photo: Thinkstock

At the therapist's office, the man with the clipboard has been replaced by a woman. That may not seem like a problem, but it is, as Benedict Carey, one of our favorite science reporters, concluded in a recent article in the New York Times. Carey reports that among mental health professionals, men earn only one in five of all master's degrees awarded in psychology, account for less than 10 percent of social workers under the age of 34, make up 10 percent of the American Counseling Association's membership and "appear to be declining among marriage and family therapists." The lack of male therapists presents an obstacle for men who are open to talking to a professional about their problems...but only if that person looks and sounds like them.

If this describes someone you love, you could tell him that, in terms of the research, a psychologist's gender makes little difference in the outcome of therapy. Or you could be a bit more useful. (Even if you don't agree with him, it's his belief that matters—you want him to get help, remember?).

To find out exactly what you can do, we followed up with one of Carey's sources for the article, Ronald F. Levant, EdD, a professor of psychology at the University of Akron, who is recognized as an authority on the psychology of men and masculinity.

As if he wasn't blue-eyed enough, sharp-jawed enough or cut enough (perhaps you too glanced in the open V of his rumpled, unbuttoned shirt in The Hangover?), it also turns out that Bradley Cooper speaks fluent—and very sexy—French.
 
This morning, a drool-inducing video of Cooper chatting away en français with an anchorwoman hit Popeater.com. The mere sound of each romantic Gallic syllable issuing forth from his mouth was enough to cause women all over the world to sigh and men all over the world to cry—or to run out and buy a Rosetta Stone CD.

 
And yet, it all gets so much more dreamy—because, when translated, what Cooper said to the French anchorwoman during their 3-minute-22-second talk about The Hangover Part II and Limitless was so surprisingly deep and thoughtful that we may not recover.  
 
On the Nature of Reality

"I am 36 years old. I know what is important for me in my life. If celebrity had happened to me earlier, it would have been difficult for me to tell what is real and what is...rien de tout (nothing at all)."
 
On the Value of Being Present
"Robert [De Niro] is very present. He knows what he wants. He knows what he believes. And it's very easy to speak with a person like this."
 
On the Importance of Change

"I want to learn. I want to increase my experience."
 
On the Absolute Truth

"George Clooney is the best. Il est le roi (He is the king)!"
 
In search of more Bradley Cooper wisdom, we consulted his speech last September at Georgetown University—the school that sent him to France on an exchange program, where he lived with a French-speaking family. Talking to the throng of young, adoring students, he advised them, "Fall on your face, really—it's the only way you're going to learn."
 
Hmm...we do not mean to be difficult. We want people to learn. But if you look anything like Bradley Cooper, please, we beg of you: Do not fall on your face.

"The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before." — Samuel Johnson

After Oprah finished her last show, the cameras followed her offstage, through the halls of Harpo. It was an unexpected ending—seeing the producers and staffers, many of whom have worked there for decades, crowded in the corridors.  When Oprah got to the top of the stairs, she grabbed Sadie and said, "We did it!" That final moment, as she had said it would be, was "all sweet and no bitter." Not a goodbye but a new beginning. If you didn't see the show—or just want to watch those last few minutes again—here's the clip.