She's It

" 'IT' is that quality possessed by some which draws all others

with its magnetic force. With 'IT' you win all men if you are a woman -- all women if you are a man. 'IT' can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction."

That's how English romance novelist Elinor Glyn defined the term "it-girl," a phrase that entered the public imagination with the 1927 film "It," based on one of her novels and starring the original it-girl, Clara Bow.

Hollywood is perpetually on the hunt for this elusive quality, this blend of sexuality and innocence, of materialistic chutzpah and good values, of swagger and sincerity, that tends to sell tickets. As the Cameron Diazes, Drew Barrymores and Gwyneth Paltrows age out of the ingenue role, a new crop of young actresses has emerged -- a group that includes Amy Adams, Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley, contenders to the crown that for years belonged to Julia Roberts, perhaps the last woman movie star who everyone agrees actually guaranteed attendance in the theaters.

At the moment much of Hollywood is chattering about pretty Anne Hathaway, another dark-eyed, dark-haired beauty, who was plucked out of relative obscurity by Roberts' own star-maker, "Pretty Woman" director Garry Marshall. Disney was explicitly looking for the next Audrey Hepburn when Marshall cast this New Jersey-raised actress, with one short-lived TV series to her credit, as the lead in the 2001 hit franchise, "The Princess Diaries." Seven years later, the 26-year-old Hathaway has finally been transformed into the it-girl of the moment, with a string of commercial hits to her name, and heat fueled by her unexpected but thoroughly wrenching performance as an addict on furlough from rehab for her sister's wedding in "Rachel Getting Married." Already, Hathaway is getting Oscar buzz.

And she's getting the sympathy vote. Ironically enough, there's often nothing that endears a star to her audience more than love's travails, a bad boyfriend or two.

Hathaway's Italian boyfriend of four years, Raffaello Follieri, has recently been sentenced to prison for 54 months for fraud. The double whammy of on-screen and off-screen despair has curiously combined to give Hathaway heft and maturity, making her more than just another pretty face.

Late-night skewer

Hathaway has also deftly managed the media circus. Although it-girls inevitably magnetize attention, it's not every starlet who's forced to explain herself to such august pop culture pashas as David Letterman, who recently grilled Hathaway about her personal life.