Just your regular heartthrob

Does movie heartthrob Taylor Lautner still take out the garbage?

Yes, he does, his dad, Daniel Lautner, firmly told Melinda Jacobs last week when they were seated near each other at an Oprah taping.

"Taylor's dad was just the sweetest guy," Jacobs said. "I'm sure he was having a bizarre experience being at Oprah watching his son with all the girls screaming, freaking out. He is just the most humble man. I had to [ask the garbage question]. A good father doesn't let showbiz go to his superstar son's head!"

Among the teens not screaming as if they'd lost their minds was Jacobs' daughter Madileine, with her in Chicago for a pre-Mother's Day trip to see their friend Oprah before she signs off her daytime show.

"I know her; I wouldn't say she's my closest friend. But of course, I've had dinner with her and stuff," Jacobs said of Oprah. (I don't even think Hubbard veep Harold Crump had dinner with Oprah when the broadcasting exec who gave Oprah her start recently attended her daytime show for the first time.) "I'm more friends with some of her producers, but I have socialized with Oprah."

Ticket holders for the Wednesday show were notified that they had a movie to see on Tuesday. "Nobody knew what the movie was. It was a raw private screening for the movie 'Eclipse.' This is how good she was with the security," Jacobs said. "In the theater, everywhere around you there are men in suits, little secret service men for Oprah. Everybody who works for her dresses so nice. The next morning we went to the Oprah show with the cast -- Lautner, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. Oprah said in her 25 years, she has never had more people call and try to bribe her for tickets to a show.

"She looked at the audience and said, Guess what, I'm rich. I don't take bribes! I like that. She said it with a sense of humor. She said, However you got tickets for this show, you are not here to see me."

Madileine added that "Robert Pattinson is extremely comical, as you will see when it comes on air. I'm not really big on the whole celebrity scene, but I find Kristen Stewart so interesting. She is so different from the typical Hollywood mentality. She's an introvert who doesn't like all of the publicity." And Stewart picked this career path because? ...

Fanning is the class act of this cast. "Not only can she act, the difference between her and Kristen Stewart is that she is very savvy with the PR and with the press," Jacobs said. "Dakota has no problem doing it. She was comfortable, came out in these little shorts, cute as a button."

OK, what was the lovely parting gift? There's always something, a car, a phone. "I didn't get a car, but we got a certificate for a ring. They were just for the audience. The ring has something to do with the movie, but I can't tell you because it will give away part of the plot."

Perezhilton.com will surely spoil this.

After the show, Melinda and Madileine were asked to go on Oprah's radio show and talk about their mother-daughter experience with Oprah. "They wanted to know what it is about Oprah that brings mothers and daughters together," said Jacobs, who writes theadventuresofmelindajacobs.com.

Still loving K-K-K-Katie Katie Couric is still Jason Matheson's girl.

The CBS news anchor's highest profile local fan and FOX 9 "Buzz" anchor flirted with watching ABC's Diane Sawyer when Couric broke his heart. He was crestfallen when Couric, during a speaking engagement at the U, could not spare a minute of time for him -- apparently as a result of rumored competitive impulses from the local CBS O&O. Couric made up by calling into Matheson's MyTalk107 FM radio show when she returned to NYC.

Despite bluffing with Sawyer, Matheson, whose desk is a shrine to Couric, can't quit Katie.

The techno junkie just got an iPad. "The first app that I bought? Katie Couric," he said with a laugh. "You can get videos from Katie, interviews from Katie, all of Katie's stories, connect to her blog. The entire world of Katie, right here on my iPad."

Matheson adores the iPad so much that he has given it a name -- George -- and, Lord have mercy, one night he slept with it.