Reese Witherspoon

Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actor who has won an Academy Award and established herself as one of the highest-paid Hollywood actresses in recent years.

Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the leading actress in the movie The Man in the Moon in 1991. That same year she made her television acting debut, appearing in the cable movie Wildflower. In 1996, Witherspoon's performance in Freeway established her as a rising star and led to roles in three major 1998 movies: Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville, and Twilight. In the following year, Witherspoon appeared in the critically acclaimed Election, which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination. 2001 saw her breakout role as Elle Woods in the box office hit Legally Blonde, and in 2002 she starred in Sweet Home Alabama, which became her biggest commercial film success to date. 2003 saw her return as lead actress and executive producer of Legally Blonde 2. In 2005, Witherspoon received worldwide attention and praise for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, a role that earned her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress.

Witherspoon married actor and Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe in 1999, and they have two children, Ava and Deacon. The couple separated at the end of 2006 and divorced in October 2007.

Witherspoon owns a production company named Type A Films. She is also actively involved in children's and women's advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Children's Defense Fund, and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007, serving as honorary chairman of the charitable Avon Foundation.

Following the successful release of Legally Blonde, Witherspoon hosted Saturday Night Live on September 29, 2001. In 2005, she was ranked No. 5 in Teen People magazine's list of most powerful young Hollywood actors. In 2006, Witherspoon was listed among the Time 100, a compilation of the 100 most influential people in the world, as selected annually by Time magazine. Her featured article was written by friend and fellow co-star in the two Legally Blonde films, Luke Wilson. The same year, she was also selected as one of the "100 Sexiest Women In The World" by the readers of For Him Magazine. Witherspoon has appeared on the annual Celebrity 100 list by Forbes magazine in 2006 and 2007, at No. 75 and No. 80, respectively. Forbes also put her on the top ten Trustworthy Celebrities list, according to the characters she had played on the screen.

In 2006, Star ran a false story on Witherspoon's third pregnancy, which led to Witherspoon suing the magazine's parent company American Media Inc in Los Angeles Superior Court for privacy violation. She sought unspecified general and punitive damages in the lawsuit, asserting that the claim harmed her reputation because it suggested she was hiding the news from producers of her upcoming films.

Witherspoon has been featured four times in the annual "100 Most Beautiful" issues of People magazine. In 2007, she was selected by People and the entertainment news program Access Hollywood as one of the best dressed female stars of the year. That same year, Witherspoon established herself as the highest-paid actress in the American film industry, earning US$15 to US$20 million per film, according to the survey by the film-trade paper The Hollywood Reporter. In early 2008, a study conducted by E-Poll Market Research revealed that Witherspoon was the most likable female celebrity of 2007.