Dear Lindsay,
I just wanted to let you know that after careful consideration, I’ve decided that you are my favorite of the tween queens. Out of what I’d like to call “The Big Three” – Hilary Duff, Amanda Bynes, and the Olsen twins (okay, they are actually two people and I’m not supposed to call them “The Olsen Twins” anymore, but “The Big Four” just didn’t sound right) you are the least…well, you are the least likely to be voted prom queen.
Wait! Don’t stop reading – I meant that as a compliment! Hilary, despite her Everygirl role as Lizzie McGuire, has always seemed a bit too cutesy to play anything but popular. Amanda Bynes, with those long legs and perfect straight hair, reminds me of the girl who’s hip enough to hang with the older crowd – she was rumored to be dating an MTV VJ, for Pete’s sake! And the Olsen twins (oops, I mean Mary-Kate and Ashley)? Gorgeous? Yes. Accessible? No.
But you, you actually seem…approachable. Someone your audience can see themselves sitting with in the cafeteria or passing a note to in class. This isn’t to say you aren’t cute (you’re just as cute, if not more so, than the others - I swear!) but you have something about you that just says, while you might not actually be in the high-school marching band, you are probably friends with someone who is.
This is why I’m so happy to see you in Mark Waters’(your Freaky Friday director!) new film, Mean Girls. Penned by SNL’s Tina Fey (who also stars as a math teacher) and based on Rosalind Wiseman’s book, “Queen Bees and Wannabes”, Mean Girls stars you as Cady Heron (pronounced Katie!), a sweet, naďve girl who has been home schooled all her life because her parents have some Wild Thornberries-esque job in Africa. When her mom is offered tenure at Northwestern, however, Cady moves to the suburbs and enters the real jungle: the world of high-school girl cliques. She begins hanging out with the outcasts, out-and-proud Damian (Daniel Franzese) and rumored-lesbian Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan), who has it in for the school’s vicious in-crowd, The Plastics. The Plastics, led by evil Regina George (Rachel McAdams), consist of dumb-as-rocks Karen (Amanda Seyfried) and rich-girl Gretchen (Lacey Chabert, who has grown into a bizarre Jennifer Love Hewitt since her days playing Claudia on Party of Five).
When they’re not terrorizing the rest of the school, The Plastics’ evil manipulation turns inward; Karen and Gretchen are so terrified of Regina’s reign-of-terror that they abide by her strict guidelines on ridiculously mundane activities such as wearing sweatpants and silver-hoop earrings. When Cady falls for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) it seems like she’s committed social ...
