Favorite Fictional Character --- Amanda Shelton

Since I'm such a hug fan of "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" and it's amazing main character, Buffy Summers, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I love Sarah Michelle Gellar just as much.  She is an actress that brings every character she plays to life.  So this weeks Favorite Fictional Character is Amanda Shelton from the movie "Simply Irresistible."

When Amanda's mother passed away, she was left running a slowly dying restaurant.  It was a labor of love for her mother and Amanda has been trying in vain to keep it running.  She has very few customers, mainly old friends of her mother's who are just trying to be supportive.  The worst part, Amanda can't cook.  If it wasn't for her assistant, the restaurant would never serve anything that was edible.

Since Amanda is the star of a romantic comedy, you know something special will have to happen.  While she's at the market a mysterious crab crawls into her basket, and Amanda's life is never the same again.  While the crab looks on Amanda starts putting everything she has into her food, and I mean everything.  Amanda can not only cook and cook well now, but she can make her customer's feel any emotion just by eating the food.  Lucky for us there is a hunky man in the picture, Tom Bartlett, who is in charge of opening a new restaurant for a department store.  Needless to say hi jinks ensue and while the road may be rocky for or romantic couple, they end up together in the end.

What I love about Amanda is that she is both naive and worldly at the same time.  She is the girl next door that every girl wanted to be friends with and every boy wanted for his own.  Her approach to life is to grab it and turn it into something she wants.  She takes this opportunity to not only save her mother's dream but to find love for herself.  Even after she figures out what's going on, she keeps herself in control with only a little freaking out.  She accepts life and moves on.  She's not a whiner or a quitter and I admire her for it.