Is it so hard to believe that I took on some less heavy roles because my mom died?  Listen, Vanity Fair, we all have our own ways of mourning.  So I chose to grieve my mother by lending my Academy Award-winning voice to a cartoon animal in Kung Fu Panda.  Deal with it.

But I will admit that there was another important factor in my decision to act in the film. It was a unique opportunity to work alongside an actor who I've been longing to collaborate with in order to fulfill that bit of Hollywood wisdom about how to maintain A-list status: be hot and do a movie with Seth Rogen.

It worked for Katherine Heigl in that awful expose about young people expelling white babies from their bodies (Blech!)  Kids these days, right?  But Heigl had the right idea with Knocked Up.  You know you spent hours chatting about how she's really attractive while the guy who plays her love interest in the movie is gross.  (Yes, you, Vanity Fair!)  Well, I can play that game too.

Luckily Seth and I have a hotness-to-schlubiness ratio that translates to animation - my character in Kung Fu Panda is a lady tiger while Seth plays a little bug thing.  You may now proceed to discuss how unrealistic the cooperation between our characters would be.  I'm bangin'!  He's sloppy!  I play a large, sassy mammal.  He plays a tiny, spindly insect.  It would never happen!

The film is being marketed as a comedy, and Seth tells me that talking animals are widely accepted to indicate hilarity.  He was especially amused at the part in the film when the panda talks with his mouth full.  Personally, I'm skeptical of the genre.  I've had a lot of interaction with endangered species in my humanitarian travels, and if these poor beings had the ability to speak, I can only imagine what horrors they might share.