The Princess Diaries - Lilly Moscovitz

Thanks to the holiday weekend, I'm posting a little late, however, let's just say today is Sunday...

The Princess Diaries is the story of Mia Thermopolis, a painfully shy and awkward 15-year-old who discovers she is heir to the Genovian throne. Anne Hathaway stars, with Julie Andrews. After discovering the truth of her heritage, Mia undergoes a makeover to look "like a princess" - all it takes are contacts and newly tamed tresses to transform her into teen royalty, and remove her cloak of uncool invisibility. Revealing this new look to her best friend Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo) results in shock and awe, and not the good kind. As supportive as Lilly is up to this point, she is threatened by her friends' transformation. Lilly attacks Mia, accusing her of joining the conformist ranks of Lana (Mandy Moore) and her cronies. Naturally, the secret gets out and Mia is on the receiving end of some suspect attention from the popular kids which results in some negative press and a terrible first kiss. Mia misses an appearance on Lilly's local cable show, and when reprimanded by her grandmother, the Queen of Genovia, she decides not to accept her title. And then she changes her mind, and shows up at the ball looking like a wet rat and manages not to throw up when she gives her speech.

Lilly Moscovitz is a high strung activist type with high disdain for the popular kids and status symbols like fancy handbags and expensive hair styles. She and Mia are two peas in a pod because they don't fit in with the Suzy-high-schools or jocks or preppy kids. Lilly is the product of two psychologists, which I'm not sure is something addressed in the movie, but it is in the books, and she admits to needing an attitude adjustment. So while she feels that their friendship is threatened by the interests of others who would like to exploit Mia's new notoriety, Lilly stands by her friend and believes in her ability to lead and make a difference in the world. Lilly envies this, but is not worried about Mia doing the wrong thing in the position of princess. In fact, when Lilly realizes why the makeover happened, she is thrilled. She calls Mia's being a princess a miracle, because so often the spoiled, wealthy and privileged hold all the power and esteem. Lilly's personality is rather overpowering, until Mia grows a backbone. Their friendship does feel genuine, perhaps because they are teenagers, where as a similar friendship for women in their 20's or 30's might not seem as deep. Lilly and Mia relate to one another like childhood friends. Their fights blow over quickly and they have a great natural rapport.

Stats
Screen time: 9 minutes
Memorable quotes: "You know, we could hock that and feed a whole third world country!" "The student body may be morally bankrupt, but that doesn't mean they're blind!" "Hi, nice to meet you. Did you know you look like Shaft?" "Are you really sure you can run a country? I mean you can barely keep a goldfish alive for more than a couple of days." "Voltaire, hair. I, personally, would like to learn about Voltaire." "Do you know how hard it is to have a cable show and keep a secret!?" "The green monster of jealousy came out because you were Miss Popular and I thought I was losing my best friend so I got angry and upset and hurt." "I just found out that my cable show only reaches 12 people."