AceShowbiz - Pop superstar Cher developed a relationship with screenwriter Ron Zimmerman after meeting him on social networking website Facebook.com. The "Believe" hitmaker, 64, began dating Zimmerman earlier this year, but their romance has since cooled and they are now the closest of friends.

She tells U.S. TV host Jay Leno, "We're hillybilly cousins right now. We're trying to get through the part with the boyfriend/girlfriend to best friends. We're having a hard time with it." And Cher, who has a concert residency in Las Vegas, admits she has the internet to thank for putting her in touch with Zimmerman - because she became intrigued by his "strange" personality after seeing his profile on Facebook.

She says, "I met him on Facebook. Really! In Vegas sometimes I get a really bad throat so I can't talk so my friend Laurie said, 'You should come on Facebook, I'm on Facebook with a lot of old friends, you can keep in touch with them in different time zones.' And then on her page there was this really funny guy, who said the weirdest things. Like, under religion, it said 'Zeus'. He's very strange but a really funny guy."

But Zimmerman, 52, had no idea who he was chatting to because the singer/actress couldn't display her real name on her profile page - and he initially assumed Cher's regular trips to Sin City meant she was a prostitute or cross-dressing performer. She explains, "We started writing each other and he thought I was either a hooker, a female impersonator, or a transvestite, because he couldn't imagine why I was so upset that I had to go back and forth to Las Vegas. He didn't know who I was, it didn't say my name (on my Facebook page) because my name was already taken!"

Cher had no intention of taking the online relationship any further and reluctantly agreed to start talking to Zimmerman on the phone - and that was the beginning of their beautiful relationship. She continues, "For a month while I was in Vegas we chatted and had great times, and then he said, 'We have to talk.' And I was like, 'That's not in the bargain for me!' For me, it was just we chat and never see each other! But then my friend Laurie said, 'Well he's really funny, really smart' and whatever. So I said, 'OK'. He'd said to Laurie, 'Age is not a problem', because he's younger, however he's the oldest man I've ever dated! So we talked on the phone... and then we met and we got along kinda good."