In the Sweetest Thing, Cameron Diaz does more than her share of falling down, tripping and colliding with people and objects.

It's one thing that required very little preparation or rehearsal.

"I'm a real knucklehead and a real klutz. I was falling down and bumping into things long before I started acting," says Diaz.

"I understand it was probably more adorable when I was a child because being a klutz is not that attractive as an adult, but it's who I am."

In The Sweetest Thing, opening Friday, Diaz plays Christina Walters.

She and her best friends Courtney (Christina Applegate) and Jane (Selma Blair) have had so many disastrous relationships that they decide to become the aggressors.

"The girls start going to clubs because they don't want a serious relationship. They're into the reel-them-in-throw-them-back mentality. That's why it's such a surprise when Christina meets Peter Donahue (Thomas Jane) and falls for him.

She didn't want a boyfriend. She just wanted to have fun with her girl friends.

Diaz says that, as silly as The Sweetest Thing is, the film does make insightful comments about the importance of same-sex friendships.

"I have a few girlfriends that I've known since I was five years old.

"That's the easiest kind of relationship to sustain because there is no judgment.

"They know you and accept you for who you are. I've also made some very good friendships along the way and they've become among my most important relationships because they love me unconditionally.

"We look out for one another."

Diaz says her girlfriends have to be easy going.

"There can be no drama and no high maintenance. I certainly don't need maintenance and don't expect to give it to my friends."

The Sweetest Thing echoes the kind of raunchy humour that made Diaz's There's Something About Mary such a box-office hit.

"It's just silly fun. We worked hard to keep it at that level of screwball nonsense where the only reason people come is to have a good time and a lot of laughs."

'DRESS-UP'

Diaz says her carefree, gregarious nature has been the most difficult thing to curb since she became famous.

"I'm naturally the kind of person who smiles at people when I walk into a room or saunter down the mall. I can't do that now because it's an invitation to people to come and talk to me.

"Crowds are the most difficult thing for me these days because I have to walk with my head down and my eyes averted. There's still that part of me that wants to hold my head up, make eye contact and smile."

One of Diaz's favourite scenes in The Sweetest Thing is the one she calls "dress-up."

It's a montage in which she gets to dress up like characters from chick flicks like Grease, Desperately Seeking Susan, Flashdance and Pretty Woman.

"I loved that I got to dress up like Olivia Newton John because I used to do that when I was young.

"Grease was one of my favourite films. It was also a riot to pretend I was Madonna even just for a second."

DICAPRIO'S GANG

Diaz denies her next film, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, in which she stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, is in trouble.

It's been reported that Scorsese has been warring with Miramax executives over the running time of the epic drama, which is about the birth of ethnic gangs in 1840s New York.

The film, which also stars Daniel Day-Lewis, had its December 2001 date shifted first to the spring, then to summer and now to late 2002.

"It's absolutely not a suggestion that the film is in trouble. If anything, it smells like an Oscar bid to me.

"Miramax just wants the best date possible for Martin. He has given them a true epic drama.

Diaz says she is part of "a love quadrangle at the centre of the story. "I can't say much more because I haven't seen the completed film."

She says she is trying to be less than her klutz self for Charlie's Angels 2 -- "a project very dear to my heart because it's a movie I'm doing with girlfriends."

It's also the movie that will make Diaz one of Hollywood's highest paid actresses. She will receive $20 million for the sequel.

Charlie's Angels 2 is scheduled for release next summer and Shrek 2 for the following year.


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