It wasn't a joke when a producer for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" asked Kendra Schmid last week to be featured on an episode about the science of attractiveness.
But for the University of Nebraska Medical Center professor, it seemed unreal.
Schmid, an assistant professor of biostatistics, was thrust into the media spotlight last year when UNMC's public relations team created a video highlighting her research, which uses geometry to rate facial attractiveness.
In the segment, Schmid pitted then-Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain against each other in a battle of beauty.
Since then, she's been featured by Oprah, CNN International, the Discovery Channel and The Associated Press. Over spring break, Schmid soaked up Australia during a week-long media tour.
"I didn't expect this to happen at all," Schmid said of her ascent into the spotlight. "I wanted to get a publication out of it, and that would've been as high as my expectations got."
Schmid's software quantifies facial beauty by measuring the symmetry and proportions of 29 points on the face. It then computes an "attractiveness" score from one to 10.
If you think you've got precise proportions, think again. Schmid's test is tough - perhaps impossible - to ace. Two-time "Sexiest Man Alive" Brad Pitt's 9.3 is the highest rating yet, Schmid told Oprah, but his masculine mug is still shy of geometrical perfection.
Producers for Oprah's show called Schmid on March 27, requesting she shoot her segment in Oprah's Harpo Studios.
The next day Schmid boarded a plane to Chicago and prepared for what would be her 10-minute segment discussing research and celebrity facial analyses.
Schmid didn't get to meet Oprah before the show, but she said the famous host was fun and friendly during commercial breaks.
"The producers said sometimes she'll pop in and meet guests before, and sometimes she doesn't," Schmid said. "It was her second taping of the day, so I'm sure she was in between shifts."
Pre-show preparation was light-hearted, too. In light of Schmid's work, "The makeup woman kept joking with me about getting my lips to look the perfect proportion," she said.
While Schmid has been surprised by her research's popularity, UNMC public relations media/diversity specialist Jo Giles knew Schmid's project was a perfect 10 when she caught wind of it.
"When we heard about her research, we thought, ‘Hey, this is great,'" Giles said.
"It was a great story, it was a great opportunity," she added. "Everything kind of fell into place."
Schmid's work was good enough to land her a two-minute stint in Discovery's February "Science of Sex Appeal" documentary. Unlike on Oprah's show, which is shot as if it were live, Schmid taped for nearly four hours at the Los Angeles studio, answering each question about five times.
Schmid labeled the Discovery experience "kind of weird." She said workers were painting the floor beneath her as she was being interviewed, and she was sitting behind a fake laptop.
When Schmid couldn't remember the beauty ratings of the 20 celebrities she had measured for the show, "someone sat underneath the table on the floor, whispering the scores."
Nowadays, Schmid would like to fall out of the limelight that's earned her face time on national TV.
"I'd kind of like to get back to my regular job and regular life," she said.
But that won't be easy, even if the media stops knocking at her door. While on Oprah's show, Schmid jokingly said she was looking for a "perfect 10." Since then, she's been flooded with e-mails from viewers asking her to rate their faces.
She hasn't opened all the messages yet, but perhaps a picture of perfect proportions is in her inbox, waiting for Schmid to find someone beautiful.
More beautiful, that is, than Brad Pitt.
teresalostroh@dailynebraskan.com
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