'House Bunny' is like 'Animal House,' only with girls

Hey! I once went to a party at the Playboy Mansion and, yeah, Hef was there.

Chalk it up to research. Finally, the movie has come along that allows me to verify that the swimming pool grotto and the fountain out front are the real things. Critics should know such things. Right?

All 12 of that year's Playmates were there, too, but they wore high-necked, business-type blouses. The party was PG-13, and so is "The House Bunny," a new movie about a mansion resident named Shelley who gets thrown out only to become house mother to a college sorority of misfits.

She teaches them how to be popular.

This late-summer surprise reveals Anna Faris as a gifted comedienne. You have to be smart to play it this dumb. It is Faris' particular appeal that she will be liked by both males and females.

The feat is not exactly unique. Hollywood has a long history of dumb blondes, but this bunny's most obvious cousin is Elle Woods from "Legally Blonde" (2001). Not by coincidence, the writers are the same - Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith. Elle (played by Reese Witherspoon), though, is Eleanor Roosevelt compared to Faris' Shelley Darlingson.

There are moments when you wonder if anyone could be this dumb, but, then, Shelley is so cuuuute and she means so well.

Because 27 is more like 59 in Playboy years, Shelley is booted out of the mansion the day after her 27th birthday. She winds up as the house mother to Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority, a tribe of girl oddities who can't get enough pledges to remain franchised. Of course, they can't get dates, either. Shelley teaches them the secrets of eyeliner and "skimplifying."

The Snooty Girl sorority from across the street soon is alarmed that the boys are deserting them for parties with the Zetas. Their leader, Beverly D'Angelo, takes one look at the newcomer and growls, "This is a sorority, not a brothel," adding, "We are very exclusive, because we can be."

They have to fall from their high horses, and Shelley will be the agent for change.

Make that unlikely agent for change. Shelley is so vocabulary-limited that she loves it when people call her "vapid."

When she re-creates the Marilyn Monroe updraft scene from "The Seven Year Itch," it goes awry. "Who knew steam was that hot?" she mutters.

She meets a simple boy who works as a nurse for the nearby old folks home (Colin Hanks, (Tom's boy) and says, "My heart is pounding like a nail."

Emma Stone, who plays Natalie, the brainy member of the sorority, scores handily for the second time this week. She also steals scenes as the punk-rocker girl in "The Rocker."

Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis) is cast as the girl in a body brace.

With a feminine nod to "Animal House" and "Revenge of the Nerds," "The House Bunny" is often funny, sometimes hilarious but never really clever. Can't have everything.

With no real plot twists, the film meanders to the predictable and somewhat questionable claim that it's what's on the inside that counts.

Still, this one is a comedy winner - complete with heart. Now if Hef would invite us back to the mansion. We need to do more research.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com