‘The White Lotus has helped my dating life’

Jennifer Coolidge is having more luck dating after her award-winning performance in The White Lotus.

The 63-year-old star won a generation of new fans with her breakout role as Tanya McQuoid in the first two seasons of the hit HBO dark comedy drama, bagging Emmys and a Golden Globe in the process.

In an interview with The Times, Jennifer admitted the role has made her an unlikely sex symbol again, more than 25 years after she first found younger men lusting after her due to her role as ‘Stifler’s Mom’ in the American Pie franchise.

“Even though I play a complete weirdo in White Lotus, cute guys come up to me,” she explained. “And this is far better than American Pie because people were really sad about Tanya falling off a boat. These men like you better because they feel that you went through something. That show really upped my game!”

Revealing how her return to fame has broadened her dating pool, the Legally Blonde star added: “I had a guy come up to me in New Orleans once. It was a few years ago and he had a T-shirt on that his belly came out of, plus red cowboy boots.

“He was 4ft 11in and he said, ‘Would you like to go out?’ And, well, there was nothing wrong with him, but you have this idea that Brad Pitt or whoever will sweep you off your feet…White Lotus changed that for me. It’s not just that little guy any more.”

Jennifer also confessed that being unlucky in love also harmed her career as she focused on bad relationships instead of going after work when her star was on the rise.

“I was trying to have relationships with men who were unavailable, or there are guys out there who really hate women deep down and I certainly dated them,” the star remembered.