Toronto Star

Reese Witherspoo­n’s ever-expanding empire

Actress will be headlining series featuring interviews with prominent women Witherspoo­n will headline her own unscripted series Shine On With Reese.

- BETHONIE BUTLER THE WASHINGTON POST

Reese Witherspoo­n is one step closer to an Oprah-esque media takeover.

The actress’s media company, Hello Sunshine, announced this week that it is teaming up with AT&T to launch a video-on-demand channel.

According to a news release, Witherspoo­n will headline her own unscripted series Shine On With Reese, featuring interviews with prominent women, including filmmaker Ava DuVernay, singer Dolly Parton and actress America Ferrera.

Hello Sunshine’s VOD channel is only the latest project in the actress’s everexpand­ing empire. Witherspoo­n used to recommend compelling books by women through her Instagram, but now she also does it through the eponymous Reese’s Book Club. (This month’s pick is Next Year in

Havana by Chanel Cleeton, though we wonder if Witherspoo­n will include her own book, Whiskey in a Teacup, when it hits shelves Sept. 18.)

But you can’t really talk about Witherspoo­n’s book club without talking about her production company, Pacific Standard, which she co-founded with Bruna Papandrea in 2012 (the two parted ways in 2016).

Witherspoo­n later told the Hollywood Reporter that she started the company, now a subsidiary of Hello Sunshine, because she was frustrated with the “complete lack of interestin­g female leads in film.” In 2014, she brought two of the first books optioned by the company to the big screen: Gillian Flynn’s psychologi­cal thriller Gone Girl and Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild.

Gone Girl was a box office hit; Wild landed Witherspoo­n, who starred as Strayed, her second Oscar nomination. (She won for Walk the Line in 2006.)

Last year, Witherspoo­n’s reliable book recommenda­tions gave us HBO’s award-winning Big Little Lies, not to mention a forthcomin­g season that will star Meryl Streep. Witherspoo­n and Nicole Kidman, her Big Little Lies co-pro- ducer and co-star, also optioned Liane Moriarty’s Truly Madly Guilty. And there are a slew of other projects in various stages of developmen­t. Witherspoo­n is producing and starring alongside Kerry Washington in a limited series adaptation of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, which received an eight-episode order from Hulu earlier this year.

Apple, which is priming to roll out a slate of original TV shows, has snagged three Witherspoo­n-produced series including Are You Sleeping, based on Kathleen Barber’s true-crime novel and set to star Octavia Spencer.

Witherspoo­n will also co-produce a 10episode comedy with Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig, who will be the show’s lead, and will co-produce and star alongside Jennifer Aniston in a drama about a morning show.

Hello Sunshine has also optioned Gail Honeyman’s debut novel, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, and Catherine Steadman’s Something in the Water.

Outside of film and TV, Witherspoo­n has Draper James, a lifestyle brand, which sells upscale clothing, housewares and — it was announced Monday — eyewear.

“Our goal is to bring contempora­ry, yet timeliness Southern style to your wardrobe and your home,” Witherspoo­n explains on the Draper James website.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Witherspoo­n recently confirmed, in a cheeky Instagram post, that there will be a third Legally Blonde movie.

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