I have created a brand new layout here at Rashida Jones Web! There is also a new theme at the photo gallery!

With the new year, there will be more features added on to this website, including more information and content, photo additions, videos and even fan artwork. 2010 looks to be a big year for Rashida and I hope it will be a big year for this website as well! Happy 2010 everyone!

Please leave your thoughts on the new look by leaving a comment in this post!

The trailer for one of Rashida’s upcoming films, “Cop Out” (formerly titled “A Couple of Dicks”), has been released! The movie opens in theaters on February 26th, 2010.

You can see more about the film at CopOutMovie.com

When word hit the Internet not long ago that Rashida Jones, the co-star of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, was creating her own comic book series—a spy thriller called Frenemy of the State, co-written with Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, that will be published in early 2010 by Oni Press—the response was a resounding “Yes, please.” Actually, as sometimes happens when attractive women mix with comic fandom, things got a little creepy. Bloggers didn’t hesitate to use terms like “geek chubby” when describing their excitement. And as one online commentator noted, “Rashida Jones is so hot, and the fact that she made a comic makes her much hotter.”

Jones isn’t the first actress to try her hand at comic book authorship—Jenna Jameson and Rosario Dawson both created their own graphic novels, Shadow Hunter and Occult Crimes Taskforce, respectively—but something about Jones’s comic ambitions seems especially surprising. After all, this is the daughter of Quincy Jones and the Mod Squad’s Peggy Lipton. This is the woman who played the woman who cock-blocked Pam on The Office. Sure, she got all the worst lines in the Paul Rudd/Jason Segel flick I Love You Man, but goddammit, she was in I Love You Man! A woman of her pedigree should be hanging out in Hollywood nightclubs, snogging with John Mayer and trying to decide if she’s too drunk to drive. Learning that Rashida Jones wrote a comic book is like finding out that the hot cheerleader at your high school is really into video games and heavy metal. It’s validation that maybe the things that you love don’t necessarily make you a social outcast. To borrow a phrase from Benjamin Franklin, it’s proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I called Jones to talk about Frenemy of the State and comics in general. She was gracious and outgoing, talking to me with the warmth of an old friend. And best of all, she was unfazed by the occasional jackassery of my questions—especially when I asked her if she could convince Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau (who she’s rumored to be dating) to slip some Li’l Wayne lyrics into the president’s next speech (“Look at the ice, radiculous price. Your camera has neva seen a picture this nice”)—for which I am eternally grateful.

Eric Spitznagel: Have you seen the reaction to Frenemy of the State online? It’s like geek boys across the globe experienced a simultaneous orgasm.

Rashida Jones: (Laughs.) Yeah, people have definitely been very nice about it. I’m humbled by the whole thing. It can be hard to change direction, and making a comic is not necessarily a natural progression for me. So it’s really amazing that people are being so supportive.

Promoting a comic is a lot different than plugging a movie or a TV show. Are you ready for the nerd clusterfuck that is Comic-Con?

I’m not, but I imagine my instincts will quickly kick in. I’m very excited about it. I know that Comic-Con has turned into something else over the last couple of years, but I think it’s still a great event for people who genuinely love the art form. It’s not quite at the level of Sundance yet, which a lot of people go to just because they’re giving away free shit. People still go to Comic-Con because they love comics.

Are you emotionally prepared to see a 40-year-old man dressed as Frenemy’s female heroine?

(Laughs.) I’m not going to lie to you, that’s going to be a little shocking for me. But I will try to appreciate their commitment.

Your comic is about a rich heiresses named Ariana Von Holmberg who leads a double life as a C.I.A. spy. I’ve heard that the character is loosely based on Paris Hilton but, well… that can’t be true, can it?

It sounds like kinda a stretch, I know.

When most people look at Paris Hilton, they don’t think, “Hmm, I wonder if she’s secretly fighting crime?” They think, “Hmm, I wonder how long until her next amateur porno leaks?”

Back when Paris was at her height of fame and people were just obsessed with her, I had this funny notion that she’s actually some crazy genius who knew exactly what she was doing, and she was just conducting this elaborate anthropological study on the world. I imagined that she was going home every night and whispering into her mini-recorder: “Day three hundred and twenty seven. I continue to have them all fooled.” That was sort of where the idea for this comic started. And also, I’m obsessed with our country’s almost cannibalistic obsession with people who are famous for no other reason than that they’re famous. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to give somebody like Paris Hilton another layer? What if her fame is something more than just an overwhelming need to be an object of desire?” Ariana is a little bit reluctant to be in the spotlight, and there’s a sadness to that.

“Reluctant” isn’t a word I’d use to describe Paris. She practically dry-humps the paparazzi.

I think a lot of these girls are completely complicit in their overexposure. They need that attention from the outside to make themselves feel valid. But for a lot of these girls, they don’t need more attention, they need help. We’re just supporting their demise. It’s like we’re all part of this terrible Schadenfreude machine. It’s my biggest complaint about how everything went down with Michael Jackson. We don’t honor and support and uplift our heroes when they’re alive. We need the mythology of tragedy before we’re finally able to honor them.

Do we all deserve a little of the blame for Jackson’s death?

Nobody wants to take ultimate responsibility for why something like that happens, but it starts with just one person, one businessman who buys a US Weekly at the airport. Just don’t do it. Don’t support that kind of storytelling. It’s eating away at us. And I think it’s only getting worse. It may actually be killing our culture. (Laughs.) Not to get too heavy on you.

No, please, I’m digging the doomsayer vibe.

All I’m saying is buy a Newsweek instead. Buy a Sports Illustrated.

Or a… (coughs, mumbles) Vanity Fair.

Sure, yeah. I remember being a kid and seeing the National Inquirer at the grocery store checkout line. When somebody actually picked up a copy, it was mortifying. You felt dirty for them. But now it’s perfectly acceptable to read something like that. There’s absolutely no taboo surrounding that kind of exploitation. I’m not trying to be a puritan, but come on, there’s a lot of other shit going on in the world. Why do you care what’s happening with Brangelina? Leave it alone! I don’t think people understand what they’re doing to themselves. It’s like fast food. It’s going to take twenty-five years before people really understand what the effects of all this tabloid journalism are.

What’s the mental equivalent of diabetes?

Exactly. It’s like sugar overload to the point where you’re making yourself sick and possibly killing yourself.

It made sense why people were obsessed with Michael Jackson. He actually had talent. But somebody like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian? What exactly is the fascination?

In some respects, I get it. It’s glamour, it’s beauty, it’s wealth, it’s all that stuff. But whatever people are projecting onto celebrities, it’s all bullshit. It’s whatever they want to see, whether it’s negative or positive. They’re really just satisfying their own fantasies and it really has no basis in reality. Also, with somebody like Paris, her talent is branding. And that’ll take you a lot further these days than having an actual talent. Control the public’s perception of you and nobody will care if you have any talent. Which is why Michael Jackson became this freak. He was an incredibly talented man, but he couldn’t control how the outside world perceived him.

What about your character Ariana from Frenemy of the State? Is she manipulating her brand?

She is, but I think she has a conflicted relationship with the paparazzi and the press. She craves privacy but it’s a little bit too late for her now. She cultivated this public persona when she was just 18. When you’re 18, who knows how to handle their life, especially when you’re in the spotlight? So now she’s 21 and she looks at what her life has become and she thinks, “Aw shit, I actually don’t want all this attention.” But it’s too late. She’s forced to uphold this status and this celebrity because it’s the best way to keep her cover at the CIA.

Unlike Paris and her ilk, is she a little better at wearing panties?

(Laughs.) Yes, she is very skilled at wearing undergarments. She’s more like a European socialite. Like Charlotte Casiraghi or somebody like that, who is very well educated and travels everywhere and is essentially very sophisticated.

Ariana and you look very similar. Is she at least partly based on you?

On me?

Is Parks & Recreation just a cover for your real passion, espionage?

(Laughs.) Wouldn’t you like to know?

Yes, I definitely would.

Sadly, no, I was never approached by the C.I.A. to be a secret agent. I’ve always dreamt of having some sort of undercover job. I think it’s probably the coolest thing in the world, but ultimately a very lonely life.

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I have finally added captures of Rashida from the last two episodes of “Parks and Recreation” that have aired. There are 245 new captures total – you can see them all by clicking on the thumbnails below…

Rashida is now a part of the Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign! You can see her PSA below and learn more about the organization at StandUp2Cancer.org…