Pfeiffer's doing it for herself

Michelle Pfeiffer may project the image of a sophisticated Hollywood star but she says that in real-life she enjoys a spot of DIY.

The actress says she has even tried to get her children, nine-year-old Claudia Rose and eight-year-old John Henry, involved in work projects around the home. But with little success.

She tells America’s People magazine: “We’ll start a project and it’s like, ‘Yeah, we’ll build this playhouse’, but I’m left to finish everything.

“This just happened: I had a little picket fence that someone built for me and I thought, ‘Great, the kids and I will paint this.’

“So we get the things we need, we each have our paintbrushes and, literally not even 20 minutes into it, they are like, ‘Mom, can we go play?’ And for the next four hours I was painting the fence alone.”

Happily, Pfeiffer is enjoying far more success on the big screen. The 44-year-old star’s new movie White Oleander is already generating an Oscar buzz in the States.

Pfeiffer stars as Ingrid, a betrayed poet who murders her lover with the poison of her favourite flower, the White Oleander, causing her daughter Astrid to be put through a series of foster homes.

Comedian Billy Connolly plays Ingrid’s beau, Barry Kolker, while Alison Lohman plays the dispossessed Astrid. The heavyweight cast also includes Renee Zellwegger, Robin Wright Penn and ER’s Noah Wyle.