http://prdifferently.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/07/how_not_to_act_.html

Would-be Romeo Darren Sherman — until recently a little-known thirtysomething business consultant on the upper East Side — is fast becoming famous.

Folks are buzzing about his astonishing persistence after arranging a recent date with a young lady through JDate.com, the popular online matchmaking service used by 600,000 Jewish singles.

But Sherman's relentless f*ocus has nothing to do with love. For the past month — according to E-mail exchanges and voice-mail messages posted on http://www.prdifferently.com — he has been trying to collect $50 from a certain "Joanne," who went to dinner with him June 4 at the China Grill.

"You ate the food, you drank the wine, you said you were going to call, you never called. It's been 2 1/2 weeks," Sherman is heard hectoring her on one of four posted voice mails. In another, he added: "It's your call if you want to get a summons at work and if your boss wants to get a phone call from me. … I'm gonna be on top of you. … I'm not going to be taken advantage of, and I'm not going to let it go."

Sherman even phoned China Grill to ask the restaurant to reduce his credit card charges and collect the difference from his date. A China Grill manager told Lowdown yesterday: "I called Joanne. She filled me in a little bit — that this was a blind date, that she chose not to see him again. I said, 'Hey, don't worry about the bill.'"

Sherman's smiling snapshot on JDate — where he variously employed the user names "Cute*TallFunny," "CuteTallFit" and "SexyTallWitty" — gave no hint of his jaw-dropping chutzpah.

Joanne E-mailed him: "I think you need to look internally as to why things are not working out for you in the dating world. … If I remember correctly it was your choice to go out for dinner. I would have been just as happy to take a walk in the park to get to know you. With that said, please feel free to call my employer or issue a summons if you think that this will help."

Yesterday Sherman told Lowdown: "The whole thing is a hoax. … Please do not contact me again via phone or E-mail. Keep my name out of this. Don't interrupt me. … Goodbye." And hung up.

JDate spokesman Gail Laguna said Sherman has been suspended "for behavior that violated the terms and conditions of membership. … This is a great example of why we recommend our members go Dutch on their first dates."