LOADINGERROR LOADINGJennifer Coolidge and Natasha Lyonne endeared themselves to a generation of fans in the smash 1999 comedy “American Pie,” but even a shared Hollywood background sometimes can’t prevent a case of mistaken identity.Appearing on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast this week, Lyonne recalled a surprise run-in with Coolidge, during which the “White Lotus” actor mistook Lyonne for a different former co-star entirely.Advertisement “Jennifer Coolidge saw me at the Chateau Marmont and I had straight hair, and she thought I was Hilary Duff,” Lyonne said.
“I was so confused.”Natasha Lyonne, left, and Jennifer Coolidge appeared in the smash 1999 comedy "American Pie." Getty ImagesCoolidge portrayed Fiona Montgomery, the stepmother of Duff’s character Sam Montgomery, in 2004’s “A Cinderella Story.” That film’s release came just one year after “American Wedding,” the third installment in the “American Pie” series, in which Coolidge played Jeanine Stifler, the mother of football jock Steve Stifler (Seann William Scott).Though Lyonne didn’t specify the exact timing of the Coolidge exchange, she noted it was after she’d “dropped out” of show business for a while.
A former child actor, Lyonne saw her career derailed in the mid-2000s amid well-documented experiences with drug and alcohol abuse and a number of health ailments, including a collapsed lung.Advertisement “I was like, ‘Maybe I’ve become too well.’ You know what I mean?” she said of Coolidge’s mix-up.
“Because whatever I’m projecting is something I’d rather scratch real quick — I have lost my edge.Hilary seems like a lovely person, and sometimes I’ll look at pictures of her and be like, ‘I think maybe this is a good thing.
I think they mean this kindly.’”Coolidge, left, with her "A Cinderella Story" co-stars Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray in 2004.L.
Cohen via Getty ImagesNoting that she cleared up the confusion wi...