Hot shot
Elisha Cuthbert
Not all actresses have to wait tables until they get a break. On her second day in Los Angeles, Canadian Elisha Cuthbert found herself auditioning for the female lead in the upcoming Spider-Man. “Reese Witherspoon sat right next to me, and Amy Smart walked in afterward,” Elisha, 18, recalls. “I thought, ‘Who cares if I get the part? I’m all right in this town!’” Although the role of Spidey’s squeeze ultimately went to Kirsten Dunst, Elisha landed another plum part as Kiefer Sutherland’s defiant daughter Kimberly on Fox’s hot new drama 24. The premise of the series—which takes place in real time—has Kiefer trying to prevent the assassination of a presidential candidate while searching for Kimberly after she sneaks out of the house. For Elisha, playing a rebel is a major stretch. “Kimberly wears a cutoff tank top, tight jeans, has wild hair and makes out with boys.... I call my mom every Sunday,” she says. Her character’s road-warrior ways, however, hit closer to home. As cohost of the series Popular Mechanics for Kids from 1997 to 1999, Elisha met with Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House, sampled seal meat at the North Pole and snorkeled with sharks in Southern California. Swimming with sharks? No wonder navigating through Hollywood doesn’t scare her.—Ellen Lieberman