Witherspoon's art imitates life

There's plenty of irony for Reese Witherspoon in her new Christmas comedy movie, Four Holidays.

The actress plays Kate, a San Francisco yuppy in a longterm relationship with Brad, played by Vince Vaughn.

The couple flees each Christmas to a tropical island where they relax and sip margaritas, leaving behind their parents and relatives in San Francisco and the usual traumas, arguments and odd uncles and aunties most families endure on their December 25 festivities.

Kate and Brad come from divorced homes, so if they stayed in San Francisco they would have to split Christmas Day into four pieces, ensuring they spent time with each parent and their new families.

The film's storyline is ironic for Witherspoon because this Christmas, if you believe her, art may imitate life.

Thanks to her own marriage breakup, Witherspoon's Christmas may be as odd and uncomfortable as some of the scenes in Four Holidays.

As anyone who has picked up a gossip magazine the last couple of years knows, Witherspoon's once perceived perfect marriage to Ryan Phillippe imploded in 2006 with the actress filing for divorce and demanding sole custody of their children Ava, 9, and Deacon, 5.

There were rumours the breakup was sparked by a relationship blossoming between Phillippe and his Australian co-star Abbie Cornish on the Texas set of their Iraq protest film, Stop-Loss. The rumours had some backing when earlier this year at an event in Beverly Hills for the organisation, Australians in Film, Cornish and Phillippe went public with their romance.

But Witherspoon did not stay on the singles market long, either.

She also hooked up with a good-looking co-star, Jake Gyllenhaal, on the set of their war on terror inspired film, Rendition.

So when Witherspoon recently sat down to talk about Four Holidays in Los Angeles recently, there was one obvious question.

How will she and Phillippe, as divorced parents, deal with Christmas this year?

Will she be clinking glasses of eggnog with Cornish?

Will Gyllenhaal and Phillippe be sharing back-slapping jokes around the backyard barbecue?

Witherspoon, notoriously protective of her children, said whatever grievances she and Phillippe share will be put on the backburner so Ava and Deacon can enjoy Christmas.

"I think the most important thing is the children," Witherspoon replied. "It's like, what do they want? What makes them feel comfortable? What makes them happy?

"I think just to bear that in mind and the most important thing is to be a grown-up about it and not let any kind of feelings affect how you deal with your children. I think that's the most important thing so I'm very lucky in that we raised our kids to just be happy and it's all about them."

Witherspoon is also smart enough not to give up too many personal details when a tape recorder is sitting before her. Apart from declaring her kids will come first at Christmas, she was not about to divulge exactly how the day would unfold.

"Oh, I don't know," she giggled.

"It's not that formal. There's a lot of communication (with Phillippe) and a lot of just being very open about things. There's nothing contentious about any of it so it's all very go with the flow, whatever happens in the moment."

Whatever the plans, Witherspoon is hoping the drama she encounters on Christmas Day is well below what occurs during Four Holidays.

Kate and Brad's plan to fly to a tropical paradise for Christmas ends when San Francisco airport is shut down by fog. Any plan to hide from their family in San Francisco ends when a local TV station filming a story about the airport closure airs footage of Kate and Brad at the airport.

Members of their families see it on TV and quickly demand Kate and Brad attend all four Christmas celebrations.

The four families are played by a who's who of Hollywood and country music stars, including Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw and Kristin Chenoweth.

What Witherspoon found most challenging about shooting Four Holidays was Vaughn, and not because of the reported differences and heated arguments the actors, who also co-produced the film together, had on set.

Witherspoon denies the reports, but she said it was tough playing Vaughn's love interest when he stood more than a foot taller than her.

Witherspoon is just 155cm while Vaughn is 196cm. Director Seth Gordon had to build ramps for Witherspoon so he could capture the couple in the same camera frame. Boxes were also placed in scenes for the actress to stand on.

"We tried to make Vince smaller too," Witherspoon laughed. "We took his shoes off and all that. But no, he's 6ft 5 and I'm 5ft 2 so he's over a foot taller than me."

"And we had a really funny scene, I don't know if it's in the movie any more, but we were in bed and he rolls over and goes to sleep but rolls over and lies on top of me. t was like a tree trunk had just landed on me.I kept going, 'Timber!'"

Another frission of irony in the film is Kate and Brad's decision not to marry.

Witherspoon says her opinion of marriage has changed since she walked down the aisle with Phillippe nine years ago and it is possible she will not marry again.

She is glad the film explores the topic.

"I think the message is more it's important to stay open to whatever your relationship evolves into," the actress explains. "I don't even think we say at the end we're married.It's very open ... so many people, I'm guilty of this too myself, that I have a certain idea what I thought marriage and kids

and the whole life and things are and sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

"So you have to be open to whatever comes your way in life and that life and love and relationships take all kinds of shapes and that it's not necessarily the one you recognise."