Anne Hathaway

anne hathaway

That's how English romance novelist Elinor Glyn defined the term "it-girl," a phrase that entered the public imagination with the 1972 film It based on one of her novels and starring the original it-girl, Clara Bow.

anne hathaway

Hollywood is perpetually on the hunt for this elusive quality, this blend of sexuality and innocence, of materialistic chutzpah and good valises, of swagger and sincerity that tend to sell tickets. As the Cameron Diazes, Drew Barrymores and Gwyneth Paltrows age out of group that includes Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, scarlet Johansson and Keira Knightlely, contenders to the crown that for years belonged to Jula Roberts, perhaps the last female movies star who everyone agrees actually guaranteed attendance in the theaters.

anne hathaway

At the moment much of Hollywood is chattering about pretty Anne Hathaway, another dark-eyed, dark-haired beauty, who was plucked out of relative obscurity by Roberts' own star-maker, Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall. Disney was explicitly looking for the next Audrey Hepburn when Marshall cast this New Jersey-raised actress, with one short-lived TV series to her credit, as the lead in the 2001 hit franchise, The Princess Diaries.

anne hathaway

Seven years later, the 26-year-old Hathaway has finally been transformed into the it-girl of the moment, with a string of commercial hits to her name, and heat fueled by her unexpected but thoroughly wrenching performance as an addict on furlough from rehab for her sister's wedding in Rachel Getting Married. Already, Hathaway is getting Oscar buzz.

anne hathaway

And she's getting the sympathy vote. Ironically enough, there's often nothing that endears a star to her audience more than love's travails ,a bad boyfriend or two.

anne hathaway

Hathaway's Italian boyfriend of four years, Raffaello Follieri, has recently been sentenced to prison for 54 months for fraud. The double whammy of on-screen and off-screen despair has curious despair has curiously combined to give Hathaway heft and maturity, making her more than just another pretty face.

anne hathaway

Hathaway also has deftly managed the media circus Although it-girls inevitably magnetize attention, it's not every starlet who's forced to explain herself to such august pop culture pashas as David Letterman, who recently grilled Hathaway about her personal life.

anne hathaway

Dressed demurely in black, Hathaway tried joking, "As far as relationships crashing and burning, I did pretty great. Scorch that earth." But being Letterman, he wouldn't desist, asking her questions such as, "Was there ever stuff missing out of your purse?" She mostly laughed, except for when she hid her face in her hands, literally trying to shield herself from his comic barrage.

anne hathaway

Vanity Fair offered up a pretty good vivisection of her jet-set love affair with Follieri, and it "made her more interesting," notes one top talent agent. "There is something about the poor girl, the ones that can never find the right love interest. It's part of the type, if you look back through history."

anne hathaway