(PARIS) Lancôme today officially announced that it has tapped actress Anne Hathaway to serve as the beauty giant’s newest ambassador.”Anne Hathaway is a radiant young woman who perfectly embodies modern femininity,” said Odile Roujol, president of Lancôme International, in a brief statement. “We know she will portray all the passion and excitement of our new fragrance, to be launched throughout the world in September 2008.
“Lancôme’s announcement comes several months after circulated, but uncorroborated, reports that the fair-skinned actress, who attributes her natural beauty to her French, Irish, German, and Native American descent, had been in initial discussions with the L’Oréal-owned brand.Hathaway, who first garnered international attention thanks to her role in The Princess Diaries, saw her popularity levels soar with her role opposite Meryl Streep in the 2006 blockbuster The Devil Wears Prada.

Hathaway followed up the success of the film, based on a novel by Lauren Weisberger, with Becoming Jane, where she played a young Jane Austen.
In her new role, the New Jersey-born, New York native, whom People magazine in 2007 named as one of its 100 Most Beautiful People in the world, joins recently named ambassadors Kate Winslet, 32, and Clive Owen, 43.For Lancôme, the alliance with the 25-year-old Hathaway represents a path for the billion-dollar beauty force to further align itself with a younger market as part of what Roujol has referred to as “Lancôme’s new era of brand awareness.”

That initiative began with the signing in January of Owen as the face of the Lancôme Men treatment line and Hypnôse Homme fragrance. In June, Lancôme recruited Winslet to be the face of its best-selling Trésor de Lancôme perfume.While no further details of Hathaway’s Lancôme relationship have been divulged, it is expected that she will be featured in an upcoming marketing blitz that could possibly, like with Winslet, equate to both a print and television campaign. For Winslet, Lancôme enlisted Peter Lindbergh to shoot and direct both an ad campaign and commercial.

The planned push is part of an aggressive effort by Lancôme to parlay its strengths further into the fragrance and treatment businesses–something which Hathaway is likely to play a pivotal role in. In the last year alone, the well-liked, well-perceived, and easy-going star has selectively appeared at such high-profile events as Valentino’s 45th anniversary bash in Rome and sat in the front row at Giorgio Armani’s Privé couture show in Paris.
Most recently, she joined Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in celebrating the reopening of their Madison Avenue flagship in Manhattan and the launch of their new men’s fragrance, The One for Men. Hathaway has been with her current beau, real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, since 2004. Read more