerk, a player,” he says. “I let women down easy.”

Guys don’t think the book will make that much of a difference in the long run. “As long as women are hungry for marriage, they’ll keep giving guys excuses to act in various ways,” said Grushkin.

“The rules won’t change.”