Periwinkles

New thread. Old one

From The Sun Herald: It's an article that mentions Rachel when they talk about being blonde in Hollywood.

And thanks to Lucy for 2 new pictures of Rachel on MTV:

JesseP_Break_Me

Thanks for our new thread, Belle.

My_Completeness

thanks

KerBear

I wish I could have caught the TCA's and MTV awards.

amore85

Thanks for the new thread Belle!

amore85

New article, I put the info pertaining to Rachel in bold.

Blonde and brainy the new look for Hollywood
07 September 2005

There's a striking trend in Hollywood: to be brilliantly brainy, brassy and blonde, Amy Cooper writes.

Q: What's the difference between a smart blonde and Bigfoot?
A: Some people still believe Bigfoot exists.

In Hollywood, more than anywhere else, that old joke refuses to die. In fact, generations of cute, ditzy, blonde starlets have made their fortunes keeping it alive. Ever since stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Goldie Hawn giggled and wiggled their way to the top, it has been clear that show biz prefers its favourite blondes to be seen, rather than heard.

But at last, things are changing. There's a new type of blonde in town and, while she may be sexy, she's far from stupid. A new wave of smart, street-wise and sophisticated stars is casting off the stereotypes and proving that it's cooler to be a blonde with brains than a bimbo with bling.

You can't miss these women; they're starring in the biggest new movies, running their own production companies and, far from keeping quiet, they're speaking out on behalf of talented women in a male-dominated business.

Think Drew Barrymore, who runs her own production company, Flower Films; versatile Oscar-winner Renee Zellweger, acting Russell Crowe off the screen in Cinderella Man; and Hollywood's newest it girl, Rachel McAdams, star of the new Wes Craven psycho-thriller Red Eye.

If the smart blondes have a spokeswoman it's Legally Blonde star Reese Witherspoon, who's starring in the coming release Just Like Heaven. Witherspoon, no shirk when it comes to speaking her mind, recently launched a blistering attack on Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton and other starlets who seek fame by playing dumb and flashing flesh.

In an interview with US marie claire magazine, Witherspoon said: "Creating a cultural icon out of someone who goes, 'I'm stupid, isn't it cute?' makes me want to throw daggers. I want to say to them, 'My grandma did not fight for what she fought for just so you can start telling women it's fun to be stupid. Saying that to young women, little girls, my daughter? It's not OK'."

Witherspoon, with her resolutely feminist principles, is the perfect antithesis to the midriff-baring, hotpants-wearing girls who have ruled music, movies and TV with little but their sexuality for the past decade. Where Jessica Simpson stumbles over one-syllable words, Witherspoon constructs sentences with a politician's polish, and is working steadily towards her first Oscar with her role in the meaty Johnny Cash biopic, Walk The Line.

And while Tara Reid, Paris Hilton and their pals prefer to steal the spotlight with body-baring stunts, Witherspoon wants to be known only for her acting prowess.

"What gets me is how many women - young women - give up their power and their sense of self," she says in the same interview. "Thinking they're going to get more out of life if they take off their clothes and objectify themselves instead of functioning on the principle that they're smart and capable."

Witherspoon and her poise are a quiet contrast to old-style trashy blondes such as Anna Nicole Smith and Courtney Love or their younger counterparts, Reid, Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, who are rarely photographed outside a nightclub or inside all their clothes. But while these women's train-wreck behaviour, victim-hood and soap-opera lifestyle makes for great spectacle, the smart blonde approach is winning far more fans. Audiences are flocking to see their classy idols on screen and in person.

AdvertisementAdvertisementSmart blondes are driving fashion, too, with girls keen to emulate their role models' style. Less than a year ago, the New York Times identified a key fashion trend: "Less bling, more elegance". The article reported a growing demand for classy, polished clothes instead of flashy, skimpy street wear. The trend was summed up by Abercrombie & Fitch creative director Sam Shahid, who said: "Kids today are feeling less rebellious and more positive. These kids are interested in their futures and what they're going to do with their lives. They're not all trying to look like Britney Spears. They want something cleaner and more wholesome than that."

Elspeth Probyn, professor of gender studies at the University of Sydney, agrees that today's young women are - or at least aspire to be - more self-assured and in control than previous generations. The female celebrities they admire reflect this.

"Young women in schools do not view being female as such a barrier any more," says Probyn.

"On the basis of studies we've done, it's clear there is a growing sense of assurance in girls who want to own their intelligence and use it in good ways."

They want to be like Witherspoon, with her work ethic and feminist sensibilities, or Barrymore, who produced and starred in her new film Fever Pitch. Or Scarlett Johansson, just 21 and with more than 25 film credits under her belt already, including the critically acclaimed Lost In Translation. All blonde, all brilliantly brainy.

But the ultimate poster girl for smart blondes has to be Rachel McAdams. The 29-year-old star of The Notebook, Wedding Crashers and Red Eye is being hailed as Hollywood's hottest female commodity - and with a role alongside Diane Keaton in The Family Stone coming up this year, her star is set to keep on rising.

McAdams shared the screen with Lindsay Lohan in last year's Mean Girls, but since then, the pair's careers have followed vastly different paths. While Lohan's acting achievements have become overshadowed by her partying and controversial boyfriends, McAdams has remained sober and focused on her career.

"I want to pick good projects," she says. "I want to work with great directors and recognise when I'm drawn to something for the right reasons and try to maintain some sanity. Sanity would be good."

And sanity, for the intentionally single McAdams, means avoiding bad boys and losers. She says: "I don't know what it's like to be with that kind of guy, as I've never been with a jerk for a long period of time. I'm pretty tough that way. I don't think I've ever been duped."

McAdams, just like Witherspoon and Zellweger, is no stranger to studying. All three women went to university, with Witherspoon and Zellweger majoring in English and McAdams opting for theatre after being persuaded to do so by a drama teacher (she'd intended to do cultural studies as she'd thought drama would be "a bit of a joke").

Witherspoon, who as a child wanted to be the first female American president and was so driven from an early age that her mother used to call her "Little Miss Type A", says she acquired much of her confidence from her surgeon father. "He likes to have intellectual arguments with me all the time - it's one of his favourite things," she says. "And I liked all that debate and mock trial stuff in high school. It's important to know how to make your points."

Clever, though, doesn't mean having your head in the clouds. These are women with common sense and an aversion to Hollywood extremes. Zellweger, who once left a post-Oscars party early to be at home with her dog, says she has little appetite for the Los Angeles lifestyle or its attendant riches: "It opens your eyes, in this town, it's amazing. It's taught me who I don't want to be.

"Once you've reached the point where you can pay rent, you can go to the vet and you can go to the grocery store, after that point it's all the same.

"I don't have the appetite for a decadent lifestyle."

McAdams agrees. "Nothing against Los Angeles," the girl from Ontario, Canada, told Hollywood Reporter recently, "but I love being able to come home to a place where no one really cares what you do or who you are and allows me a break from that life."

In every conversation the smart blondes' mantra shines through: sense, self-respect, success. But that doesn't mean they play down their hair colour.

These girls are blonde and proud. Reese Witherspoon devoted two of her most successful movies - Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde II - to convincing the world it was possible to be blonde, attractive and smart all at the same time. Audiences shared her character, Elle's dismay when her boyfriend told her he wanted to marry "a Jackie, not a Marilyn", and loved watching her triumph over Harvard's stuffed shirts and sexist boors.

When Witherspoon had a brief spell as a brunette for her 2004 movie Vanity Fair, she said it was a "nice reprieve from my normal self", but reverted to blonde as soon as she'd finished publicity tours and premieres.

Zellweger, too, has swiftly returned to her customary blonde after going dark for Cinderella Man. "I've become very, very, very good friends with the girl who does my hair," she joked at her first back-to-blonde public appearance, soon after filming wrapped.

And although McAdams was brunette in her two recent movies, she's proud of her natural blonde hair, returning to it as soon as filming was over. "I've not done this for a movie role," she told interviewers after finishing Red Eye. "Going blonde again is for me. I was born blonde."

Moonlight~Pixie

Great article.

ScRaPbOoKlOvEr98

Yay! New Thread!

Great Article

ritual_image

thanks for the article.

we really need more smart women on screen and act as positive role models.. rather than bearing all out and just doing stupid things over and over again.

aahh..sanity is really good.

NZOCFan

Thanks for all the articles! Lovely to read about.

-Kelly-

Awesome

JesseP_Break_Me

Lucy, thanks so much for those.

~Courtney~

thanks

Shadowgirl17

thank you

M.I.S.S.Y

I was looking for this thread last night and could not find it, so I had opened one!. Where was it?..lol

Thanks for the new thread!

Great articles, thanks for posting!