Chatterbox

The "well, duh" headline of the week goes to Friday's Chronicle for its imaginative tagging of Mick LaSalle's review of the monkey comedy Dunston Checks In: "Primate Picture Is Actually Funny." ... Willie Week One: Setting up shop as Maximum Leader last week, Willie Brown declined to appoint a press secretary, saying instead that he and he alone will be the source of all information in his administration. Brown might get away with this on a day-to-day basis, but when he stumbles or there is a crisis (both of which are certain), look for him to rely on Honorary Press Secretary Herb Caen to get the word out. And don't believe a word of the spin. ... Examiner Magazine Editor Paul Wilner is leaving to take the executive editor slot at Los Angeles' Buzz magazine. "I'm leaving on good terms," he says, "and not because I think the Examiner is closing." Wilner will be in charge of Buzz's feature well. ... Just prior to the launch of the Salon Website, which is staffed by a slew of writers and editors from the Examiner, a parodist inside the Ex roasted the site under the rubric of Formage. ... Chronicle reporter Harriet Chiang's thorough Page One story in the Jan. 15 edition about employers' liability in sex harassment cases could have been more thorough if it had addressed the recent charges of sex harassment in that paper's newsroom.