“I think that it’s sexier not to show everything. I feel that people’s imaginations can do way more.” That’s Jennifer Love Hewitt, talking about her provocative new Lifetime drama, “The Client List.” Well, somebody should’ve told the marketing department that, because the ads for the show — you know, the ones that show Hewitt lounging around in a skimpy bra and panties — seem to show just about everything. So how much is too much?

The show does air on basic cable, after all, so Hewitt won’t have to show everything — and she says she wouldn’t have taken the role if she had to. “I wouldn’t have done nudity, no. That’s not something that I feel particularly comfortable with.” But even keeping (some of) her clothes on, Hewitt still experienced some first-day jitters. “It was a little nerve-wracking the first day, for sure,” she says of shooting scenes at the infamous day spa where her character, struggling Texas mom Riley Parks, turns to prostitution to help support her family. “Even though we’re actors, the guys are strangers to me at the time. I’m sort of there in lingerie and everything, so it does take a couple of takes to sort of feel comfortable with it.”

“List,” you may remember, started out as a TV movie that aired back in 2010, and the experience left Hewitt and the rest of the cast wanting more. “We had sort of joked around when we were doing the movie about how fun it would be to sort of turn this into a series and really get in deeper with the lives of the women in the spa.” And indeed, the series is less about what Hewitt coyly refers to as the “happy endings part” and more of a workplace dramedy about a tight-knit group of women who happen to perform certain acts behind closed doors.

This isn’t Hewitt’s first time at the TV rodeo, of course. She started out as Bailey’s girlfriend Sarah on Fox’s ’90s drama “Party of Five” and is fresh off a five-season run as medium Melinda Gordon on CBS’s “Ghost Whisperer.” And being from Texas herself, the role of Riley feels like something of a homecoming. “I’ve gotten to go back to my original accent, which has been really fun for me,” she explains. “But it’s hard to drop now sometimes when I go home. So I talk goofy, and my friends are like, ‘What are you doing?’”

TV veteran Cybill Shepherd (“Moonlighting,” “Cybill”) co-stars as Riley’s feisty mom, Linette, and Hewitt is clearly thrilled to be working with her. “She lights the set. All the lighting that you see on the series is pretty much just Cybill being in the room. I love her to pieces.” Plus, after Riley’s husband ditches her in the pilot, an illicit romance starts brewing between Riley and her hunky brother-in-law, Evan (Colin Egglesfield, “Rizzoli & Isles”). “Riley’s life is going to be turned upside down, and the brother is there to hold her hand through it, and so that’s going to bring up some complications and some interesting storylines.” (And some pretty steamy make-out scenes, we might add.)

The star is well aware that her new project may raise some eyebrows, but she dismisses any criticism that “List” portrays all massage therapists as being one step removed from prostitution. “I don’t think anybody that’s watching is expecting me to teach the logistics of giving a proper massage. … I played a medium on ‘Ghost Whisperer’ for five years, and the mediums never complained about the fact that I had cleavage while I was crossing people over into the light.” (We don’t think anyone complained about that, actually.)

Hewitt’s not only the star of “The Client List,” she’s an executive producer as well and does poke her head into the writers’ room from time to time. (“Probably more than the writers like,” she admits.) And she’s stepping into the director’s chair, too: Hewitt says she’s slated to helm the “List” season finale. All of which makes for some pretty long hours. So how does a TV star unwind after an exhausting day of shooting? “I watch ‘The Voice’ and ‘American Idol,’ and I sit in my Brookstone foot massager.” Sounds like a pretty happy ending to us.

“The Client List” premieres Sunday, 4/8 at 10 PM on Lifetime.

Yahoo.com

The billboards are impossible to miss. There she is: Olive skin glistening, leg arched seductively, virtually naked save for flesh-colored lingerie that barely contains her ample cleavage.

Jennifer Love Hewitt has towered over fast-food joints and gas stations for months to sell the actress’ new show, “The Client List,” which premieres Sunday on Lifetime. On the program, she plays a Texas single mother who works at a full-service massage parlor to make ends meet.

The series marks a new creative direction for the relatively chaste Lifetime, best known for its ripped-from-the-headlines, made-for-television movies and tacky reality shows like “Dance Moms.” The move signifies no less of a change for the 33-year-old actress who rose to early fame playing a wholesome girl next door on the long-running ’90s family drama “Party of Five.”

But after appearing in a few teen movies — most memorably 1997′s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” — her big-screen turns weren’t as well-received. It wasn’t until the 2005 launch of “Ghost Whisperer”that Hewitt regained her stride. The CBS series, about a woman able to communicate with spirits, earned solid ratings and ran for five seasons.

“I think people were expecting me to go play another network show and play the same girl I’ve been playing for a long time,” she said, sitting at a booth last month at Corky’s diner in Sherman Oaks, where “The Client List” crew members were preparing for a scene in the show’s sixth episode. “But now starting my 24th year in the business, I needed a little bit of a re-creation. I looked at my career and thought, ‘Let’s shake it up a little bit. Let’s have butterflies in our stomach.’”

“The Client List” grew out of a movie of the same name, also starring Hewitt, that ran on Lifetime in 2010. Lifetime executives, who’ve struggled with ratings in recent years, were encouraged by the film’s strong numbers. According to Nielsen, last year the network’s prime-time viewership fell 6%, to 1.1 million, from 2009, while Lifetime’s core audience — women ages 18 to 49 — was down 14%.

“This is a bold series for us, there’s no doubt about it — and we want to bring in new viewers,” acknowledged Rob Sharenow, Lifetime’s executive vice president of programming. “We’re proud of our Lifetime movies, but we are trying to evolve the mother ship and do things that are more accessible to the general public. And with this show’s marketing campaign, I’ve definitely had a lot of anecdotal comments from men who have never noticed Lifetime in quite the same way.”

Hewitt, too, has heard from men intrigued by the risqué advertisements. But by now, she says, she has become accustomed to public commentary about her body. In 2007, a round of unflattering bikini shots made the rounds on the Internet, prompting the actress to appear on the cover of People magazine under the headline “Stop calling me fat!”

“Because my body has certainly been talked about in a negative way, the fact that people are talking positively about it now makes me feel good,” said Hewitt, who is also an executive producer on the new series. “It would be great if there was an equal amount of, ‘Wow, she really gave us a great performance’ as ‘She has big boobs.’ They’re not always equal…. I always try to remember that it’s Hollywood, and part of our job as actors is to be eye candy — so it’s fine.”

Playing up her sexuality hasn’t always come easily to Hewitt. Harry Elfont, who directed the actress in 1998′s “Can’t Hardly Wait,” said the studio initially had reservations about casting her as the “prettiest girl at school” when her image was more the “cute, supporting best friend.”

“She was figuring out the balance of how sexy she should be,” recalled Elfont, who noted, “she was still girlish and innocent, but at the same time — she knew she looked good.”

It’s partly that sexy-but-sweet reputation that has endeared Hewitt to audiences. While she realizes the importance of her sex appeal, she also believes there’s a “best friend vibe” about her: “a dorky, throw my hair in a ponytail and pillow fight with my friends kind of girl,” as she puts it.

Hewitt isn’t shy about using social media and has been exceedingly open on her Twitter account. She shares pictures from “The Client List” set, muses about her desire to become aVictoria’s Secretangel and retweets saccharine love sayings, like “come live in my heart and pay no rent.” She has also been candid about her relationship struggles, most notably in the 2010 self-help book “The Day I Shot Cupid: Hello, My Name Is Jennifer Love Hewitt and I’m a Love-aholic.”

“She’s enormously approachable,” said Cybill Shepherd, who plays Hewitt’s mother on the new show. “I loved the experience of working with her so much that I’d probably do the phone book with her. And she looks gorgeous on those billboards. They’ll get people to tune in, and then they’ll see her wonderful acting.”

Indeed, Hewitt’s TV movie role earned her a Golden Globe nomination — an honor that still leaves her dumbfounded.

“It was like, ‘Wow, somebody noticed something else,’” she said with a laugh.

“I’d like to find some more parts like that that could offer a different side or a different conversation piece. I have not been offered those yet,” she said. After pausing for a moment reflectively, she tried to regain her optimism. “But, hey, I’ve only got a few years left before I’m a character actor, anyway, so might as well work it.”

LATimes.com

Nude underwear, killer curves and a black backdrop.

That’s the stripped down marketing campaign driving eyeballs to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s racy new Lifetime series, The Client List, which launches Sunday (10/9C).

But Hewitt will tell it you you straight. “The scariest part of those billboards was how hungry I was when we were doing the photo shoot,” says Hewitt today in her trailer, laughing. “Because for days I was just like, ‘Let me suck on an ice cube and pretend it’s chicken.’ ”

Sex is on the front burner in the series which revolves around Hewitt as Riley Parks, a Texas mom who turns to giving erotic massages to break even on her mortgage.

The show, says Lifetime president Nancy Dubuc, is helping push the network forward. “It’s clearly not your mother’s Lifetime anymore,” she says. “We want to be a reflection of who women are today.”

Hewitt is ready to shake up her image. “I’m not just going to turn the music up a little bit I’m going to turn the music up really loud,” she says, curling up in an oversized t-shirt and ripped jeans, while sipping on lemon-flavored sparkling water, her extra-long lashes and TV makeup still in place. “That, for me, was those billboards, and for (Lifetime), it’s this show.”

To play Riley, who is often in lingerie, Hewitt has been “working out like crazy,” ruling out junk food and soda and treating herself to desserts once a week. She calls flaunting her new body, years after tabloids gleefully ran photos of her then-curvier self on the covers of magazines, bittersweet. “I didn’t have a body image issue until they plastered me on the cover of things,” she says. “Then I got one.”

But today she says she’s in the best shape of her life – for herself. “Because I’m at the right age, I’m not in that phase of my life, I’m not caught up in (the tabloid) side of things I went, you know what? If I don’t do it at 33, I’m never going to do it.”

The Client List began its life on air as a Lifetime Original Movie that debuted in 2010 to 3.9 million viewers, with Hewitt starring. Hewitt, who is also an executive producer, will reboot Riley’s story on Easter Sunday with a newly empowered protagonist, and a few new characters to boot (Cybill Shepard remains as her mother).

The series will be lighter, and funnier. “The movie had a bit of a dark tone to it and I think it felt a bit heavy and a bit more reminiscent of what the old brand and tone of Lifetime has been,” says Kim Rozenfeld, executive vice president of current programming at Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show. He says the sexual content was handled carefully by the team. “It was very important not for it to be flagrant and not for it to be gratuitous.”

But there’s plenty of steamy content left to satisfy those intrigued by Hewitt’s billboards. In the first episode, Riley’s husband mysteriously leaves her with two children to take care of, and she ends up applying for a job at a massage clinic called The Rub. Lingerie-fueled massage sessions quickly follow.

“I think we might surprise some people with how they feel about what she does,” says Hewitt, whose character often counsels the men she services. “Even though the ad campaigns and a lot of the provocative parts of promoting this show are about the ‘happy endings,’ the show is a really a very normal series about a woman who’s just trying to be a single mom.”

Called “Love” by her friends, in her personal life, Hewitt, who is single, says her view of love has grown up. “I’ve always been a hopeless romantic,” she says. “I’ve always had my head in the rom-com – which I think is a great quality. The problem is, rom-com’s aren’t real.”

Although she still tweets actively about love, “I’m at a place where I could get married, I could not get married,” she says. “Kids is not something I’ll give up on, that’s something I really want in my life but I just sort of started shifting my mindset a little bit.”

Prince Charming, right now, might just turn out to be a netowrk. “Lifetime and I are in such synergy right now because we’re both in exactly the same place,” she says, with a TV movie and another series in the pipeline with them. “We both have been one thing for a long time and loved it and are now ready to say hey, there’s more to me in there than you thought there was and let’s switch it up a little bit.”

USAToday.com

The Lifetime Television drama series The Client List, premiering on April 8th, follows the life of Riley Parks (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a single mother, living in a small Texas town, who leads a shocking double life that would send shockwaves through the community and possibly land her in jail, if it was ever exposed. With an absentee husband, Riley must learn to juggle being a mother to her two children with her job at a seemingly traditional day spa, that offers a little more than just massage therapy.

During this recent interview to promote the risque new show, actress/executive producer Jennifer Love Hewitt talked about what initially drew her to this role, what made her want to do a series version of this story after having done a two-hour film, how she’s been using social media sites to attract interest from viewers, how she mentally prepares to wear lingerie and give the guest stars massages, the research that she did for this role, how exciting she is to be directing the season finale, and that she hopes viewers just have a really good time watching the show.

Question: What made you want to be a part of the television version of this, after starring in the film version?

JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT: We had joked around, when we were doing the movie, about how fun it would be to turn this into a series and really get in deeper with the lives of the women in the spa and everything. So, when the movie did really well, I talked it over with everybody and said, “Let’s pitch it and see what they think,” and here we are.

What originally really drew you to the role of Riley Parks?

HEWITT: I just thought it was really interesting, even with the movie. I think it’s interesting to create empowerment in a woman, who essentially could feel powerless and who could find herself in danger and could look at the situation she’s in, if she wanted to, as not very empowering. This is actually very powerful. She’s making these decisions and she’s making them consciously, and she’s growing sexually, emotionally, physically and mentally, in this job. She’s connecting, in a real, human way, with the human condition and human spirit and hearts of the people on her table. It’s super-powerful. I was really interested in that. I just thought that that was really cool, and a neat message to send out.

(more…)

Watch out, Adam Levine: Jennifer Love Hewitt has you in her sights.

Appearing on Thursday’s Ellen Degeneres Show, the Client List actress, 33, admits that she’s on the prowl again for a new man.

“I am very single,” Hewitt admitted. “It’s good.”

But the famously unlucky-in-love star told Ellen DeGeneres there’s a newly available celeb hunk she’s been thinking about.

“I always have my eyes out,” Hewitt said. I just read two days ago that Adam Levine is single again . . . I’m just saying.”

Indeed, Maroon 5 singer and The Voice coach, 33, split with Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Anne V, 26, after two years together; the couple announced the breakup on Monday.

“Look, we would be cute!” Hewitt implored.

USMagazine.com

Jennifer Love Hewitt is back on the small screen in Lifetime’s newest series, The Client List. The stunning 33-year-old plays Riley Parks, a single mother-of-two, who finds extra work with a high-end prostitution service in Texas. It’s based on the 2010 Lifetime television movie of the same name, which also starred Hewitt.

The actress talked to reporters about her latest role, wearing lingerie on set, and the secret behind her lasting success in Hollywood.

On The Client List.
“Riley is a single mom whose been left by her husband. [The audience] will get to know different clients and the people that come in and out of the spa every week. You’ll get to see more about her being a mom and how she handles having a double-life. [It] has a certain amount of reality to it. The family is facing economic hardship, which is a very real situation happening in a lot of families in a lot of places in the United States and all over the world right now. So I think that part of it is real. I think her being a single mom with two kids is real.”

On showcasing her sexiness.
“I learned a lot actually. I’m not quite as scared as I thought I would be. I’ve actually learned how to wear lingerie better — sort of how to get into it faster — all of those things. Being sort of a feisty young lady from Texas comes naturally to me because that’s sort of who I am. I’ve grown up in a household of feisty Texas women. But being so overtly sexy and provocative — that part of it is not something that I’ve really put out there before. And it has been fun and exciting.

“I feel like I’m at a good age for it. I’m 33-years-old and I think if I was younger, it would feel more saucy and daring. But at 33, I’m a grown woman. This is what we do. You sort of find your femininity and your strength and your own sexuality in playing a part like this. It’s been really fun.”

On the show’s risque premise.
“Although we are being provocative and sort of pushing the envelope, we are also leaving a lot to the imagination. We do sort of walk right up to the line of inappropriate and then we cut out and I feel good about that. It’s meant to be provocative and it’s meant to be a fantasy. Television is supposed to allow you to escape into other worlds and watch other people do things and forget about your life for a minute.”

On her longevity in Hollywood.
“I’ve worked really hard, so I think work gets work. I’ve always had respect for the business that I’ve been in. I’ve tried not to act too crazy or disrespect the opportunities that I have been given or the people that have believed in me. I also think some of it’s just luck. I’ve been really blessed and I don’t necessarily know what keeps one person here longer than somebody else, but I couldn’t feel more grateful.

“I’m only 33-years-old and I’ve been [acting] for 24 years. I feel like Betty White! I feel like I should be 91. It’s so crazy. I work with people who are my age and they’ve been in L.A. for four years and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so old!’ But I feel very lucky.”

Parade.com

Jennifer Love Hewitt is scheduled to make a couple talk show appearances soon to help promote the series “The Client List” – make sure you check your local TV listings for exact air times in your area!

Monday, April 2nd: LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON, NBC
Thursday, April 5th: THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated