Newsday "Fast Chat": Renee Zellweger

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EastHamptonTheBIue Parrot - RendeZellwqer sitsinaMqn-hattanhotelroomwr appe d in a tight, gr ay,of-the - shoulder sheaththotstopsjust inches

fromher sand-coloredstileffos. She sfands andbeams,friendly andextending her hqnd- F oceit - shehadyoue')enbefore"Hello."

Zellweger blends thatnatural charmwith thefaded glamour of a 1953sociefy wife in "My Oneand OnIy," whichopenedwide intheqtersFriday. The seriocomicgem tells a fictionalizedstory of Hollywood iconGeorge Hamilton at age15, when he traipsedcross-country in a Cadil-Ioc convertible with hisbrother and runawaymother, Anne De-verecutx (Zellwqer). '

Z*llwqer,40,whowon a supporting ac-tress Oscarfor "ColdMountoin" (2003),following besf actressnominatiors for"Bridget fones's Diary"(2001) and"Chicago"(2002), spoke withfrequent Newsday con-tributor Frank Lovece.

So, basically, you andMeryl Streep are nowoffi cially interchange-able: You both winOscars, do accents,sing... . What's left?Learning to play a musi-cal instrument for arole?Well,I did take pianolessons for "Appaloosa," and Ihad to play four songs fo; thatfilrn It's so funny, because theway it was shot, I could havebeen knitting behind thosekeys and you wouldn't haveknown the difference! But,yep, Lvas playing the piano,and lovely Cbris in the Hamp-tons lSouthampton pianoteacher Christine Glennonltaught me how. She was sogenerous to teach me, becauseshe had so m:rny people thatshe's got no time.

There was another film thatI had talked about doingwhere I was going to play theviolin I've got the best "Twin-

kle, Twinkle, Little Star" it's good and the time isyou've ever heard! right in my life, and if I feel

which nrm was that? lii:ilt ?iilnllX?,llTl ,"I won't say, since I didn't end much fun, and it felt rightup doing the film. for last summer. I thought,

"I wanna go and be this ladyY'know, Meryl Streep learned this summer and discoverto play violin for "Music of theHeart" 0999). , VTDEOYeah (laughs). She did actual- See the trailerly! (laughs) She sure did! foi Zelwegert

So, how does the produc^- ^' new movie'

a modesty budgeted ;i[o' iB-] '"W"oP "nd9.n!yi---"

coqre t9 say, "Let's go get-us 7 ,tH n$$ffitffilmajor Oscar-winning star forthe leadft /moviesIt's about the material, and if

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what her experiencesmight be like."

The British tabloid TheDaily Mirror and otherssay the third "BridgetJones" movie is expect-ed to start filming atthe end of 2OlO. Whatdo you hear about it?I've no idea No ideaPeople have been talkingabout it, and it was arumor, and now peoplethink it's not a rumor. Tome, it's still a rumor.

Along those lines, sincediffurent sources saydifferent things: Wereyou in the 1993 movie"My Boyfriend's Back'?I did a bit part in that.. . . I was still in col-lege. It was filmed inAustin, where I livedwhen I was going tothe University ofTexas. I got a bit part. . . as a local hire, thegirl in the beautyshop, maybe two lines.But the beauty shop[scene] got cut.

Did that get you yourScrcen Actors Guild[Union] card, regard-less?I got my SAG card onmy Coors Light com-mercial. Yeah! CoorsLight paid for college!(chuckles)

Your most famousmovie line - "You hadme at'Hello,"'from"Jerry Maguire" - isstill a catchphrase allthese years later. Didyou nail it the first take,or did it come after alot of tries?Cameron [Crowe, thedirectorl had me say it

a few different ways. It's sofunny, because when I read it,I didn't get it - I thought itwas a t]?o somehow. I keptlooking at it. It was the onething in the script that I waslooking at going, "Is that right?Can that be right? How is thatright?" I thought, "Is there abetter way to say that? Am Inot getting it? I just don'tknow how to do it."

So, do you remember whichtake it was?Oh, honey! I can't remembera thing! What day it was orwhether it was the first dayor the next day! (laughs)

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