Awkwardness Doesn’T Faze Young Actress

Good news for teenage girls throughout the land! Actress Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, she of the perfect hair, teeth and bod - not to mention a face like Venus - is a klutz.

“In every sense of the word, completely and totally,” she says solemnly, sitting in a hotel conference room in San Francisco as she promotes her new film, “She’s All That.”

“And I don’t care who knows it!”

While filming a recent episode of “Nash Bridges” here (she plays Don Johnson’s daughter), the 20-year-old was wearing only a moleskin in the shower, when she slipped and hit her head - hard. “Everyone came running over to me - `Are you OK?’ - and I was screaming at them, `I’m fine, I’m fine, and I’m NAKED!’ It was bad, though. I had this big old bruise on my forehead that made me look like something out of `Star Trek.”’ And while filming “She’s All That” - in which she plays an evil high school senior named Taylor - O’Keefe had a few other mishaps. Like during a love scene with Matthew Lillard (“Scream”), when he flipped her over and she cracked her head on the headboard; another scene called for her to leap into Lillard’s arms, and every time she did, her tube top fell down.

“Of course I can blame that one on my lack of … you know …” and she bursts out laughing. Say what? Taylor is presented as one buxom babe.

“Let’s talk about Wonderbras every day!” says O’Keefe, who talks 90 miles an hour, while poking at a chocolate on her plate. “For this movie we’re talking pushed-up, padded, silicone. You know, the kind that comes out of a box. I would take them out and throw them at people like bean bags!”

O’Keefe is such a seasoned professional, having started acting at 8, that there are only occasional glimpses - like this one - into her youthfulness. She grows serious again.

“But I’m trying to not be insecure about it. I’m planning to have a career based on my acting skills rather than the size of my chest.”

Here’s another reason for looks-obsessed girls to hope: O’Keefe was once a geek.

“Oh, fully!” she laughs. “When I was a freshman, I was 5 feet 9 and totally skinny as a pole. Knock-knees and bad hair. Then over that summer I grew up a little bit. Not that I was some super beauty, but at least I didn’t look like I was 10 anymore and had a little self-confidence.”

Having “been there” herself, O’Keefe has complete sympathy for the shy, geeky young woman character in the movie that she, as the reigning high school diva, is supposed to torture.

“Doing this scene where I was supposed to pour wine down Rachel Cook’s dress was really hard,” she admits. “I felt like this horrible monster. I apologized to her 100 times until she had to tell me `it’s OK, just pour the wine.”’

O’Keefe joined the cast of “Nash Bridges” at age 16, when she moved to California from New Jersey to take the job. Her mother moved with her and stayed until she turned 18. Now in its fourth season, O’Keefe’s character has supposedly enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, although she’s still seen frequently.

What about published rumors that she and Johnson were an item at one time? O’Keefe politely declares that Johnson is a rumor magnet because “women love him. And I do, too - but not that way. I mean, I love his whole family.”

O’Keefe says she has minded rumor items about her only “because of how they impact my family back home. But I always tell them, if you want to know the truth, call me. I’m getting sort of used to it myself.”

O’Keefe has an apartment in San Francisco and Los Angeles, where she goes in her spare time.

As for her college plans, O’Keefe says she plans to attend at some point, “but not for a while. I figure I should strike while the iron is hot. While the opportunity is there, and the work. School will always be there. I was thinking Mills College, because I really love it here.”

She is waiting for the ink to dry on a couple of new movie deals before she can talk about them. But she has high hopes.

“I really admire actresses like Meryl Streep; I would love to have a career like hers. And Natalie Wood - I thought she was so beautiful. And I want to make a movie with Al Pacino someday. Maybe that sounds ridiculous now, but if I keep saying it, maybe it will come true!”