Cover girl Kristen Bell reclaims the small screen this month in Showtime’s new series, House of Lies. Bell stars in the hit comedy as Jeannie Van Der Hooven, the whip-smart management consultant teamed up with the brazen and charming Marty Kaan, played by Don Cheadle. We loved Bell as a teen sleuth on her hit show Veronica Mars (and as the sly narrator on Gossip Girl) so naturally we were thrilled at her return to our DVR queue.

Bell was so fun to have on set–between listening to Glee tracks, the star dished on everything from her long-time vegetarianism to her experimentation with 80′s hairstyles. Check out the behind-the-scenes cover shoot video below, then grab our February issue and see why we fell for Bell.

Kristen Bell loves sloths. You might even say she’s obsessed with them. She told Ellen about what happened when her boyfriend, Dax Shepard, introduced her to one for the first time, and if it’s too hard to believe, she brought the footage to prove it.

Watch the full interview on “Ellen” Tuesday January 31st!

From TV star to movie star and back again, Kristen Bell is keeping busy. After breaking out as the beloved TV heroine Veronica Mars, Bell has tackled film roles like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “When In Rome” while continuing to dabble on the small screen now and again. In the past, most actors shifted from TV to features and never looked back, but the landscape is changing and Bell is happy to take advantage. Her new Showtime series opposite Don Cheadle, “House Of Lies,” debuted earlier this month to very positive reviews and her latest film role, as reporter Jill Gerard in Ken Kwapis’ political comedy, “Big Miracle,” is hitting theaters this Friday. She also just finished up Dax Shepherd’s second directorial effort “Outrun,” which she describes as “in the vein of the Burt Reynolds movies of the ‘70s” and plays Supergirl opposite Justin Long’s Robin in one of the comedy shorts from the upcoming “Movie 43.”

Bell was on hand in Santa Monica, California this month to speak with The Playlist about her role in “Big Miracle” and everything else she has on the horizon, including the possibility of a “Veronica Mars” feature.

Stepping into the shoes of a reporter
In “Big Miracle, Bell plays Jill Jerard, a reporter on the rise who views the story of three grey whales trapped in an ice patch in the Arctic Circle as a possible chance to fast track her career. “Miracle” is based on true events, but Bell’s character is an amalgam of the countless press that descended upon Barrow, Alaska in 1988 to cover the international story.

The daughter of a TV news director, Bell has been around press most of her life. She’s also had plenty of press encounters in recent years she could draw from. “I’ve had enough encounters with reporters who I either did or did not want to converse with,” Bell tells us. “I feel like I had a good enough idea of how they are to act when they want to get the story. Sometimes it’s manipulative, sometimes it’s completely genuine. I kind of had Jill ride that line. I wanted her to have a fierce dedication to her work. It wasn’t that she was meant as the villain, it was just that the whales weren’t on her priority list. Getting a news anchor job and getting noticed at work was her one and only priority.”

Director Ken Kwapis also prepped the actress for the part by showing her footage from the actual coverage. “Ken was an unbelievable database. He would send us news clips of journalists reporting on the whales. There were also some circulated videos on the internet, like when Dan Rather got a hold of it and it caught fire,” Bell said.

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[003] Life & Style
[003] Lucky November 2010
[001] US Weekly

Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Bell, and Ted Danson dish on their whale rescue adventure flick.

On the new Showtime comedy series House of Lies, actress Kristen Bell plays Jeannie Van Der Hooven, a talented and highly ambitious member of Marty Kaan’s (Don Cheadle) team of management consultants. Crafty, flirtatious and a bit mysterious, Jeannie does everything she can to keep her personal life personal, but she’s not above getting down and dirty with a different guy in every city she visits.

While at the TCA Winter Press Tour, Collider got the opportunity to sit down with Kristen Bell for this exclusive interview to talk about how the head of the network approached her directly about doing the role, the appeal of doing more provocative storylines, how much fun she’s having working with the extremely talented Don Cheadle (who is also an executive producer on the series), how she never would have imagined that she would have her toes sucked on TV, and that she craves diversity in her acting roles, but is also spontaneous when it comes to choosing projects.

Collider: How did this come about for you? Were you approached with the role?
Kristen Bell: I was approached by David Nevins. He just called me up and said, “Would you be interested in this?” I already felt a spark of excitement, after being directly approached by the head of the network. Also, knowing that Don Cheadle was attached, it would have had to have been horrendous for me to not have said yes. Luckily, when I read it, it was brilliant and it was a very easy decision.

How much did they initially tell you about Jeannie Van Der Hooven, and how much have you been able to contribute to her?
Bell: They did not tell me a lot, at all. She wasn’t the main focus of the pilot, and they were trying to make me happy or satisfied by saying, “She’s going to unfold. It’s going to be a big character.” But, in all honesty, I didn’t really care. I liked the people I was working with. I liked the material. I was excited to work with Don Cheadle. Even if I was only in one scene an episode, it didn’t really bother me. I don’t crave being the main character. So, for the pilot, I wasn’t given a lot of info. But then, as we started to shoot the season, you see Jeannie’s hometown and her parents and where she came from, and you understand her more. So, I was given all those details by (show creator) Matt Carnahan, once the season started.

When you do something like this and it’s developed over the course of the season, what sort of backstory did you do for the character?
Bell: Well, I didn’t know a ton about her backstory for the pilot, so any questions I had, or to figure out how she would react to certain situations, I just asked stand-alone questions and asked Matt Carnahan if this is what he pictured, as well as our director, Stephen Hopkins. They kept me on track. But then, as we started the series, we all sat down and talked about our characters. I think it was of paramount importance that we knew who they were prior to meeting them because it’s very difficult to play a believable slick rick type person without knowing what the building blocks are, or how they got there, to be such a shark.

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Kristen Bell is scheduled to be making the talk show rounds this week and next! Make sure you check your local TV listings for exact air times in your are.

Tuesday, January 31st: THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW, syndicated
Thursday, February 2nd: CHELSEA LATELY, E!
Monday, February 6th: CONAN, TBS

Fans of the new hit SHOWTIME comedy series HOUSE OF LIES can now enjoy a behind the scenes look at what goes on at the Galweather & Stearn offices when the hot, young team of consultants is away from their clients. The team typically spends four days a week on the road, working hard and playing even harder. But, on Fridays, the real fun begins… This is the story of what happens on the fifth day. The “Fridays at Galweather” webisodes were written by Emmy® Award-winning series star Ben Schwartz and series co-producer Wes Nickerson, and directed by Emmy Award-winning series star Glynn Turman (“The Wire”).

The HOUSE OF LIES webisodes focus on Clyde (Schwartz) and Doug’s (Josh Lawson) frat boy antics during their “work day” at the Galweather & Stearn offices. Clyde and Doug take on “strategic” issues that include sexual harassment, hazing a new applicant, how to hire cost-effective adult entertainment and what to do when trapped in an elevator. The webisodes will also feature a guest appearance by series star Kristen Bell.

For an inside look at “Fridays at Galweather,” go to http://galweatherstearn.com/people-values

The videos are also available on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND.