a "must-see", while Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called her performance "affecting" but not "electrifying, because the material doesn't have it". She joined the Twilight series' third installment The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, replacing Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria Sutherland, a revenge-seeking vampire. Howard was a fan of the book series and expressed admiration for her character. The film was a box office hit and drew mixed reviews, though Howard's performance received critical acclaim; Honeycutt lauded her as "the epitome of sensual, feline cunning". Howard appeared in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (2010) as a love interest of Matt Damon's character. Empire referred to her character as "twinkly", and stated Howard's and Damon's "fine work" uplift the film. Hereafter was a commercial hit but critics gave it a mixed reception. In January 2011, Howard became the first celebrity ambassador for designer Kate Spade. She appeared in Tate Taylor's 2011 film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, in which she played Hilly Holbrook, a racist socialite who leads a Junior League chapter in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi. The film was a critical and commercial success. The Miami Herald described her role as a "broadly comic villain" while The New York Times praised Howard for being "energetic in a thankless role". Howard was nominated for numerous accolades, including an MTV Movie Award and a NAACP Image Award, winning a Critics' Choice Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award alongside the rest of the cast. Howard, alongside her father, produced Gus Van Sant's Restless (2011), a dark coming-of-age movie about a teenage boy and girl who are engrossed with death. Howard offered considerable input on the film's screenwriting and directorial choices. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews. She portrayed Joseph Gordon-Levitt's on-and-off girlfriend in the cancer dramedy 50/50 (2011). The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The New York Times stated Howard "makes a real character" out of the "shrewish" role while Los Angeles Times wrote she was "rapidly becoming today's preeminent Queen of Mean". Howard directed the short film When You Find Me, a social film that was developed in collaboration with Canon under the premise of gathering inspiration through images selected from a photography contest. 96,362 entries were accepted while only eight were selected for use in the film.