I love her, but these pictures are terrible!!

It’s a Monday morning at choice, an upscale café in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, and Keri Russell is making the counter woman’s day. Wearing a blue T-shirt, white pants, and a floppy-brimmed, “Hey, there’s a famous person under here” straw hat, she asks for a bacon-and-egg croissant and gets a fawning, borderline-creepy smile.

“She offered me turkey bacon,” Russell says between bites. “I’ve never had turkey bacon. The real deal is better.” Bland pork substitutes or not, the 32-year-old beauty clearly likes stopping by Choice for breakfast. A Brooklyn fixture, often spotted pushing a stroller or picking up Asian takeout, she and her carpenter husband, Shane Deary, recently finished restoring the nearby brownstone they share with their 18-month-old son, River. Having a master craftsman around the house is useful but not without its dangers. “When Shane was growing up, he lived in this A-frame house with a rope swing hanging from a rafter,” she explains. “The other day he said, ‘I really want a rope swing for River. Let’s put it right here!’ And I said, ‘Buuut the staircase is right here. He would fall down three flights of stairs.’”

It seems it’s safe to add the role of responsible parent to Russell’s already lengthy résumé. But try as you may, it’s hard to picture her as a mom. She was a Mickey Mouse Club member, after all, singing and dancing alongside future pop stars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, and she’ll always be Felicity, the contemplative college student with the long spiral curls and the never-ending romantic drama. In fact, many attribute the show’s success (including Russell’s 1999 Golden Globe win) to those signature locks. When she cut them off—stepping out of her teenage persona—the ratings suffered and WB executives called for network approval of all future hairstyle changes requested by their stars. “Who likes curly hair?” Russell mockingly wonders. “It was just a big ’fro.”

The actress slowed her pace when the show ended. She moved to New York, made her Off Broadway debut in Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig with Jeremy Piven, and eventually returned to television for a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. Her “adult” career took off when Felicity creator J.J. Abrams cast her in 2006’s Mission: Impossible III. She followed that with Waitress, a small-budget triumph in which she portrayed a pie-baking, apron-wearing diner attendant preparing to have a baby. Russell’s performance was universally praised for its veracity, except by a few skeptics who questioned whether any greasy-spoon employee could be that attractive.

Her latest film—Bedtime Stories, in theaters December 25—is being distributed by family-friendly Walt Disney Pictures. She stars opposite Adam Sandler. “It’s funny and it’s a movie that kids can see,” Russell says. “But it’s still got Adam’s crazy sense of humor. It’s not totally nicey-nice.”

“Working with Keri was the best,” says Sandler. “She would bring her son to the set to play with my daughter. She also taught me all the dances from her days as a Mouseketeer. Plus, every day at lunch we’d have a curly-hair competition, and I would win—except on humid days.”

When asked whether moviegoers should expect an onscreen romance between the two, Russell answers bluntly. “We’re at odds at the beginning, and there is certainly a more, um—how shall I say this? —fuckable girl in it,” she says. “That’s actually her name: Fuckable Girl.” She pauses, then gives her character a little credit. “But I come up from the rear.” Somewhere out there, a Mousketeer or two just fell down three flights of stairs.

After polishing off her bacon-and-egg croissant, Russell steps up to a glass case full of muffins, sandwiches, and carrot cakes. The awestruck counter woman cheerfully fills a plastic container with pasta salad and a box with pastries for Russell to take home to her family for lunch. Her words are clipped and a little nervous—good choice; that’s delicious today; will that be all for you?—and it’s not until Russell exits the café that Counter Woman finds her voice. Every head turns as she calls out “Keri! Keri!” and Russell steps back inside, smiling. Counter Woman has finally worked up the nerve to say what’s on her mind: “Keri! Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s just . . . you owe me five more dollars.”

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