It's interesting how quickly the wonderful Esquire profile of Roger Ebert, written by Chris Jones, rocketed around the interwebs last week. It speaks to the power of two things: a) Ebert's endearing popularity, almost four years after he stopped being an on-camera movie critic, and b) that a well-written magazine profile can give a reader more insight into a person than sometimes talking to the person himself can even do.

But the article, and the stark pictures of Ebert that accompanied it, has led Ebert in some interesting directions. For instance, he'll be going on Oprah Winfrey's show on March 2 to do his first interview since various cancer surgeries robbed him of his voice, most of his jaw, and his ability to eat and drink. Ebert will speak through the use of a computer.

The two Chicago titans have a long history together; five years ago, Ebert revealed that the two of them even went out on a couple of dates in the 1980s, where Ebert gave Oprah the idea to syndicate her talk show rather than take it to the network level.