Name and occupation: Jessica Alba, actress. Age: 17. Fleetingly seen in: Disney's Camp Nowhere, with Christopher Lloyd, and Venus Rising, with Morgan Fairchild. Soon to be bolstering her teen-actress credentials in: Idle Hands, co-starring Devon Sawa, and Never Been Kissed, starring Drew Barrymore and David Arquette. Why Alba's nightmarish junior-high experience may have prepared her for Never Been Kissed: "In sixth grade, I wasn't in the cool group, because I wasn't smoking pot and going to parties. I'd sit under a tree, eat lunch by myself, and get dirt thrown at me. My character in Never Been Kissed is just like those girls who were mean to me—catty, loud, and obnoxious—and I got to be mean to Drew Barrymore." Besides working out your teenage angst with her, how was it working with Barrymore? "She acts like a kid one second—so nice and innocent—and the next second she's making deals on scripts and doing all this producer stuff. I learned a lot from her." Now that you're a genuine ingenue, how have things changed for you? "Sometimes my friends think I'm getting too Hollywood—'Excuse me, I have to call my agent'—but if I get too big for my britches they'll bring me down to earth."
_{—KRISTA SMITH}

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