Elisha Cuthbert is dating Toronto Maple Leafs hockey player Dion Phaneuf , (Getty Images)
Elisha Cuthbert has advice for anyone who wants to remain friendly with former significant others: Don’t. Bother.
“It’s not easy, the staying-friends-with-your-exes kind of thing,” says the Canadian-born actress, who stars as a twenty-something bride-to-be who dumps her fiancé at the altar, creating awkward social situations for their mutual friends, in the new ABC comedy “Happy Endings.”
“I just went through this with a friend keeping in touch with her ex-boyfriend’s status on Facebook,” says Cuthbert, 28. “I said it’s time to let go because he’s moving on and you’re not.”
Best known in the recurring role of agent Jack Bauer’s oft-imperiled daughter Kim on the Kiefer Sutherland spy drama “24,” Cuthbert’s new venture is her first as a regular on a half-hour sitcom. And since breakups are a heavy topic — in real life and on the sitcom — Cuthbert was initially concerned with finding the right comedic tone for the show.
“I was nervous about the cast accepting me because they all have strong comedic backgrounds,” says Cuthbert, citing improv veteran Damon Wayans Jr. and “Saturday Night Live” alum Casey Wilson. “But I think there were things about my experience that they wanted to learn from as well. It ended up my fear was all nonsense, really!”
Dearth of slapstick aside, Cuthbert’s resume is eclectic, including early stints as a globe-trotting correspondent for a children’s show and as a pre-teen foot model. “It was for a department store catalog in Canada. I think it was a pair of children’s rubber boots, maybe?” she says, with a laugh. “I was getting my foot in the door — no pun intended.”
She has since appeared in films such as “Love Actually” and the 2005 remake of the horror classic “House of Wax.” The latter also starred socialite-turned-neophyte-actress Paris Hilton, who made a surprisingly favorable impression (and remains a friend).
“I had my apprehensions. Then I got to know her and learned a very valuable lesson,” she says. “It’s not always a good thing to judge people before you meet them, you know?”
Cuthbert does not, however, envy the media frenzy that surrounds Hilton’s world. As such, the actress guards her privacy.
A hockey fanatic who once blogged for NHL.com and splits her time between Los Angeles and Toronto, Cuthbert has been dating Toronto Maple Leafs player Dion Phaneuf for three years. Of the relationship she says she “couldn’t be more pleased and happy,” adding that they have no plans to marry just yet. “Even if we were, we wouldn’t be telling anybody, that’s for sure,” she says. “I really do take my personal life and make sure there’s a boundary there, as much as there can be.”
And while the alluring blond occasionally pops up on magazines’ sexiest stars lists, Cuthbert has also been on the receiving end of less flattering commentary.
In 2008, Cuthbert’s ex-boyfriend and then-Dallas Mavericks player Stars — now with the New York Rangers — took a swipe at her by saying Phaneuf was sampling Avery’s “sloppy seconds.” (The Stars suspended Avery for the remark.)
Cuthbert dismisses the subject of Avery with a terse “I’m not commenting on any of that,” but acknowledges that discretion is indeed the best policy.
“Kiefer told me never to read anything because it doesn’t do us any good. Some people are going to say flattering things about you, some are going to say terrible things,” she says with a chuckle. “I try not to dwell on either one too, too much.”
HAPPY ENDINGS
Wednesday, 9.30 p.m., ABC