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Meryl ...

By Denise Foley

Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like ... fill  in your favorite movie star?

Well, there’s a genealogy site that will. It’s http://www.myheritage.com/ and it has the world’s best gimmick—other than giving away free cars and money—to get you to register: a face recognition program that will tell you what celebrity you resemble, from its database of more than 2,000 famous (and not so famous, as I discovered) folk.

They also offer free family tree software, a place to store your photos, and a search engine that permits you to use up to 10 sound-alike names to search for your ancestor. I haven’t explored it long enough to decide whether I like it or not, but I wanted to share it with you in case they decide to take down what is now their most popular feature.

... and me

Make sure you have a digital photo of yourself handy when you start the face recognition process. It should be a head shot, facingforward, and straight (rather than looking to one side or the other). And be prepared to share some personal information. After all, this is a come-on to build up their list. They promise they won’t share it with anyone (unless it’s a matter of national security, I guess).

And yes, of course, I did it! What Irish person do I resemble, according to the program? Well, the only Irish name that actually came up is Shirley McLaine (no way). My list of celeb look-alikes? Charlize Theron (nah!), Marianne Faithfull (same coloring), Meryl Streep (bingo! We have a match. I do look like her), Jamie Lee Curtis (I don’t think so), Rebecca DeMornay (coloring and eyes), Gloria Estefan (only in that particular picture) and the strangest of all—three Chinese actors, two of whom I don’t know (the third is the lovely Zhang Ziyi) and one of whom is a guy.

Hmmm. Like many of the other Foleys, I do have almond-shaped eyes, but in the hundreds of times I’ve been to Chinatown, no one has ever stopped me in the street and chattered to me in Cantonese. Maybe it’s true – we’re all more alike than we’re different. I like that thought.

Anyway, it’s fun, and you might actually find something useful on the site. I’ll do a better review later, when I finish calling Meryl to tell her we were separated at birth.