Jennifer Lawrence and Anna Karenina

Do we love this story because it shows -- once again -- how very charming American Hustle star Jennifer Lawrence genuinely seems to be? Or is it because it demonstrates a Hollywood star and role model reading for fun and pleasure? Director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle) talks about spoiling Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina for Lawrence:

Russell was amazed by Lawrence's emotions even when the camera wasn't running on Hustle. “She’s walking around the set all the time reading the Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina, which is like a phone book. I was just impressed that this 20-year-old girl is reading Anna Karenina -- from Kentucky, who likes to eat junk food, and watch Real Housewives of Long Island. I go, ‘Oh wow, you’re down to almost the end, Jennifer. Have you gotten to the part where she throws herself under the train tracks?’ And she goes, ‘What?'  She goes, ‘Surely, surely Vronsky is coming back!’ And she starts crying, she’s sobbing. I’ve never had an experience like that in my life, this 20-year-old person who is living every ounce of Anna Karenina.”

The Hollywood Reporter story is here.