Kristen Bell: Veronica Mars Goes to College

She's that hot femme teen detective; a strong girl with a brain who simply has to get to the bottom of a mystery. "Veronica Mars" is a cult fave and even spook author Stephen King lists it as one of his favorite shows. Blonde, vegetarian actress Kristen Bell will be coming your way soon on the big screen in Fanboys, a tale about rabid Star Wars fans and Pulse, a techno-thriller. This coming TV season on the new CW network (a combo of UPN and The WB) , Veronica will be a Freshman in college with a whole campus-full of cool new mysteries to solve. Kristen is looking forward to the new arena.

At an afterparty in Pasadena, on the vast Ritz Carlton Hotel lawn, our star-dar was in full operation as we scanned past a posh seating area, salad, sushi and dessert bars and spotted Kristen with her publicity reps waaaay across the lawn. It's the day before her birthday and the actress is in a gorgeous, strapless crème-colored Marquesa cocktail dress with a sparkly band around the bodice. Hard to miss! Her rep is carrying an odd award that looks like a golden baked potato! I cross the lawn in record time and, besides 'what would you do if you found a body in the ice machine?', I have to ask...

TeenTelevision: (looking at the odd potato award) Uh, what is that?

Kristen's rep: It's from E-Online and it's the Tater Tot award that she won for Favorite Drama Mama.

TeenTelevision: Hey, that's way better than a Razzie award! Okay "drama mama", the "Veronica Mars" fans were determined that the show survive on the new network and they flew a plane dragging a banner over the TV executive offices. How devoted is that?

Kristen: I think that it's really crazy and really awesome that they would go to those lengths. I mean, I think that a lot of our fans have gone to unbelievable lengths to show their appreciation for the show. And they are smart. I mean, there's no one dumb watching "Veronica Mars". I mean, you have to pay attention. But they were sending letters to the network and the bloggers are pretty much the reason we've gotten a lot of our numbers. We're all extremely thankful.

TeenTelevision: Are you as gutsy as Veronica? What would be your reaction if you found a body in the ice machine for example?

Kristen: I don't think I have the stomach Veronica has. I think I have the determination and the stubbornness and a little bit of the go-get-em. But, I think I'm about 20 percent more girl than Veronica is. I'd scream my head off if I saw a body in the freezer.

TeenTelevision: If you are just sitting watching a mystery movie, would you try to figure it out before the credits roll?

Kristen: I don't think that I'm of that mind-set but I have gotten more astute in figuring things out. I just went to one recently, and I did figure it out like halfway through. And I read "The Da Vinci Code," loved it, but by page 200 you knew who it was. I was thinking like Veronica thinks. I thought, 'okay, how many characters are there'? And there were only like four or five characters they had introduced, and I went through all of them and I figured it out by page 200.

TeenTelevision: Did you ever read any "Nancy Drew" or mystery books when you were growing up?

Kristen: I was into Christopher Pike books a lot and 'Gem and the Holograms' like you wouldn't believe but other than that I really didn't have like a 'Nancy Drew' thing.

TeenTelevision: Is there a chance that Veronica would work as a singer this season?

Kristen: I'd love it. But I felt a little silly at karaoke. But I'm glad we did it and it was fun so I'm open to it.

TeenTelevision: Can you talk a bit about the upcoming movie Fanboys and who you play in it?

Kristen: It's a rad idea. It's a movie about Star Wars nerds that drive across the country to break into George Lucas's ranch. I am one of them. It stars Chris Marquette, Sam Huntington who is Jimmy Olsen in the new Superman, Jay Baruchel and Dan Fogler. It's got amazing cameos like Billy Dee Williams cameos, Carrie Fisher cameos, William Shatner. It's hysterical.

TeenTelevision: William Shatner was in Star Trek, not Star Wars and these guys are radical Star Wars fans, right?

Kristen: Yes, but there's a kind of war between Star Trek and Star Wars fans. [The movie] is an absolute love letter to any cult fan but especially to Star Wars fans.

TeenTelevision: Do they make you look like a geek fangirl? You are kind of glam to be a fangirl.

Kristen: They kind of do but I'm not really [that glam] when I'm not wearing this beautiful Marquesa dress. I wore a short, dark bob that had really tight bangs. It was funny and cute and I dressed in skull tights kind of like Goth, comic book store nerd fangirl.

TeenTelevision: Sort of like Thora Birch in Ghost World?

Kristen: Totally.

TeenTelevision: Are you a Star Wars fan?

Kristen: I'm a Star Wars fan but I don't know as much as the people that we met on the movie but I've always loved the trilogy. We met some crazy fans that have devoted their lives to it.

TeenTelevision: Any hobbies you love?

Kristen: Well I knit and I love hiking and hiking with the dogs, anything outdoorsy. I went to Catalina Island for the first time on the 4th of July and I loved it. I may be going to Catalina Island as my new hobby.

TeenTelevision: So is knitting the one thing that you are really good at outside of entertainment?

Kristen: I don't know if I'm really really good but I'm pretty decent. I could cable you a scarf and a hat, yeah. And I'm amazing at Ski ball.

TeenTelevision: What do you just suck at?

Kristen: Eating slowly. It's embarrassing. I don't know why but I eat faster than anybody I've ever sat down with. I like food and I'm not a big talker while I'm eating and, for some reason, I sit down and try to take it slow and it gets to that embarrassing point to where I'm done with my food and everybody else is halfway into theirs.

TeenTelevision: You are in your 20's but look more like a teen. What's the upside and downside of that?

Kristen: Downside is I'm carded everywhere even at R-rated movies. Upside is I can play younger for a while which is what every actress seems to yearn for. The downside is I have the opposite thing where I'd really like to play a young mom my age, someone who is not just getting out of high school.

TeenTelevision: You could do a film like that on your hiatus.

Kristen: That's the kind of thing I'm going to be looking for. Pulse comes out in August and [my character] is in college. She's sort of tough and slightly reclusive and extremely independent. All of these strange events start happening and these mass suicides and she seems to be the only one finding it odd. It forces her out of her shell to figure out what is going on.

TeenTelevision: Sounds cool. Any other films coming up?

Kristen: I'm attached to a couple but I can't say yet. Two that I'm really, really excited about.

TeenTelevision: Do you cruise the internet? Are you on My Space?

Kristen: No but there are eleven people who say they're me! I guess that's good for something but it also makes me a little scared and creeped out. But I just go on and check my e-mail and I've recently discovered YouTube and it's hysterical. There are so many funny videos on that and it makes me laugh. I'm also deathly afraid of YouTube because I know there is going to be that time where I trip and my skirt flies up and it's going to be 'number one rated video'.

TeenTelevision: Do you have a movie or TV show guilty pleasure that you can't stop watching?

Kristen: I love "The League of Gentlemen". It's a British comedy series. It's kind of like British "Kids in the Hall". I love it. They have unbelievable changes in character. All the guys play all the roles, including women and I think the transformation of character is amazing. It's one thing to play a regular person truthfully. It's quite another to play your polar opposite truthfully. It's really hard comedy and I love it.

TeenTelevision: It's a pretty dark twisted show though, huh?

Kristen: I know I didn't expect in season three he came out of there and had those prosthetic boobs on and I was like 'what is going on?!' It's brilliant.

TeenTelevision: You are a big animal advocate. Have you saved any animals lately?

Kristen: I am always saving animals, always. That's my real job. We are fostering a dog right now that I found across from Paramount. I was coming back from an audition or something and we got her spayed and micro chipped and we are just meeting families for her. She is a Sharpei Terrier mix. We've had her like three months and now we are just trying to find her the perfect family. Her name is Clipper.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.