Reese Witherspoon covers Elle UK May 2011. This is going to be the first of many magazine covers for Witherspoon for the month of May, since she’s promoting her new movie with Robert Pattinson. She reportedly took about a week’s break from promotion after her wedding so she could go on honeymoon, but she’s back to work this week. The 35-year-old covers the British edition of Elle, looking like someone woke her up from a nap, backstage. It’s as though she was made-up and ready for her shoot and fell asleep and then someone shot the sub-Terry Richardson cover by surprise. She looks pretty, if annoyed that photographer Ben Hassett is taking her picture. I quite like the styling of the cover and the saturation of the blue chair in the background; enough that I’m going to overlook her wearing a bathing suit and heels, like it’s still 2003 and people still do that (I remember seeing Paris Hilton do that on the first season of The Simple Life and thinking it looked stupid back then). The cover’s already out-of-date, as the byline says ‘Why, Miss Witherspoon’ when she’s married… she was already engaged when this was shot, judging by the interview. Anyhow, this is probably only the subscriber cover. The version sold in stores will be a little different, as with the Gwen Stefani cover from last month (though I’m seeing a pattern with the styling of the British covers that’s leaning away from traditional composition and boring colouring). Quotes about her first and second marriages are below.
- On her marriage to Ryan Phillippe: ‘Oh, I was so, so young. I was, like, ridiculously young. I learnt a lot, though. It was a good opportunity for me to really find out what it means to be a partner and to be in a marriage and it’s not anything that I thought it was,’ she told the May edition of UK magazine Elle. ‘You can’t say, ‘I don’t want to talk about that.’ You just can’t. You’ve got to talk about it all.’
- On being surprised someone wanted to marry her a second time: ‘It’s an exciting feeling. [Somebody saying], ‘You’re the one.’ And it’s a surprise. You know, I’m surprised when people who aren’t related to me see my movies,’ she explained. ‘And you’re surprised somebody wants to be with you because, boy, I’ve got a lot of quirks and wrinkles.’ Witherspoon feels ‘lucky’ to be with Toth because she finds the whole dating process hard. Being with someone in the same industry has made things easier, and she admits feeling ‘happy’ she no longer has to worry about finding someone.
- On trusting her longtime friends, who don’t care about her fame: ‘Friendships are work. You can only have a friend if you are a friend. You’ve got to be there. I really want to be the person who shows up for people when they need me,’ she explained. ‘[My friends and I] tell each other everything. Stuff is hard to deal with, and we’ve gone through a lot together. I have an incredible support system.’
This is the best I have ever seen her look. Just gorgeous!