In person, Coolidge, 41, most resembles Stifler's hottie mom, even as she hikes up a dusty path off Runyon Canyon in L.A. The only respites she takes are to burst into characters she's invented on the fly, like a dimwit going to the ballet for the first time (''It was beautiful, and nobody even said a word!'') and an A-list actress lying about plastic surgery (''Can you believe what people say about me? And I've never had a thing done!''). The chameleon act has propelled Coolidge to a unique career inflection point for a character actress — even hidden behind weird accents and Tammy Faye makeup, she is recognizable. ''Girls and gay men know me from Legally Blonde, and boys know me from American Pie,'' she says. ''There are a lot of Christopher Guest fans, and if people like me, it's because of him.'' Her next role, costarring in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, will likely add kids to that fan base. ''I'm a hideous monster-looking lady,'' sighs Coolidge. ''I always want to see how ugly I can look. And then I go, 'Why did I play the big-zitted lady again?'''
The subject of acne never arose when Joey's creators wooed her to play Bobbie. ''We asked, 'What will it take to get you to do this?''' recalls exec producer Scott Silveri. After some back-and-forth brainstorming, Coolidge signed on for the pilot shortly before it taped, and Silveri upgraded Bobbie to a recurring role. (He now plans to integrate her with the rest of the cast.) Coolidge, her own worst critic, is still stressed about her performance: ''If I had known I was going to do [her] longer than one episode, I think I would have gone a different way.'' Well, the actress may have one harsher critic: ''In one episode I referred to myself as a parasite,'' Coolidge says. ''My agent was in the audience. I'm not sure that went over too well.''
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