this is "nightline." tonight, love confidential. these just might be some of the most desirable people in america, and they've got the numbers to prove it. >> i get like novel, novel descriptions about what men will sexually do to me. >> tonight they show us the controversial way they are gaming the system in search of love, or maybe something else. >> having sex. >> is it really as easy as they say? the guardians of the galaxy. this big upcoming blockbuster is jam-packed with huge stars. yeah. >> and this guy. >> i used to be a door door-salesman. i lived in a van. i'm a [ bleep ] hollywood star now. >> the unlikely superhero takes us behind the scenes of his

incredible transformation. and she's back. >> hello, and welcome to a new project. >> the woman who says she can see russia from her house -- >> you can actually see russia from land here in alaska. >> now you can see her from your house on the sarah palin channel. but you may be surprised at how much it will cost you. >> thank you for your sacrifices! thank you so much! but first, the "nightline 5." >> number one in just 60 seconds.

good evening. tonight on "the bachelorette," andi dorfman found her perfect match. the rest of us don't have a squad of tv producers stage producing our romantic lives. we need to find love either the old-fashioned way -- i met my wife on a blind date -- or the new-fashioned way, on the internet. tonight meet people who claim to have cracked the code of online dating. they are definitely showing results. but are they the kind of results you'd actually want? . >> i'm doing it so fast it's not loading their photos. >> reporter: all is fair in love and war. when it comes to online dating do some know how to cheat the system? >> i've tried every type of persona i think imaginable. other than just saying, all i want is sex.

>> i sit and click on every single profile that i possibly could. because then they see that you're looking at them. >> reporter: tanner and jessica live thousands of miles apart. but have one very unique thing in common. they're two of the most popular people on ok cupid, they get more messages than nearly all of the dating sites '11 million users. >> i get novels. novel descriptions about what men will sexually do to me. i'm sitting there with popcorn, delete. >> reporter: it's the new age of romance. from those seeking a rose on reality tv to those looking for love online. with 1 in 10 americans logging on to find their match, one of the most popular online date carries know the average users don't? >> this is just from today. >> reporter: when it comes to the nearly 400,000 new yorkers on ok cupid, tanner is at the top of the heap. a status the 34-year-old copy expert says he's earned with

years of experience and a truly astonishing amount of strategy. >> i tripled the amount of women that i had sex with in the time i've been on ok cupid. i'm not necessarily the best-looking guy on there, so if i want to get someone's attention i'm going to have to come out swinging. >> reporter: how? for one thing, he raises interest in his profile by littering it with conversation starters including a favorite music list that includes every single musical genre known to wikipedia. >> to me, the girl, they're scrolling to the bottom, who's this guy? >> reporter: tanner's most important strategy is tailoring how you approach a woman, using hints in a woman's profile to compose a message she's most likely to respond to. >> this girl spent eight minutes on her profile. that's all she will ever have to do. she's 21. pretty cute, from russia. probably fulfills like 20 different fetishes on a bunch of different guys. i got a notification she liked me. so i tend to act young, or like a young person would. oh, you like me, that's cute.

i nailed it. she posts a smiley face. is it? look how she's responding to how nice i was. two days later we had sex. >> reporter: effective but what ever happened to honesty? >> i'm not a total fraud, i'm good at embellishing the truth. >> reporter: 26-year-old jessica says she doesn't have a strategy. for becoming one of the most desirable women in los angeles. >> i was like, i don't have any selfies, i don't have any head shots, so i don't understand where this is coming from. >> reporter: jessica joined ok cupid when she moved to l.a. two years ago. >> i was in this stage where i was newly single. i went on this serial dating spree. as i really got to know what i liked and what i didn't like i started to like cut down my profile to make it more about like me and putting myself out there so that like i was attracting the right guy as opposed to just like casting this huge net. >> reporter: that backfired. instead of narrowing her dating pool jessica is inundated with

messages from men, as many as 700 a week. >> hi. hola. hi, sexy. i read your profile, what do i win? no, i don't -- if you want to take the time to write about yourself, then i'm not going to take the time to respond to you. >> reporter: we met jessica as she was about to head out on a date with one of her ok cupid suitors. >> how are you? >> good. >> reporter: as it turns out, jessica does have somewhat of an edge. she works as a professional dating keep, advising her male clientele about their love life over skype. >> you have to rely on her 68ing or going. in terms of am my coaching helping me, it forces me to make better connections. >> reporter: jessica believes her success is all about being unique. >> and how many people can say, oh, i'm funny, i'm charming, i have goals, i have passions. it could be anybody on the planet. anybody can look at that and be me too. until you know that i play lady gaga and sing along to lady gaga on the piano. how are you going to know what

sets me apart from other people? >> reporter: jessica and tanner may have cracked a code to filling their ok cupid indocks are box. what if you care about quality, not quantity? getting the right matches is something the data whizzes at ok cupid have been working on for years. just today they revealed it actually conducts experiments on its own users. including suggesting bad matches. also to better understand what makes online daters tick. can they help one user improve her odds of finding love online? >> i think lately i've been just jaded by the whole experience and kind of don't really care anymore. >> i want to do a story on a real vampire. >> reporter: mandy is the editor at large for the popular website xo jane, where she chronicles misadventures in online dating. she once dedicated a whole post to the bizarre ok cupid messages she receives. what do you want in a perfect world? what kind of response would you want to get from your online dating profile?

>> in a perfect world it would be a guy who knows how to ask a woman on a date. he says, i'm interested in you because of, specific example. >> are you curious about how you could possibly improve upon this? >> oh, absolutely. >> reporter: sean patrick henry is a developer for ok cupid, expert on how people online date. >> nice to meet you. some of the simple things to start with are, go ahead and fill out your details. >> reporter: rule number one, fill in the blanks. the more details you provide, the easier it is for matches to find you. >> there's a lot of ways you can find somebody else on the site. but one of the things that people use are search filters through specific details. >> reporter: rule two, give them something to talk about. ask an open-ended question or list interests. >> put something specific in your profile for them to pick up. if you put more things in your profile that lead to a conversation, then they have something to talk about. maybe these guys are reading this, they find you attractive, you match a lot of things.

they don't know what to talk about. >> i'm trying to do a road trip home to san diego because i love road trips in the car. so would that be a good conversation starter? >> yes. say that, then ask like where should i stop? >> reporter: rule three, pictures are critical. choose photos that show off your personality, but you might want to resist using flash. >> these are the photos on your profile. >> this is a fantastic profile picture. it asks questions, seductive, the red lipstick. it shows personality. >> here we have -- she looks pretty but she's with another man. do you think women should post photos of themselves with men they're not related to? >> depends on the context. if you want to show you're social. this is almost intimate. the other thing in this photo that's against you is you used flash. we've found photos with flash actually add six years to your per seefbl age. >> really? that's awful. i'll never use flash again. >> reporter: mandy was off to

change her profile. we checked in to see if the makeover worked. >> so this dude said, i find you extremely fascinating, when to guys that's a good thing to say. yeah, it was really helpful. i didn't realize how inaccessible i was coming across online. but by adding in things like an ice breaker question, encouraging people to reach out to me, i think gi'm getting mor and better messages. >> reporter: mandy hopes prospects lead to actual dates. for jessica and tanner online popularity has translated to lots of dates but real love may be a ways off. >> this is really awesome, i had a great time with mark. and i was very happy. coming up on "nightline," how a former door-to-door salesman scored a role in what could be one of this summer's biggest blockbusters. and the transformation he underwent for that role. .

so imagine, what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine, loving your numbers. introducing once-daily invokana®. it's the first of a new kind of prescription medicine that's used along with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. invokana® is a once-daily pill that works around the clock to help lower a1c. here's how: the kidneys allow sugar to be absorbed back into the body. invokana® reduces the amount of sugar allowed back in, and sends some sugar out through the process of urination. and while it's not for weight loss, it may help you lose some weight. invokana® can cause important side effects, including dehydration, which may cause some people to have loss of body water and salt. this may also cause you to feel dizzy, faint, lightheaded, or weak especially when you stand up. other side effects may include kidney problems, genital yeast infections, urinary tract infections,

changes in urination, high potassium in the blood, or increases in cholesterol. do not take invokana® if you have severe kidney problems or are on dialysis or if allergic to invokana® or its ingredients. symptoms of allergic reaction may include rash, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing. if you experience any of these symptoms, stop taking invokana® and call your doctor right away or go to the nearest hospital. tell your doctor about any medical conditions, medications you are taking, and if you have kidney or liver problems. using invokana® with a sulfonylurea or insulin may increase risk of low blood sugar. it's time. lower your blood sugar with invokana®. imagine loving your numbers. ask your doctor about invokana®.

tonight you're going to meet an unlikely action hero. chris pratt has a cult following, i'm a long-time fan. he is certainly not a household name. so how did he land a role in what could be one of the summer's biggest movies? here's abc's chris connolly. >> my name is peter quill, okay? dude, chill out. >> reporter: it's got a shambling, self-deprecating, hero dude peter quill. >> starlord. >> who? >> fstarlord, man. >> reporter: leading a ragtag multi-species team on a bring me the orb mission. >> when you meet these characters the last thing you're expecting them to do is save the

galaxy. they're thieves, they're unpredictable, they're very dishonest. >> we're not your stereotypical super heroes. i think people will be able to relate to us. >> we've already established your destroying the system is not saving me. >> what did i destroy? >> like three seconds ago. >> i was thinking of something else. >> reporter: they help make "guardians of the galaxy" set away from the planet earth. it's got the full backing of disney which owns abc and the a-list participation of bradley cooper. >> it's real! >> totally fake. >> that is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life. >> reporter: and vin diesel as a tree. >> if you would have asked me 20 years ago that i'd come to hollywood and end up being nature's ambassador? i would have laughed. >> you've heard of this, you've seen this, you know what that is. >> reporter: with all that, this entire enterprise rests on the

broad shoulders of an actor who is hardly a household name. this guy. chris pratt. >> did you ever think you would be this guy? >> yes. my whole life. i was just waiting for everyone to catch on. like, you guys, i'm a superhero, put it together. no. >> frankly, when somebody first suggested him to me, i thought, you've got to be kidding me, the chubby guy from "parks and rec"? no way i'm going to make that guy the star of my movie. >> where's all the faces of the presidents? >> reporter: on "parks and rec" he's beloved as andy dwyer. >> did you know the food you eat becomes energy? yeah! that's spaghetti. nachos. cookie. >> that's my husband. >> reporter: now 35-year-old pratt and his appealingly underachieving persona are being asked to set the tone for marvel's first film not based on a wildly popular comic. can he do it? well, he needed less than a

minute to convince one skeptic. >> i knew within 20 seconds of his audition, this is absolutely the guy. >> they show you a script, did you get to read -- >> no, marvel did not show me a script. they're like, hi, we're marvel. i was like, i'll do anything. they're like, yeah, you will. >> chris pratt is the biggest movie star in the world, people don't know it yet. he as big, masculine dude in the way few movie stars are these days. >> reporter: not many can french braid hair as he does at home for his spouse. but before shooting "guardians" all agreed he needed to tone up a bit. >> send me prop guns. take a picture with it, pose with the guns. secretly they're doing, how fat is chris? that's what the photo was. oh, we need you to try on these gloves, full-body shot with the glove on. >> he'd tweeted that photo of himself from "zero dark thirty" so we knew he could do it, get into that kind of shape, we trusted he could. he did and got into even better

shape. >> they sent someone to my house to measure me. like i was on "the biggest loser." >> reporter: with ongoing "star trek" and avatar" roles zoe saldana has more franchises than a food cot. for this film she used her ballet skills. >> it's everything. it's the reason i'm able to do this. >> how did you help shape what you look like? >> i didn't use the right pg-13 word, but i want fan boys to go, she's hot, she's beautiful. green is a hard color to sell as kind to the eye. i was like, can we pad these up a little more? i was very technical about the whole thing. >> oh, yum! >> reporter: there was no padding vin diesel's dialogue. just three words. >> i'm groot! >> reporter: spoken again and again. the action star got the joke. >> when they called to ask you

to do this, you would have been well within your rights to like throw the phone over the fence. >> yeah. wow. first person i told had that kind of reaction. where it was like, huh? no, no, no. then everybody's waiting for you to do a marvel. and i immediately fell in love with the character. three words at a time. three words at a time. >> i'm groot! >> he was very serious about the character of groot. he must have said at least 500 "i am groots." >> jump cut to my kids seeing the movie. now whenever we're driving and they see trees they refer to the trees as daddy's brothers and sisters. yeah. life is good. ♪ >> reporter: as "guardians of

the galaxy" rides positive reviews into theaters august 1st, no one has more reasons to feel good than u.s. unlikely star. >> who? >> starlord, man. legendary outlaw. guys? oh, forget this. >> i used to be a door-to-door salesman, i lived in a van, man. i'm a [ bleep ] hollywood movie star now. i'm going to be happy every day i walk on the set. i have nothing to complain about. >> how fitting for you that in the pilot of "everwood," you rip up a comic book. >> whoa! chris! my mind is blown. that's right, i went from that guy to this guy. whoa, that's true, i do. i rip up a comic book. in this, i rip up a comic book movie. >> reporter: i'm chris connolly for "nightline" in los angeles.

♪ i'm high on believing next on "nightline," sarah palin's new project. it is audacious and it is expensive. when folks think about what they get from alaska, they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. stronger than peoples twice her size.er was and that strengtspired his liquid muscle cleaner. it lifts tough dirt so you do less scrubbing. and its nozzle stops by itself... ...so less is wasted sure made grandma proud. mr. clean liquid muscle. ensitive side.

and a razor that understands my sensitive skin. venus embrace sensitive. more than a strip. an entire ribbon of gliding gels surround 5 comfort-coated blades for less irritation. venus embrace sensitive. a perfect match for sensitive skin.

pretty much everybody's got an opinion about sarah palin. and now, if you're somebody who loves her, or loves to hate her, you have an option to see a whole lot more of her. >> hello and welcome to a new project. this is a news channel that really is a lot more than news. this is a community. >> sarah palin, former vice presidential candidate, former

half-term governor of alaska, is adding a new line to her resume, proprietor of a brand new news channel. >> are you tired of the media filters? well, i am. i always have been. so we're going to do something about it. >> reporter: palin as you may remember famously struggled with mainstream media. >> we've got to keep an eye on russia. they're our next-door neighbors. you can actually see russia from land here in alaska. >> reporter: she was mocked mercilessly for it on "saturday night live." >> and i can see russia from my house. i've just got to have to get back to ya! >> reporter: now palin is taking control of the new channel that will include interviews and more. >> we'll also share some of the fun that goes on in the palin household. >> reporter: but if you want 24/7 palin, it will cost you. a subscription runs $99.95 a year. that is more than netflix, more than amazon prime. no one has ever said that sarah

palin lacked moxie. >> really, make this your chance. together, let's live life vibrantly, purposely, and boldly. >> reporter: all for less than $100 a year. no word yet on how many people have actually signed up. thanks for watching abc news tonight. tune into "gma" first thing in the morning. we're online at abcnews.com 24/7. i'm dan harris. good night. mom, this is not right. her coming over here with dad, sitting across the table from you... it's just--it's got to be too weird for you. no, debra, it won't be. we talked about it, and, really, i'm fine. i don't like this at all. all right, come on, ma. no. marie, what do you think? well, bringing some girl, some floozy to dinner with his ex-wife-- it's uncouth.

oh, i don't think she's a floozy, marie. then why date her? i mean, how can he already have a girlfriend? you've only been apart eight months. yeah, it's unbelievable. thank you, robert. how come i can't find a girlfriend? you know, mom, just don't think that you-- deb, deb, deb, i think if your mom's okay with it, isn't t that what's important? honey, you know i still care for your father very much, and if this girl is what he needs to feel better about himself, feel younger, i say good for himim. okay? i guess. yeah. okay. good, good. and who knows? soon i just may be out there looking for an eligible younger ma myself. ha ha ha.