Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts

Between the late '80s and early '90s, Julia Roberts was among Hollywood's top draws. Though not always taken seriously as a dramatic actress -- indeed she is at her best in romantic comedy or light drama -- Julia Roberts has a special mischievous charm coupled with a wide-eyed vulnerability that translates into a screen charisma reminiscent of a young Audrey Hepburn. Like Hepburn, Julia Roberts possesses an atypical beauty. Pencil thin, long-legged and sporting a thick curly mane of auburn hair upon her head, she is more coltish than elegant. Her great hazel eyes and impossibly large mouth are capable of much expression, particularly joy when she cuts loose with a broad grin and a braying laugh. Unlike Hepburn, Julia Roberts projects a gal-next-door wholesomeness rather than an air of cool sophistication. 
A born Southerner, Julia Roberts grew up hanging around the theater people who attended her parents' Actors and Writers Workshop in their Atlanta home. Both she and her brother Eric Roberts were interested in acting and it was he who made it to movies first.

Julia Roberts moved to New York after high school, but did not catch a break right away even though she did manage to score an agent. She made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother in Blood Red, which though completed in 1986 was not released until 1989. She appeared in a couple of made-for-TV movies and one low-budget feature, Firehouse (1987) before getting her first real break in the made-for-cable drama Satisfaction (1988). This led to a large supporting role in Mystic Pizza (1989). Her portrayal of a strong-headed pizza parlor co-owner who seduces a wealthy preppie earned Julia Roberts acclaim and led to her playing the doomed Shelby opposite Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine and Dolly Parton in the melodramatic comedy Steel Magnolias (1989). Her portrayal earned Julia Roberts an Oscar nomination and made her a star. For her next film, Roberts attempted to branch off into more serious waters playing a medical student who starts tinkering with life-after-death experiences with four other medical students in the uneven Flatliners (1990). During production, Julia Roberts became involved with co-star Kiefer Sutherland.

Later in 1990, she had her greatest success to date starring opposite Richard Gere in Garry Marshall's sentimental romantic- comedy Pretty Woman (1990). The film was a runaway international hit and Julia Roberts became a household name. But despite her sudden rise to superstardom, her career faltered as her subsequent films, particularly Dying Young (1991), have been of uneven quality. Matters weren't helped when her break-up with Sutherland went public. After shooting her scenes as Tinker Bell in Steven Spielberg's Hook (1991), Julia Roberts took some time off to repair her personal life, though she did appear briefly in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In 1993, she married off-beat country singer Lyle Lovett (they amicably divorced two years later) and then made a successful come back in The Pelican Brief (1993). Her career picked up the following year with I Love Trouble and Pret-a -Porter, neither of which did much to further her career. The much-heralded Mary Reilly (1996) was a box-office fizzle, but Julia Roberts career began picking up again with Michael Collins and Conspiracy Theory (both 1996). In 1997, Roberts made a triumphant return to romantic comedy in the darkly funny My Best Friend's Wedding.

by Sandra Brennan

Julia Roberts will star in ''Charlotte's Web.'' In the live-action version of the barnyard classic, she'll voice the spider by Gary Susman

SPINNING A NEW WEB Roberts will voice Charlotte

Now that she's a mom, it's apparently time for Julia Roberts to start making kids' movies. Her next film gig is likely to require little time away from the twins, just a few hours in a recording studio. Paramount announced that she'll play the title character in its live-action adaptation of E.B. White's kid-lit classic Charlotte's Web. Roberts will voice the part of the barnyard spider-turned-publicist who helps save piglet Wilbur's bacon by weaving some judiciously chosen adjectives into her web. No word on who will voice the part of Wilbur, though the rest of the barnyard creatures will be voiced by an all-star cast that includes Oprah Winfrey and Cedric the Entertainer as geese, Reba McEntire and Kathy Bates as cows, Andre 3000 and Thomas Haden Church as crows, and John Cleese as Samuel the Sheep. Steve Buscemi voices the key role of Templeton the rat. Dakota Fanning will play Wilbur's human friend, Fern. Cowriting the screenplay is Susannah Grant, the scribe behind Roberts' Oscar-winning performance in Erin Brockovich. Director Gary Winick (13 Going on 30) begins shooting the film at the end of January in Australia.

(Posted:01/19/05)

Pretty Woman Buys Rummy's Land
NEW YORK (AP) With newly born twins, it looks like Julia Roberts needs some extra space.

The actress has bought 32 acres of Taos, N.M., real estate from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, People magazine reports.

According to the magazine, since taking up part-time residence in New Mexico in 1995, Roberts has bought other pieces of property adjacent to hers. The plot purchased from Rumsfeld in an area of Taos known as Des Montes neighbors the 80 acres Roberts already owns.

Messages left at the Taos Country Clerk’s home and with Julia Roberts’ publicist by The Associated Press seeking confirmation were not immediately returned.

Rumsfeld, though, still owns other real estate holdings in Taos, including several houses.

Roberts, 37, and her husband Danny Moder, 35, just weeks ago gave birth to twins, Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter Moder. The couple were married at her Taos home in 2002.

George And Julia Top Sexy People Poll
Ocean's Twelve stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts have been voted the most beautiful people on the planet in a new poll.

Julia Roberts Rushed To Hospital
Julia Roberts, 37, was planning to have a baby shower on Saturday, Oct. 23, but the night before she unexpectedly began bleeding and was rushed to the hospital from her Venice, Calif., home by her husband, Danny Moder,35, crying: "I can't lose my babies -- not now!"

The horrific incident began innocently enough on the evening of Friday, Oct. 22, when Julia started to have mild contractions. "Julia thought they were what's commonly known as Braxton Hicks contractions, or 'false labor,'" the source says.

Ever health-conscious, Julia phoned her doctor -- her regular ob-gyn -- and the doctor said it was probably nothing severe but suggested she call back if things got worse. Apparently, and almost immediately, they did.

"Things got so bad that Danny had no choice but to rush Julia to the hospital," said the source. "He told his family later that his wife actually began to go into early labor and that doctors had to give Julia medicine to stop the labor." In fact, the doctors at the hospital worked feverishly to stop the bleeding.

Dr. Merle Berger, an obstetrician at Harvard Medical School, who did not treat Julia, tells Star it is dangerous for a woman in Julia's state -- still over 10 weeks away from her due date -- to experience bleeding.

Julia blames herself for this brush with danger because of her recent busy schedule -- an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, parties and various promotional events for her upcoming films Ocean's Twelve and Closer. The baby shower Julia was supposed to attend on Oct. 23 was the third in as many weeks. "She feels she tried to do too much and overexerted herself," said a source.

But Danny and both her doctors reassured her that it wasn't her fault. Still, from now on, Julia will have to lay low, with orders for bed rest and less stress. "I'll do everything I can to see that my wife is taken care of," a source says Moder told doctors. "I'll make sure at least one of us is more relaxed from now on."

-- michael glynn, reginald fitz, david caplan & karen parr

Other great sites:

• JULIA ROBERTS NUDE PICTURES, NAKED FAKES