MTV Movie Awards: Reese Witherspoon has a message for the youngsters

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Amid the raunch at the MTV Movie Awards, the most interesting moment was the speech by Reese Witherspoon, who was given this year’s Generation Award — yes, for MTV, Witherspoon is like the Katharine Hepburn of the Facebook era. The 35-year-old star of ‘Election’ actually introduced a serious comment into the parade of the purient.

She said she was ‘trying to make it cool’ to be a ‘good girl’ and pointed out that hard work, talent and persistence are better than scandal when it comes to making a reputation. ‘It’s possible,’ she added, ‘ to make it in Hollywood without a reality show.’

But then, Witherspoon also used a variation on the f-bomb during her speech — these are the mixed messages of a complicated age.

— Geoff Boucher