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"Best known for playing bubbly, outgoing, Chihuahua-loving Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, actress and producer Reese Witherspoon is one of America&amp;#039;s most successful blondes. She has won a collection of gongs, including an Oscar and BAFTA in 2005 for her performance as June Carter Cash in Walk The Line, and stars in new coming-of-age film Mud. More recently however, the actress has come under the spotlight for her &amp;#039;il-Legal&amp;#039; behaviour. Witherspoon was arrested earlier this month for apparent disorderly conduct when her husband was stopped by US officials on suspicion of drink-driving.   Standing up to officers, Witherspoon allegedly shouted that old Hollywood chestnut: &amp;quot;Do you know my name?&amp;quot;, a trademark phrase of Tinseltown for the likes of fellow celebs Paris Hilton and, just last week, Tara Reid. In an attempt to improve her tarnished reputation, here are ten fun facts about the star: 1. Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 22, 1976. Her father worked in the US military, and for four years the star was brought up in Germany before spending the majority of her childhood in Nashville, Tennessee. In her acceptance speech for the Oscar for &amp;#039;Best Actress&amp;#039; in 2005, she singled out her grandmother as being &amp;quot;one of the biggest inspirations in [her] life&amp;quot;.      2. Both her parents trained in the medical profession. Her father was an otolaryngologist (try pronouncing that one) while her mother was a paediatric nurse and professor of nursing. In 1998, Witherspoon - who once revealed she would &amp;quot;love to be a paediatric surgeon&amp;quot; - jokily said that if her career didn&amp;#039;t kick off, then she&amp;#039;d say: &amp;quot;This is it - I&amp;#039;m joining med school!&amp;quot; 3. Before she got her first big break in the film industry in The Man in the Moon, Witherspoon worked as a model, fronting television adverts for a family friend&amp;#039;s florist company at the age of 7. She&amp;#039;s since advertised for Avon. 4. Commenting on the stigma around her blonde roots, Witherspoon admitted that &amp;quot;blondes are supposed to register somewhere between dumb and superficial&amp;quot;, going on to say: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m from the South, so I&amp;#039;m a blonde southern belle. That&amp;#039;s not supposed to be a good combination if you&amp;#039;re an actress trying to be taken seriously.&amp;quot; It certainly worked for Legally Blonde, which took $141.7 million (\u00C2\u00A392.9m) internationally at the box office.  5. She&amp;#039;s a self-confessed bookworm, studying English Literature at Stanford University in California before dropping out to pursue acting. Her favourite book is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, a book she says &amp;quot;deals with religion and life and love and war&amp;quot;... but obviously not the law about (alleged) disorderly conduct! 6. At school, she was a successful cheerleader and says she &amp;quot;never really decided to be an actor&amp;quot;. We&amp;#039;re guessing millions of dollars and heaps of awards later made her grateful for sticking with the acting profession. 7. Witherspoon reportedly became close friends with the Duchess of Cambridge having met the royal at a charity event in 2011. Kate Middleton&amp;#039;s favourite films are said to include Legally Blonde and Walk the Line, and the pair have apparently shared contact details and sent emails ever since.       8. She was 12 years old when she shared her first kiss with a boyfriend at a roller skating rink. Graham &amp;quot;was a pretty good kisser&amp;quot; according to Witherspoon. But who cares about Graham when you&amp;#039;ve also kissed Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Pattinson and Chris Pine? 9. Some of Witherspoon&amp;#039;s biggest regrets include turning down Scream, missing out on playing Juliet in Baz Luhrmann&amp;#039;s Romeo + Juliet and screwing up her audition for Cape Fear. She blamed messing up on a passenger with whom she was travelling to the audition, who was &amp;quot;raving about Robert De Niro&amp;quot; and put her off. De Niro was nominated for an Oscar for his performance in the film.  10. Witherspoon is mother to one daughter and one son from her first marriage to actor Ryan Phillippe, who she divorced in 2007. Witherspoon and her second husband, talent agent Jim Toth, welcomed a baby boy in September 2012. Yes, the same Jim Toth who was pulled over by the cops last weekend on suspicion of drink driving. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/10-things-about/news/a475519/ten-things-about-reese-witherspoon/>