HOLLYWOOD -- Except for some occasional hounding from paparazzi, life is positively heavenly for Reese Witherspoon.

At 29, Witherspoon is one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, commanding upwards of $15 million US a picture.

This past June, she and husband Ryan Phillippe, 31, celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary and will throw birthday parties for daughter Ava -- who turns six this month -- and son Deacon -- who turns two in October.

"I'm one of the luckiest people I know," she says. "I met my soul mate when I was very young. Ryan is still my greatest friend and, despite every kind of bump in the road on our journey together, we still like each other.

"We make each other laugh and we have two beautiful children."

The gossip press has been speculating for the past two years that Witherspoon's marriage is in trouble -- thus the attention from prying paparazzi.

Not so, says the star.

"Those stories sell papers and magazines but they have nothing to do with the reality of our relationship," she says.

Other celebrities have begun suing newspapers and magazines for fabricating such stories.

But Witherspoon and Phillippe aren't about to join that bandwagon. "Ryan and I don't pay attention to what's written about us," she says. Our life and our family take precedence over our careers and our celebrity. It's just not important."

When they met at Witherspoon's 21st birthday party, Phillippe was a bigger star but she has since eclipsed him. "If Ryan was 5-2 and blond, we might have problems with competition, but it has never been an issue," she jokes.

"He is so happy with the direction of his career. He's finally doing the kind of roles he longed for," she says, referring to Phillippe's critically lauded performances in The Way Of The Gun, Gosford Park and Crash. "He's working with Clint Eastwood right now (on Flags Of Our Fathers). It's where he wanted his career to go."

Witherspoon's romantic comedy Just Like Heaven -- opening Friday -- is an important step in a career that exploded after her star turns in Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama and Vanity Fair.

In Just Like Heaven, Witherspoon plays Elizabeth Martinson, a young medical intern who suddenly realizes she's a ghost lingering between life and afterlife.

By an incredible twist of fate, Elizabeth falls in love with David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo), the man who is now renting her former apartment.

"I love that I'm playing a more mature woman and it was definitely appealing that she's a doctor," she says. "It's where I was headed before I got sidetracked into acting."

Both Witherspoon's parents are doctors and they had expected her to follow in their career footsteps. "On the set of Just Like Heaven, I'd get dressed in my scrubs, take tons of pictures and send them to my parents asking if they were finally satisfied."

Though her parents were disappointed she pursued acting instead of medicine, Witherspoon says other forces were at work.

"I honestly believe I was fated to have a career in acting and I was definitely fated to meet Ryan," she says. "There's something out there working for me."

In Just Like Heaven, Elizabeth's very-near-death experience occurs when she is in a car accident.

It turns out that Witherspoon has some firsthand experience with brushes with death.

"I almost drowned when I was four," she says. "I was at a day camp. I have never forgotten the experience. It's why my children don't go to camp and why I have seven locks on the door to our pool."

Still, playing a ghost was a pleasant experience for Witherspoon. And once again, it's a subject with which the star says she has some knowledge.

"I read a lot of books about ghosts and hauntings but I've also had personal experiences," she claims. "I was very close to my grandparents and have seen both of them since they passed on.

"Each time it happened it was a comforting experience. It was definitely not spooky."

Especially comforting on the set of Just Like Heaven was the fact Witherspoon could have her children with her. "My daughter loved visiting the set. She'd get her makeup done with me and she tried on all the clothes in the wardrobe trailer."

Witherspoon vows she and Phillippe will not spoil their children. "Ryan grew up in Delaware. I grew up in Tennessee so we don't have a lot of tolerance for children who want their way.

"We're raising our children the way were were raised. They won't get their own credit cards and fancy clothes any time soon."

Meanwhile, Witherspoon is keeping busy: After completing Just Like Heaven, she filmed Walk The Line, the Johnny Cash biopic in which she plays June Carter to Joaquin Phoenix's Cash.

"I grew up in Nashville so I knew exactly who the Carter family was," she says. "I did a lot of research and five months of singing lessons and Autoharp lessons.

"I met with musicians. I went to recording studios and recorded songs.

"It was definitely a very long journey and the longest rehearsal period I've ever had."

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