And this is something she should know about, having been in the business since the tender age of 17 and reaching mega-stardom with Zorro at 29. "When you step out into the public, you can be something else," she observes. "That's what I wanted to use for my character. I wanted to show the split personality--what she puts out there to her fans and also what she's really like. So that was fun to play, to be able to have that kind of schizophrenia going on!"

Jones' hilarious and subtle performance is easily the high point of America's Sweethearts, which is marred by an uneven and unsatisfying plot that focusses too much on the Roberts-Cusack romance and leaves the inspired, sharp showbizz comedy struggling in the background. Other terrific actors give scene-stealing performances as well--most notably Christopher Walken's gonzo filmmaker, Stanley Tucci's manic studio boss and Hank Azaria's lisping Spanish lover. But Jones is the one we remember when the lights go up.

Next up for the 32-year-old mother from Swansea is another scene-stealing role in the hotly anticipated film version of the stage hit Chicago. She'll sing and dance as the devious Velma opposite Renee Zellweger's Roxy Hart and Richard Gere's Billy Flynn. No contest then.

CATHERINE ZETA TRIVIA She is named after her grandmothers: Catherine on her mother's side, Zeta on her father's. She's a trained singer and dancer who at age 17 starred in a London production of 42nd Street. She was originally in the chorus but when the star of the show got sick she went on in her place ... and stayed there. Her father managed of a candy factory. Her big brother David A Jones is an executive at Initial Entertainment Group, the company that co-financed Traffic. She has a tracheotomy scar as a result of a serious virus that blocked her breathing as an infant. In the early 1990s she released a single and an album in the UK. She and her husband, Oscar-winning actor and producer Michael Douglas, were born exactly 25 years apart--on 25 September 1969 and 1944, respectively.