--- title: Reporter Gives Reese Witherspoon Legally Blonde Dissertation description: In the ultimate fangirl move, a plucky reporter gave Reese Witherspoon a copy of her dissertation, a 15,000 word thesis on Legally Blonde. canonical: https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-13T20:59:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:22.893Z og:title: Reese Witherspoon Reacts to a Fan's Legally Blonde Thesis og:description: And yes, it was scented og:url: https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7b9e426405e5cc/69892ab2fb4eacd729896029/reporter-givesreese-witherspoon-legally-blonde-dissertation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Premiere Of Disney's "A Wrinkle In Time" - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Reese Witherspoon Reacts to a Fan's Legally Blonde Thesis twitter:description: And yes, it was scented twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7b9e426405e5cc/69892ab2fb4eacd729896029/reporter-givesreese-witherspoon-legally-blonde-dissertation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Reese Witherspoon Had the Best Reaction to a Fan Who Gave Her a 15,000-Word _Legally Blonde_ Dissertation > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b73a10c4-293e-412a-b721-115227e22235&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 13, 2018 8:59 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 26: Reese Witherspoon arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's "A Wrinkle In Time" held at El Capitan Theatre on February 26, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic) LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 26: Reese Witherspoon arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's "A Wrinkle In Time" held at El Capitan Theatre on February 26, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic) Michael Tran—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 13, 2018 8:59 PM UTC In the ultimate [fangirl](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/09/12/introducing-the-new-face-of-fandom-women/) move, during a press call, a plucky reporter gave [Reese Witherspoon](http://time.com/4985673/reese-witherspoon-sexual-assault-director/) a copy of her college dissertation — a 15,000 word meditation on Witherspoon’s wildly popular film, [_Legally Blonde_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/25/admission-accomplished-10-great-getting-into-college-movies/slide/legally-blonde/)and its role in creating strong female characters. Lucy Jayne Ford, a reporter for Bauer Media in London, was at a press junket to interview Witherspoon and her _Wrinkle in Time_ co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to show her admiration for Witherspoon. “I want to start by saying I’m obviously a gigantic fan of all of you; Reese, I actually wrote 15,000 words on you once,” Ford said before handing Reese a copy of her lengthy dissertation and explaining that she had watched the film 800 times to write it. “You can read it, you can burn it, you can clean your windows with it, but I feel like this was full circle for me that I wrote that four years ago.” While Ford conducted her interview after giving Witherspoon the dissertation, Witherspoon made sure to ask her one burning question that Elle Woods most definitely would have approved of before their time ended. “I have just one question,” Witherspoon said. “Is it scented?” “I actually put perfume on it before this,” Ford confided. See Witherspoon receive the dissertation below. > [](https://twitter.com/lucyj%5Fford/status/973572079000915968) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/"},"headline":"Reese Witherspoon Had the Best Reaction to a Fan Who Gave Her a 15,000-Word Legally Blonde Dissertation","datePublished":"2018-03-13T20:59:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:22.893Z","description":"And yes, it was scented","url":"https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7b9e426405e5cc/69892ab2fb4eacd729896029/reporter-givesreese-witherspoon-legally-blonde-dissertation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde7b9e426405e5cc/69892ab2fb4eacd729896029/reporter-givesreese-witherspoon-legally-blonde-dissertation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of Disney's \"A Wrinkle In Time\" - Arrivals","caption":"Premiere Of Disney's \"A Wrinkle In Time\" - Arrivals","creditText":"Michael Tran—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5198145/reese-witherspoon-reacts-to-legally-blonde-dissertation/","name":"Reese Witherspoon Had the Best Reaction to a Fan Who Gave Her a 15,000-Word Legally Blonde Dissertation"}}]}] ```