For Your Consideration: Jennifer Coolidge

"Come on! Do you think they'd ever ask me to play a doctor or a lawyer or something like that?"

Admittedly, seeing Jennifer Coolidge in the flesh-a strappy, black number clinging to her 5'10", all woman figure framed in a full mane of gorgeous blonde tresses as she reclines on a sofa at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel-you have to wonder what sort of hospital she might work at.

Giving off a sort of, 'I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way' vibe, Jennifer Coolidge is, in a word, a bombshell. If ever any actress epitomized the word, she does. Every word that comes out of her mouth oozes sexuality-and depending on what you ask, you might just get an overtly sexual response. And from her trademark pucker right down to that curvaceous figure that made a man of one horny high-school in American Pie and its sequels, you see why Coolidge has a cult following among frat boys, lesbians and, of course, gay men.

But despite the colorful palette of characters Coolidge has managed to craft over the past decade-who can for get her bend and snapping hairstylist Paulette in the Legally Blonde (pictured below right) films or her turn as the popcorn eating, lesbian dog owner Sherri Ann Ward Cabot in Best in Show-Hollywood, it seems, has forever typecast her as that quirky blonde.

"I'd love to play a serial killer ... something fun like that," she says, obviously excited as she scoots to the edge of the sofa. "Like a gun toting, tough female Terminator ... who's also a doctor."

And with that she flips her hair, lets out a sexpot of a laugh worthy of Kathleen Turner, and reclines back on the couch.

Not that we're going to spend the entire interview equating everything Jennifer Coolidge does with sex-in fact, her role in the film we're here to discuss (the Hollywood satire For Your Consideration) is decidedly un-sexy. In fact, she's, dare we say, prim.

As Whitney Taylor Brown, producer of Home for Purim, a film within film that is (unjustifiably) garnering Oscar talk, Coolidge finds herself decked out in a bevy of church hats and '40s business suits that look decidedly out of placed among her style challenged crew. Her family made its fortune in the diaper business-picking up and disposing of the dirty ones-and now, she somehow feels qualified to oversee an independent film (at one point, she questions if Purim and Easter are interchangeable).

The film, like all of Guest's productions, is largely improvised-the shell of the script is there with key plot points, but the actors are responsible for bringing their characters, lines and all, to life on screen.

"You spend weeks creating this character ... and for me, back when I was in the Groundlings, to do improv the conditions always had to be right," Coolidge says. "It had to be the right time of day, I couldn't be too tired, I couldn't have any coffee, because I found when you're up here (she gestures over her head) you pick the most obvious choice. Improv works better for me when I'm more mellow. But, you know, on a film set, you're always tired and you film when you film. So I was a little bit worried, but you have to just go in there and do it."

And she has ... three times, previously in Best in Show and as an incompetent publicist in A Mighty Wind. And while it's quite clear she's a welcome member of Guest's elite club, Coolidge jokes that she's always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"It's a mistake. A total mistake," she deadpans. "I keep waiting for them to figure it out."

Back before directors like Guest came calling, when Coolidge had to pound the pavement in search of her next gig, she made money as a stand in of sorts-or as the case may be on one particular project, a lie in.

The film was Mullholland Falls (a mid '90s crime drama in the vein of L.A. Confidential starring Nick Nolte and Melanie Griffith) and the cinematographer, a notorious perfectionist, wanted to walk through the film's big sex scene using stand ins.

Cue Coolidge, wearing nothing but a body stocking that shows "every dimple," and some man she'd never met before to run through the direction.

It is here in the interview, I should note, that Coolidge rises from the couch, bends over and mimics doggie style, as if to say she's not above reliving what she calls one of the worst jobs of her life.

The kicker, she remembers, is that as she envisioned it, the room would be empty save for her, the actor and said cinematographer. But a dozen or so men in suits were scattered around the soundstage for a gig that would pay the actress a mere $200.

"I was young," she laughs. "I didn't know I could have asked them all to leave."

Of course, these days, she knows better-that and the paychecks are bigger. And now-a-days Coolidge is able to give a little something back-she's a staple at charity events across the United States ("The two charities I'm drawn toward, it seems, are AIDS and animals.") and, not that she's playing favorites, but ...

"The gay events have it together," she says. "They're organized, they're entertaining. I wish I could get the gay people and the animal people together and do an event. I think that's going to be my goal."

A highly attainable goal considering most of her friends are gay (and many of her fans, she notes, saying there's nothing better than walking into an event behind a big star like Jim Carrey and have the gay doorman scream "'Jennifer Coolidge.'"). And, not starting any rumors here, but should the day come that Jennifer decided to see if the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence, she's got her dame picked out-the typical answer, she's aware, but with a different plan of attack.

"If we're just talking about a fun night, it would have to be Angelina ... just because it would be so fun, for a couple of hours or so. Nothing long term!"

Spoken like a gay ... and a bombshell at that.