the slasher thriller sleeper hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr. Despite her limited screen time in the film, Heche was considered a "standout" by some reviewers, such as Derek Eller writing for Variety. She obtained the part of a presidential advisor opposite Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman in the political satire Wag the Dog, a role that was originally written for a man. Budgeted at US$15 million, the film made US$64 million. She received the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1997 for her roles in Donnie Brasco and Wag the Dog. Heche's first lead role in a major film came in the 1998 romantic adventure Six Days, Seven Nights, where she appeared opposite Harrison Ford, portraying a New York City journalist who ends up with a pilot (Ford) on a deserted island following a crash landing. She had been cast in the film one day before her same-sex relationship with Ellen DeGeneres went public. Although Heche was cast in a second starring role shortly thereafter as Vince Vaughn's love interest in the drama Return to Paradise (1998), she felt that her relationship with DeGeneres destroyed her prospects as a leading woman. According to Heche, "People said, 'You're not getting a job because you're gay'". She commented: "How could that destroy my career? I still can't wrap my head around it." Six Days, Seven Nights received mixed reviews, but grossed US$74.3 million in North America and US$164.8 million worldwide. On her appearance in the dramatic thriller Return to Paradise, a writer for The New York Times remarked, "as Ms. Heche's formidable Beth Eastern does her best to manipulate the other characters on (costar Joaquin Phoenix's character) behalf, Return to Paradise takes on the abstract weightiness of an ethical debate rather than the visceral urgency of a thriller". Heche starred in Gus Van Sant's Psycho (1998), a remake of the 1960 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the updated version, she took on the role originally played by Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, an embezzler who arrives at an old motel run by serial killer Norman Bates (played by Vince Vaughn in their second collaboration). Psycho earned negative reviews, and despite a US$60 million budget, it made US$37.1 million worldwide. In an otherwise negative review of the film, Janet Maslin of