USA Today

Among a sea of 10 big-name celebrities — including John Travolta, Uma Thurman, The Rock and Steven Tyler — she’s the one who pops out on the ‘Be Cool’ movie poster like a colorful new shape in a box of Lucky Charms cereal.

Pink hearts. Yellow moons. Green clovers. And now red-hot Christina Milian. She was also seen on the Grammy red carpet, making best-dressed lists with Beyoncé and Alicia Keys. Now art is imitating life for Milian, who stars as up-and-coming pop diva Linda Moon, protégée of Travolta’s Chili Palmer, in ‘Be Cool’. At 23, Milian is on the verge of breaking out à la Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, all of whom started off, like Milian, as child stars employed by the Walt Disney Co. As a teenager, she worked as a junior journalist interviewing celebrities on the Disney Channel’s Movie Surfers.

One of her interviewees was a 12-year-old Lindsay Lohan, then promoting her breakout role in ‘The Parent Trap’. “She was adorable, with her little freckles,” says Milian, who reunited with Lohan December 31 as co-hosts of MTV’s TRL New Year’s Eve show. (Milian also hosted MTV’s Wannabe for two years.) Despite her fame, Milian, who goes by Tina, has maintained her strong Catholic convictions. She brings her mother/ manager Carmen (who is divorced from Milian’s dad, Don) to lunch, and following Carmen’s lead, bows her head in silent prayer when her salad is brought to the table. “We pray constantly and appreciate life,” she says.

“The struggles I’ve been through have gotten me to where I am today.” Says her mother:

“She realises that more than her career, God comes first, family second.”

It wasn’t all that long ago that Christina and Carmen were living in a small North Hollywood apartment, driving a broken-down car and cleaning homes together to help pay the bills. One day, the family (including younger sisters Danielle, now 19, and Lizzy, 17), sat down and prayed for an opportunity, and, boy, was the prayer answered. Before long, Milian sold one of her songs “Play”, to Jennifer Lopez. Last June, her debut album ‘It’s About Time’ was released, and she’s preparing another album for music producer Jay-Z. The family now lives in a sizable house in upscale Calabasas.

Milian’s Valentine’s Day was spent at ‘Be Cool’s’ LA premiere. She brought her longtime

“friend” Nick Cannon, 24, as her date. (The two met at a Will Smith party five years before co-starring together in 2003’s ‘Love Don’t Cost a Thing’.) So, are they more than friends?

“We definitely date, and we’re definitely very close,” she says. “I can talk to him about everything.” She downplays their relationship, she says, to be perceived as single. “The audience wants to feel they have a certain closeness to you - with nobody getting in the way.”