Elle at the bar with prosecutors Shannon O’Hurley and Victor Garber and fellow defender Luke Wilson.

To get there, however, Elle has to battle with the initial prejudices of the Harvard Law School; a female professor (played by Holland Taylor) who makes John Houseman’s character in The Paper Chase seem like a pussycat; Warner’s new, socially acceptable fiancée, Vivian (Selma Blair), of whom the ever-generous Elle says: “She could use some mascara and some serious highlights, but she’s not completely unfortunate-looking”; and a top lawyer who takes her on as an intern for not entirely the right reasons. It’s a bit of a struggle at first, but Elle never gives up (well almost, but that’s right at the end).

Raquel Welch cameos as a rich divorcee

“I think this is really an empowering movie,” says Witherspoon. “Everybody has a moment in their life when they stop believing in themselves, but Elle proves with her own special spirit that anyone can overcome their fears and succeed on their own terms, whatever those might be. Some people might succeed because they know about Plato and Socrates and other people succeed because they know about Porsches and Clinique. The point is to use what you have and believe in yourself.”

The Nashville-born actress, who made her feature debut in Robert Mulligan’s The Man in the Moon, admits she found Elle quite hard to keep up with. “Maintaining that sort of bubbly energy all the time is hard work,” she laughs. “Elle never takes a break from staying up!” But costume and make-up did a lot of the work for her, starting with a series of pink outfits that Witherspoon admits “no normal person would wear in public”.

Matthew Davis as Elle’s ex, Warner, and Selma Blair as his East Coast fiancee, Vivian

And then there is the hair. “Elle’s hair has a life of its own in this movie,” says stylist Joy Zapata. “Luckily, Reese has the most amazing, heavy, thick, beautiful blonde hair. The more I worked with it, the more I loved it. I could try anything - and I did! Reese would come to the trailer as Reese, and I would give her this very bouncy, Pamela Anderson, Gianni Versace, Beverly Hills-style hair, and she would leave as Elle. It snapped her right into the character.”

Witherspoon also spent a little time observing the species in its natural habitat. “She hung out in Beverly Hills watching girls eat lobster salad and having spa days,” recalls Luketic, “and she just nailed it in a way that captures the uncanny ability of this character to charm.”

Jennifer Coolidge as manicurist Paulette. who becomes Elle’s best friend

Legally Blonde boasts a cast that includes Luke Wilson as Emmett, the young lawyer who is the first to see the reality behind Elle’s blonde façade; Jennifer Coolidge as Paulette, the manicurist whom Elle helps to get rid of her first partner and land her second; and Raquel Welch in a cameo. It also has a full-scale musical number, in which Elle explains to Paulette the basic, man-landing manoeuvre of ‘Bend and Snap’.

As for Luketic, he reckons that his status as an English-speaking outsider gave him a unique perspective on the whole thing. “I think Australian film-makers are so geographically isolated that we use it as a platform,” he says. “We are constantly looking at what the rest of the world is doing, and the comedy perspective that comes from that is raw and honest.”