Moore or less: Mandy keeps it simple

Isn’t it sickening when the fashionable thing in Hollywood these days is for young stars to party all night, drink and drive, and outrun each other to jail? Paris Hilton was in jail for 23 days. Nicole Ritchie was slapped with a four-day jail sentence to be served before the end of September. And while erstwhile pop princess Britney Spears is just a tabloid cover away from jail, Lindsay Lohan, mere days after being released from rehab, got busted for driving under the influence and for possession of cocaine, a felony that could send the sweet-turned-awful Lohan to jail for at least six years.

It is indeed a breath of fresh air to meet Mandy Moore, a former teenybopper sensation who has maintained a decidedly wholesome image that seems to be the exception to the sick rule pervading among young Hollywood starlets today.

“I am by no means a goody-goody,” blurts out the lovely Moore when she spoke with The STAR during the junket for Warner Bros.’ new romantic-comedy License to Wed held recently at the trendy Hotel Casa Del Mar located at a secluded part along the world-famous Santa Monica beach.

 “I never thought that it would be an accomplishment that I would have to wear around. But I guess, in this day and age, it is more about choice because living in Los Angeles you’d know where to go and what to avoid if you don’t want that sort of attention. I do have a relatively low-key, quiet, simple life, cuz that’s what I prefer.”

She adds further, “I love to work and I feel lucky to have that opportunity but at the end of the day I am lazy. I can’t be bothered to go out. When I am done with the day, the last thing I want to do is go out. I want to order in take-outs, get into my pajamas and watch The View (on her Tivo).”

Moore let out a hearty laugh when one writer commented that she seems to be the anti-Paris Hilton of Hollywood.

“I would never want to speak about somebody else’s situation except for Britney because I think everyone is rooting for her,” she says in support of Spears. “I want to see her come back, have her great music out again. I’ve always been a fan of hers and I am excited to see what she’s gonna do next.”

On days when she goes out for fun, she prefers to hang out in a hotel café she frequents with her non-showbiz friends and she enjoys listening to live music by the likes of folk singers Paula Cole, Patti Griffin, etc., instead of hogging the newest bars in town and faking to dislike the clutch of paparazzi that follow their moves.

But she is not completely flawless, though. She had her own share of tabloid covers last year when her ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valderama of  That ‘70s Show proclaimed on Howard Stern’s (the notorious radio personality known in bringing out sordid, dirty details from his guests) radio show that he was the one who “picked Moore’s cherry,” so to speak. Other than that, the singer-actress is almost spotless.

“I am who I am because of my family. It is a testament to my family in how they raised me,” she reveals. “And not to give myself credit, but it is something innate within me that I am focused on doing the job at hand and whatever I have to do because I know that I am lucky to be in this position and I am not gonna do anything that would take me away from that.”

The pretty actress first gained fame as a 15-year-old singer when her debut album So Real sold nearly a million copies and spawned several Billboard Hot 100 singles in late 1999. Her album though was not universally liked by critics who dismissed her as wanna-be “pop princess” in the wake of chart-busting albums by her contemporaries Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Spears.

Determined to make a mark of her own, she reworked her debut album and re-released it in May 2000 to the same lukewarm reception by critics, some of whom called the album “mediocre in terms of sugar treats.” Her reworked album released only one single, the hit song I Wanna Be with You.

Recently, Moore herself has expressed her dislike of her earlier albums. At one point she even offered her fans full refunds.

“I’ve been very vocal about how I felt about the stuff that I did in the past and I think it is just more about the fact that there are some great mid-‘90s pop music and I just wouldn’t include myself on it,” she says.

Lest she be misunderstood, the singer-actress immediately corrected that she is only critical of her debut album and not her succeeding albums that include the songs she recorded for her first movie-starring role in A Walk to Remember which became chart-toppers in the Philippines. “I don’t really count that as the music that I am not proud of because I sang in the movie and that was a beautiful song. I am talking about my first record when I was 15, it was like, yikes!”

Moore made her first movie appearance in The Princess Diaries as the mean, popular cheerleader opposite Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. In 2002, she was cast in the film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling book A Walk to Remember. The film was a mild success in the US but for the first time in her career, a noted critic (Roger Ebert, a very influential American film critic), noticed her performance and called her “quietly convincing.”

She earned several fan-based movie awards for her role and she went on to do more romantic-comedy films. In 2006, she appeared alongside Hugh Grant in the delightful satire American Dreamz and with Diane Keaton in the mother-daughter comedy Because I Said So.

This year, she headlines yet another comedy, but this time she co-stars with film legend Robin Williams, whose own interview with this writer recorded more laughs than quotable lines, and film newcomer John Krasinski of the hit US sitcom The Office.

In License to Wed, Moore portrays Sadie Jones, who in a hasty wedding preparation with boyfriend Ben (Krasinski), agreed to a mandatory two-week Marriage Preparation Plan administered by Reverend Frank (Williams) before they could set their altar date. What ensues is a series of outrageous incidents that would put to test the strength of the relationship between Ben and Sadie.

“I just giggled and clapped and that was it,” she says when asked on her experience working with Williams. “It was a pleasure to have worked with him.”

The movie is a comedic take on the hilarity of prenuptial programs gaining some popularity in the US today and the tests would almost discourage everyone from getting married.

Moore’s view on marriage was undeterred though. She still believes in marriage but only with certain rules: “I decided I am not gonna get married on a beach,” she notes. “It is quite awful. It is humid and hot, there’s nothing beautiful and glowing when everybody is sweating and uncomfortable. But it is far, far down the path for me. I am 23 and it is not something I am thinking about anytime soon.”

License to Wed opens tomorrow, Aug. 1.