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Love Hewitt gets dead men talking

As one of Hollywood's young stars, Jennifer Love Hewitt is surprisingly scandal-free. She has a natural attractiveness, smiles a lot, works hard, and donates her time and money to worthy charities. She's the kind of girl most mothers want their sons to marry.

And she seems to be stealing her share of the limelight without making the smartest of career moves. (Garfield and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties - need we say more?) Now, the 28-year-old is enjoying a revival with her role in a new TV series, Ghost Whisperer.

Love Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon, an antiques shop owner who communicates with ghosts and uses her gift to relay important information to the living. With weekly US TV ratings of about 10 million, the comedy/drama has attracted some unusual requests from hard-core fans of the show - some have approached the actress and asked her to contact a dead relative or two.

Love Hewitt, who is also a co-producer of the show, says the underlying message of Ghost Whisperer has made her re-evaluate her life. 'This show has definitely inspired me to live better, and not spend my whole time thinking about what's going to happen when life ends, which, I think, is the mistake a lot of people make.'

She'd rather wake up every morning and ask herself what she wants for that particular day, rather than chase long-term goals. 'And that is really what you are supposed to be doing, not preparing yourself and everyone around you for the day that you're not going to be here anymore,' she says.

'I always thought I was a positive person, and when we started doing this show I realised that I pretty much lived my whole life that way - to accomplish this and that. I realised that if I would just shut up long enough to enjoy it, that it would all happen as it was supposed to, and the show's really inspired me to do that. It's the biggest way it's changed me.'

With favourable reviews and solid ratings, Love Hewitt's future looks secure. But it wasn't always that way. She established herself as an actress in the TV series Party of Five, and raised her profile with the comic horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer. But she's also acted in duds such as 2002's The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan, though she redeemed herself playing a conniving daughter in Heartbreakers opposite Sigourney Weaver.

Born in Waco, Texas, Love Hewitt was brought up by her mother, a speech and language therapist, after her parents divorced when she was a child. She has been in show business since she was a toddler. She began performing at the age of three, and was drawing crowds with a tap-dancing routine soon afterwards. At the age of 10, talent scouts urged her to move to Los Angeles. She quickly got work in television commercials and then on the Disney music show Kids Incorporated. She still sings, although her albums sell better in Europe and Japan than the US.

For now, Love Hewitt is eager to develop Ghost Whisperer. In the first season's opening episodes, viewers see a good-natured and genial Melinda Gordon, but things change a little in the second season, which is already screening in the US.

'I definitely think she's gotten a little tougher,' says Love Hewitt of her character's development. 'I still think she's that sort of mushy, lovely person she was the first season.

[But] I think she has a greater appreciation now, and a strength about her, for what the people she helps go through. I think she has a deeper understanding of the people she deals with, which makes a difference.'

As producer, Love Hewitt has a significant say in her character's progression. And she admits that after years of playing 'nice girls', it might not be the easiest thing to get audiences to see her in another light. 'In Heartbreakers, [my character] was sort of a raunchy, feisty, sexy young girl. So I think people still have that in their brains. But this was a project I found and brought to life at my production company.

'As a female, and as a 28-year-old, to be able to have a group of producers who produce lots and lots of things that have been very successful, look at you and think that you have something, they allow you to have that position and be a part of it ... it's an amazing experience,' she says.

Co-stars, including stand-up comedian Jay Mohr and Camryn Manheim, who starred in The Practice, insist that Love Hewitt doesn't abuse her power as producer when on the set.

'She doesn't speak a word of English. It's very strange,' jokes Mohr of his boss. 'All her language is dubbed in. She's Portuguese.'

Manheim joins in the good-natured ribbing. 'I don't care to work for anyone that has better boobs than me,' she says. 'So it's problematic.'

Ghost Whisperer is on Star World tonight at 9pm

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