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Love in the Afternoon by Stephen Rebello Two years ago, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or "Love" as she's known to her family and friends, was 19 and well-regarded as one of Hollywood's sweetest, hardest-working, most successful world-on-a-platter girls. She was starring in the sequel to the hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, she was about to play Audrey Hepburn in a TV biomovie, she was preparing to spread her wings as star/producer of "Party of Five"'s spinoff "Time of Your Life," and her production company, Love Spell, had sold New Line Cinema on a romantic comedy idea she herself had helped to hatch. Her lucrative contract with Neutrogena was keeping her smiling, fresh-faced features in heavy rotation on TV and in magazines as a steady affirmation of her enormous appeal. And as if all that weren't enough, on the personal front she seemed to have MTV personality Carson Daly under a heavy Love spell. In the last couple of years, though, the golden girl has acquired some tarnish. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer did well enough, but was hardly the sensation the original film had been. The Audrey Hepburn Story received a lukewarm response. Worst of all, low ratings got the plug pulled on "Time of Your Life." PAGE 1 | 2 |
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Then Hewitt's romance went south and Daly bad-mouthed her to the press, then proceeded to romance Tara Reid, to whom he's now engaged. And to top things off, Hewitt's romantic comedy project got nixed for being too similar in concept to a film already going into production, Jennifer Lopez's The Wedding Planner. Had a love spell so quickly become a dry spell? Now 21, Hewitt is about to star in a grown-up comedy she hopes will leave her growing pains behind. In Heartbreakers, she plays the sexed-up con-woman daughter of an equally larcenous mom (Sigourney Weaver) who makes a living out of hooking up with men. After that Hewitt will star as Satan in strappy heels in the remake of The Devil and Daniel Webster, which also stars Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, who'll direct. Hewitt has a lot riding on the success of these projects, but she shows no signs of impending anxiety and no inclination to see her recent difficulties as anything but water under the bridge. We caught up with her during her cover shoot for Movieline's February More Sex Than Usual issue and, as the video from that beautiful L.A. afternoon shows, she's got nothing but a lot of Love to spread. For the Stephen Rebello's interview with Jennifer Love Hewitt, be on the lookout for the February issue of Movieline, the More Sex Than Usual issue--on newsstands in mid-January. PAGE 1 | 2 |