The Crush: Reese Witherspoon

Ever since Reese Witherspoon taught us how to ‘bend and snap’ as fiesty sorority girl Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, we have admired her unflagging ability to adapt to every opportunity that comes her way.

She starred in a blockbuster comedy and then made herself executive producer of its sequel (Legally Blonde 2); she took a serious part in Walk the Line and won an Oscar for it; she married a teen heart-throb — Ryan Phillippe — but dumped him when he got boring; she read a good book, Gone Girl, and snapped up the film rights before you could say ‘the new Fifty Shades’.

Reese is a good Louisiana gal with a sunshiney smile, but there’s an icy look in her eye that suggests it’s best not to mess with her. We get all shivery at the thought that just like Gone Girl’s anti-heroine and the other pretty girls with a dark side she’s played (Vanity Fair’s Becky Sharp, Cruel Intentions’ Annette), there’s more to this Southern belle than meets the eye. Our suspicions were confirmed last week when, during a run-in with police, Reese uttered the six words that work better on us than any chat-up line: ‘Do you know who I am?’ Yes! We love it when a star gets sassy. Reese was arrested for disorderly conduct, and has since apologised for speaking out of turn. We are not impressed by her drink-driving husband, but we’re suckers for a babe gone bad and would do anything to get our hands on this Reese’s pieces.