Michelle Obama has nothing on Julia Roberts.
On the Monday after the Oscars, there was the elusive actress, in a fitted black blazer, jeans and rippling locks, with all the presence of a polished but approachable politician, pressing palms and personally greeting each member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. -- that idiosyncratic group that bestows the Golden Globes -- in a conference room of the Four Seasons Hotel. The line to speak with her was long, its denizens frequently shabby and odd and gushing, but Roberts did not flag, dutifully raining that glorious, improbable smile on every grateful scribe and posing for a memorializing photo.
She then disappeared, and returned with her hair upswept, sporting a green, summery linen top. She did a quick photo shoot (as the great "Slumdog Millionaire" actor Irrfan Khan, a hotel guest, stopped by and introduced himself) and retreated for this interview into an almost furniture-less meeting room. She perched on the only couch, eventually slinging one leg up in that idiosyncratic, long-legged recline, often seen in her movies and magazine spreads.
Unlike her married peers (Brangelina or TomKat), Roberts and husband Danny Moder have maintained a distinctly more selective media presence, and the Oscar-winning actress has emerged from her cocoon only to discuss her new film, "Duplicity" -- the first movie she's actually top-lined since 2003 -- which opens Friday.
It's a snarky romance-thriller about two former spies -- looking to score really big -- in the underhanded world of corporate espionage. She and Clive Owen -- the two were last seen viciously battling on screen in 2004's "Closer" -- play charming scoundrels, madly in love but congenitally unable to trust. The film, written and directed by "Michael Clayton's" Tony Gilroy, is told through flashbacks and purposeful misdirects, leaving the viewer to puzzle out the extent of almost every character's mendacious ways.
But that's just work. What has preoccupied Roberts for the last few years has been motherhood, and the evidence of her other focus -- Henry, 2, and Hazel and Phineas, 4 -- were seen shortly before the interview, hanging out at the entrance of the hotel. "We move as this pack," says Roberts. "This morning Danny got them ready while I got me ready. Load them up in the car, and here we come."
