SHE’S BACK

Cameron Diaz returns to acting eight years after taking time out to focus on herself

- LINDSAY DE FREITAS

SHE was the darling of the silver screen, a goofy, gorgeous star with a wraparound smile and enough personality in her little finger to steal the show.

She had 60 movie credits under her belt and in 2014 she was named Hollywood's most bankable star over 40. Her films grossed over $7 billion at the box office and she was the first woman to earn more than $20 million for a single film role.

And then, poof, Cameron Diaz was gone. The actress who made us laugh out loud in There's Something About Mary, the romcom sweetheart who had us rooting for her in The Holiday, the kooky, kickass crime fighter in Charlie's Angels was saying ta-ra to Tinseltown.

Gone too were the glossy magazine covers and the glamorous red-carpet appearances. In fact, for eight years the most we saw of her was when she was snapped picking up groceries around her Beverly Hills home.

But hold the phone, Cammie fans: she's making a comeback. The 49-year-old is set to appear in an upcoming Netflix comedy with Jamie Foxx, with whom she co-starred in Annie in 2014 and in 1999's Any Given Sunday.

The new flick is appropriately named Back in Action and is "the perfect movie project for her", a source says.

"She's worked with Jamie before and had a blast. She feels a bit rusty and nervous about it, but mostly excited. She's ready to tackle this."

CAMERON was 21 and trying to find her feet as a model when she landed her debut role in The Mask. Producers initially wanted Anna Nicole Smith for the “blonde bombshell” role of nightclub singer Tina Carlyle, opposite Jim Carrey, but her agent persuaded her to try it out.

Cameron was f labbergasted. “I thought, ‘Are you insane?’ I don’t act, first off. . . It’s not what I do.”