HOLLYWOOD LIVES

HOLLYWOOD LIVES

Release Date:

January 10, 2003

Press Release:

The Scotsman in association with
The UnOfficial Love Spell Entertainment

CIRCA LATE 1998

Jennifer Love Hewitt, below, boasts about her kicking ability in her latest film The Tuxedo: "I was really excited in this movie because I got to kick butt. I like doing physical comedy a lot and it kinda comes naturally to me because I’m a little bit of a klutz - I get to channel that somewhere positive instead of just falling down in the street, " she said.

Not that anyone would mistake the star of I Know What You Did Last Summer and Heartbreakers for a pushover. If dynamite comes in small packages, it comes in beautifully wrapped packages in Hollywood. At 5ft 3in, standing at just an inch taller than the diminutive dynamo Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Love Hewitt shares a similar sense of self-confidence and just-do-it energy.

At 24, she has more movies under her tightly-cinched belt than most ageing veterans. What’s more, she is currently making her debut as a movie producer and is just about to release her fourth album of songs (she made her first at 11). For the girl from Waco, Texas who made her official performing debut at the age of three when she sang at a livestock show, and was taking jazz, tap and ballet lessons at five, this is par for the course. A string of commercials and television spots honed her professionalism like a razor strop.

"I’ve always wanted to be in action movies," she says. "I enjoy watching them and grew up watching Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong films, so I was really excited to be working with him. I thought that was cool. I like the fact that he is the unconventional superhero."

The all-American JLH broke with convention herself by deciding to produce her debut movie in London. The romantic comedy, If Only, in which she also stars, was moved from its original Chicago location when she cast Brit actor Paul Nicholls in the male lead. Having swapped kicking for kissing, the inevitable occurred and JLH and Nicholls were suddenly "outed" as an item. Are the rumours true?

"I don’t want to say whether it’s true or false. I will say that we have unbelievable chemistry. Do I think Paul’s adorable? Are we having a great time in the movie? Absolutely. There's probably a lot of talk about romance because it's an incredibly romantic movie. But we're both enjoying it. It's fun being in the papers every day. We're always laughing about it."

Lads' mags staple Love Hewitt can currently be seen in the latest Jackie Chan knockabout nonsense The Tuxedo, today, and in "If Only" later in the year.

A singer too, she releases her latest album, BareNaked, in March.