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"I got spanked for the toothbrush Rising star Rachel McAdams thinks the spoils of stardom are downright rotten. By Alexandra Phanor. Photographed by Alex Hoerner

EViiRYBObV's KAGRR to please Rachel "Yeah," she says. "I got spanked for the McAdams. Bui, frankly, the royal treat• toothbrush incident." ment that's customary lor budding Growing up in St. Thomas, a small starlets gives this'-born actress town outside Toronto, McAdams never the creeps. As she says, '"The more that's pictured herself playing for laughs on the given to you. the less von hove to come big screen. "I didn't imagine I'd be doing up with yourself. And that's not produc• comedies," she says. "I just knew I'd be tive." As if on cue. there's a knock at the doing dramas. I was doing Shakespeare door. It's the hotel staff, dropping in tor when f was 12." After a couple of indie the second time that day to sec if films and TV roles in , her big McAdams has everything she needs. "She break came at 22, when she landed The just asked me if f wanted fresh apples," Hot Chick and was surprised to discover she says, embarrassed by all the atten• there was a funny girl lurking inside her. tion. "And I haven't even eaten the ones "I'm not worried about being that are sitting here." pigeonholed. For me these characters are Ironically, directors love to make a stretch," she says. The actress gets a McAdams the center of attention. In chance to show off her serious side The Hoi Chick one ol her first big roles, this summer in ' The and perhaps her most regrettable — Notebook, Filmed in and around McAdams was the scorching femme in Charleston, South Carolina, it's the story question. And in the soon-to-be-released of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's , scripted by Saturday A%/ir who's trying desperately to remember her Live'* . McAdams plays a devil• first love. The bittersweet tale casts ish debutante determined to make a new- McAdams and as a young student's life a living helk couple embroiled in a forbidden romance. Given her genetic blessings (blond But her hiatus from the lighthearted hair, blue eyes, long-limbed frame). won't last long. For the next four months McAdams certainly looks the part of the McAdams will be living in Los Angeles,

;: manipulative high school ice queen. But. shooting with funny• ~ like the rest of us. she's been trying hard men and . "I y her whole life to stay out of the way of am going to be >r an. apartment '.7 the mean girls. "There are some really today," she says. "I'm usually so transient § angry girls out there who ate petrifying. in L.A., it will feel good to establish a E It's a bit of a cliche [or an to say. life here and enjoy the sunshine." But 5 but I was a nerd." she confesses. isn't she worried that all that Hollywood - Regardless, the girl who describes putting sunshine will turn her into the pampered % soap on her brother's toothbrush as the star she doesn't want to be? "I don't •c crudest thing she's ever done got a real want to get all dramatic about it, I mean kick out of placing nasty in Mean Gin's. it is nice," McAdams says. She exhales | Especially because, in movies, you don't and adds, "Really, these fresh apples are I have ti» pay the price tor bad behavior. looking.preuv good right now."