News + Notes

EW Presents...

Cover Story

If We Ran Hollywood

This would have been one helluva summer. Besides putting ''The Mummy'' under wraps, our box office Band-Aids will make it all better

More

By Josh Wolk

Josh Wolk

Josh Wolk is a senior writer at EW and the author of ''Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desparate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor''

SUGGESTION 1
REESE'S PIECE (OF ADVICE)

Reese Witherspoon explodes through the door of a popular West Hollywood cafe, out of breath and slightly disheveled. ''Can we get out of here?'' she asks, glancing nervously over her shoulder through the window. ''There's a black van filled with paparrazi following me.''

Mark this scene Exhibit A in this ''Legally Blonde'''s newly sanctioned star power. Along with bringing pink back into vogue (somewhere Diana Vreeland is smiling), Witherspoon's ditzy turn as a spoiled sorority girl created one of the summer's only sleepers ($71.4 mil so far). Now it's not just tabs that are hot on her Prada slides. She's negotiated a reported $4 million to $5 million to play a country woman who dumps her husband and heads to New York City in ''Sweet Home Alabama'' (that's up from the reported $1 million she got for ''Blonde''), and the Nashville-reared actress may play '60s TV detective Honey West in Miramax's film version (coproduced by her ''Cruel Intentions'' costar and husband, Ryan Phillippe, with whom she has a 2-year-old daughter, Ava Elizabeth).

But just how did Witherspoon, 25, start the summer as an indie darling (''Pleasantville,'' ''Election'') and end up an American sweetheart? Apparently, there's more flick here than meets the eye. All rise. Reese is in session.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY What happens the Monday after your movie grosses $20.4 million in its opening weekend?

REESE You start hiding from black vans -- and a lot of people call you who never even knew your name before.

EW Did you expect ''Legally Blonde'' to be such a huge hit?

RW Frankly, I was shocked. Before it opened, my agent called to say, ''I want to let you know, however the movie does, I still love you.'' [Laughs] The next day, he was hyperventilating. It's overwhelming because everything else I've done -- nobody ever went before. Millions of people went to see this.

EW What's happened career-wise?

RW My manager just told me that I've been put on the ''short list.'' I didn't even know there was such a thing. It seems she'd never told me about it before because she didn't want me to be disappointed that I wasn't on it.

EW Do you feel pressure now?

RW Yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I was watching this show where this guy was complaining to this life coach about how stressful his job was. And the coach said, 'If you don't have stress in your job, then your job is probably not worth having.' [Laughs] I can identify with that.

EW Were you tired of getting critical praise, but not much else?

RW Yes. At a certain point, you have to have commercial viability. You want to be able to do choice work and to be considered; you have to be bankable.

EW There's talk of a ''Legally Blonde'' sequel and a television series. Interested?

RW I'm not really interested in doing television right now. But we are discussing a film sequel.

EW But you appeared on ''Friends.''

RW You know when you're pregnant, you get addicted to TV shows and I was addicted to ''Friends.'' I couldn't stop watching it. I'm also friends with Jennifer Aniston. It was fun but terrifying because it was the first time I'd been in front of a live audience.

Page 1 of 7 Next