A Day for Blonds to Have All the Fun

Artisan Entertainment’s use of a Web site to build mythology around “The Blair Witch Project” may have been a groundbreaking marketing tactic in 1999, but these days, online sites for new films are standard. So to rev up for Friday’s release of the bubble-gum comedy “Legally Blonde,” MGM created its own holiday, National Blonde Day, to be celebrated today.

Inspired by the fictitious Blonde Legal Defense Fund founded by Reese Witherspoon’s character, Elle Woods, while she was at Harvard Law School, the fair-haired holiday has a serious mission: “To stop the widespread belief that blonds are dumb and incapable, to destroy blond stereotypes and publicize blond accomplishments throughout history, dispelling the myths and mistakes about blonds both natural and chemically treated,” according to (what else?) the film’s Web site.

Vidal Sassoon is getting in on the act, too, offering free blond dye jobs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today, and free screening tickets. (Call the Vidal Sassoon salon in Beverly Hills or the Vidal Sassoon Academy in Santa Monica to make an appointment.)

But the marketing bonanza doesn’t end there. Clinique, Prada and OPI Nail Products are all prominently featured within the first five minutes of the film, and Cosmopolitan magazine is written into the script. (It’s probably no coincidence then that Witherspoon’s mug appears simultaneously on the covers of Cosmo and CosmoGirl this month.)

As if all that weren’t enough, a collection of licensed “Legally Blonde” T-shirts is set to hit stores any day.

Sounds like a bad month to be a brunet.