Best bet: Jennifer Coolidge

By Diana Nollen

Jennifer Coolidge's roots are showing.

No, the blond bombshell isn't due for a touch-up. Well, maybe she is. But in this sense, she's going back to her improv and sketch comedy beginnings to bring her standup routine to Eastern Iowa this week.

She'll play the Mississippi Moon Bar at the Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, and Penguins Comedy Club in the Clarion Hotel, 525 33rd Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18.

Tickets for the Dubuque show are $15 and $20 at http://dubuquetickets.diamondjo.com or (563) 690-2100. Tickets for the Cedar Rapids show are $19.50 in advance at www.penguinscomedyclub.com/cr_upcomingacts.htm or (319) 362-8133 and $21.50 the day of show.

Coolidge, 48, set teenage hearts aflutter as Stifler's mom in the “American Pie” movies, before mastering the bend and snap as manicurist Paulette in the “Legally Blonde” films opposite Reese Witherspoon. On TV, she played Joey's agent in the “Friends” spinoff “Joey” and Betty in nine episodes of “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” along with guest spots on “Seinfeld,” “Frasier,” “Sex and the City,” “Nip/Tuck” and “The Closer.”

She bared her comic chops in such Christopher Guest mockumentaries as “Best in Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “For Your Consideration.” And she starred in the spoofs “Date Movie” and “Epic Movie” and was Hilary Duff's stepmother in “A Cinderella Story.”

Phew!

After graduating from college in her native Massachusetts, Coolidge began honing her comedy craft through the Gotham City improv group in New York, then headed west and enjoyed a long run in the Groundlings troupe in Los Angeles.

With plenty of face time on screens large and small, she's also figuring prominently in current TV ads for the U.S. Census. She's ready to stand up and be counted.