Straight from the heart; Reese Witherspoon sheds her perky past to star opposite Joaquin Phoenix in country music's greatest love story-the long, passionate romance between June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash.(actress)(Interview)

Byline: Julia Reed

Reese Witherspoon is gushing. We are sitting in the Hotel Bel Air, where we have met to have high tea (English Breakfast for her, with lots of honey) and-more important-to talk about Walk the Line, the movie in which she and Joaquin Phoenix star as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. But she really wants to talk about Dolly Parton, whom she has just met at Vogue's photo shoot in Nashville, where, she says, she cried-a lot. "Dolly was amazing-so sweet. I just geeked out on her, and she let me. I told her all this stuff-I told her I loved 'Coat of Many Colors' and that I sing that one to Ava at night and that I have a storybook that goes along with ...