Haylie Duff Is Looking for the Next Elle Woods!

It's a busy week for Haylie Duff. Perhaps best known as Summer in the 2004 comedy Napoleon Dynamite, and as the older sister of Hilary, the stage and screen actress mentors aspiring theater stars in MTV's new reality series, Legally Blonde: The Search for the Next Elle Woods (Mondays at 10 pm/ET). She also starred in Spike's hunted-in-the-forest thriller Backwoods Sunday.

TV Guide: Why'd you get involved with Elle?
Haylie Duff: I had done a Broadway show [Hairspray] and it was one of the best experiences of my life. It molded me into who I am as a performer…. I'm there to tell [the contestants] that all the times they want to cry and give up are worth it, because I've been there, too.

TV Guide: What can you tell us about Backwoods? It sounds like an updated Deliverance.
Duff: It totally is. When we were on set, that's all we used to talk about: "It looks like we're in 'Deliverance'!" It's a thriller about a group of people who are sent off on a work retreat and…everyone's hanging on for dear life.

TV Guide: Any sibling rivalry between you and sister Hilary?
Duff: There's not. People always want to expect that, but we're so focused on what we're doing individually…that that's the last thing that happens.

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