Leno, Oprah and movie matchmakers

By Sharon Eberson / Tuesday, Dec. 9

The screaming headlines on the entertainment wire services today have been about Jay Leno moving into prime time on NBC (Rob Owen had that last night in his Tuned In Journal; more in the paper tomorrow) and Oprah's big reveal in her O magazine: She weighs 200 pounds, and she's not pleased with herself.

A press release from the magazine said:

"Oprah Winfrey [seen at right in an AP image from Sept. 2008] opens up about her recent 40-pound weight gain and reveals intimate details about her struggle to stay in shape after being diagnosed with a thyroid problem, in the January issue of O, The Oprah Magazine and in a special episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" airing Monday, January 5, 2009. Both kick off the "Oprah's Best Life Week" series event - a multi-platform, company-wide event designed to help readers, viewers, listeners and online users confront the issues in their own lives and make a commitment to wake up and unlock their own personal happiness in 2009.

"First, Winfrey appears on the January cover of O ... at her current weight juxtaposed next to an image of her thinner self along with the cover line ‘How did I let this happen again?' In the story, Winfrey says, ‘I'm mad at myself. I'm embarrassed. I can't believe that after all these years, I'm still talking about my weight.' She adds, ‘When it comes to maintaining my health, I didn't just fall off the wagon. I let the wagon fall on me.' "

O is on newsstands this week.

Also on the Associated Press news wire, a storie about video store clerks who have banded together to be online movie matchmakers at ClerkDogs.com, a Web site that was unleashed today.

The story said that "even as technology threatens the survival of video rental stores, serial entrepreneur Stuart Skorman thinks there's still a place for the movie-matchmaking advice of veteran video store clerks.

"To prove his point, Skorman hired more than 20 former video store clerks to pour their collective wisdom into a new Internet search engine, called ClerkDogs.

"Skorman is betting this combination of human intelligence and data crunching will emerge as a more engaging and intuitive alternative to the highly automated movie-recommendation system that has helped fuel the success of online DVD rental leader Netflix Inc. - which spits out recommendations for its 8.7 million subscribers by drawing upon a database of 2 billion ratings that its customers have entered during the past decade. By knowing whether you liked one movie, Netflix suggests others you might enjoy."

ClerkDogs asks visitors to enter the name of a movie they liked, and its engine generates a list of suggestions based on a computer-driven analysis of video clerks' insights and written reviews, the AP story said.

For a more personal touch, visitors can click on "mash it" and tweak recommendations based on their moods at the time of a request. I had some trouble figuring this feature out when I entered "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (I like the short and sweet synopsis) and got back this match list:

• "Captain Blood" (1935)
• "The Sea Hawk" (1940)
• "Adventures of Don Juan" (1948)
• "The Crimson Pirate" (1952)
• "The Prince and the Pauper" (1937)
• "Scaramouche" (1952)
• "The Three Musketeers" (1974)
• "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (2003)
• "Robin and Marian" (1976)
• "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991)
• "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" (1993)
• "Robin Hood" (1991)
• "Robin and the 7 Hoods" (1964)

I also put in "Kate & Leopold" and "Love, Actually" and got no matches for either one, which made me wonder if any of these clerks have ever heard the term "chick flick."

Maybe as the site develops, more matches will be made.