Who's that girl? By LOUIS B. HOBSON --

WASHINGTON -- Who is Cameron Diaz?

She's the girl who made Jim Carrey's heart pop out of his chest in The Mask.

For six years, she was the girl who graced the covers of countless magazines and fashion ads.

She was the girl on George Clooney's arm for a whirlwind three months last year.

She's the girl who has made Matt Dillon abandon his bachelor status.

She's the girl who's in two new movies opening Sept. 13.

In She's The One, Diaz plays a high-priced call girl who comes between two brothers. It's writer/director/actor Ed Burns' much-anticipated follow-up to his art-house hit The Brothers McMullen.

The brothers in question are played by Burns and his McMullen co-star Mike McGlone.

In Feeling Minnesota, she's a girl of questionable morals who comes between two brothers (Keanu Reeves and Vincent D'Onofrio).

"The characters I play in these two movies couldn't be further apart nor could their stories," says Diaz. "I made the films a year apart. It's just happenstance that they're coming out at the same time."

And Diaz embraces happenstance.

"Things happen in my life for a reason. I just seem to be in the right places at the right times."

When she was 16, Diaz lied her way into a party claiming she was 21.

"There were all these sleazy guys hitting on girls by pretending they were agents for modelling firms. They had these cards with drawings of naked girls kicking up their heels in champagne glasses.

"There was also one legitimate agent from Elite. I kept his card and the appointment made at the party."

A few months later, she was in Japan where "models are treated like rock stars."

Diaz returned "semi-engaged" to video producer Carlos de La Torre and remained in the relationship for five years.

"I loved modelling because it allowed me to travel, meet lots of interesting people and make good money for someone so young.

"Still, I knew something was missing but I didn't know what that something was."

Diaz stumbled on that missing link one day in her manager's office. A film company was auditioning models for the role of a slinky singer in The Mask.

Diaz asked for an audition -- and the rest is history.

In the three years since The Mask, Diaz has starred in The Last Supper, She's The One, Feeling Minnesota and a still-unreleased Harvey Keitel movie called Head Above Water.

She is now filming My Best Friend's Wedding, in which she plays Julia Roberts' best friend and she's been signed to star opposite Trainspotting's Ewan McGregor in a romantic comedy, The Life Less Ordinary.


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