In the starring role

College officials hope the movie will be a cinematic postcard addressed to the country, one that will bolster the school's name recognition.

The favorable spotlight is a welcome change from the unsavory publicity the prestigious school has received in recent years. There was the Rolling Stone magazine article two years ago titled "The Highly Charged Erotic Life of the Wellesley Girl," which garnered criticism for its portrayal of sexually obsessed Wellesley students. There was the December 2002 Newsweek article that referred to a college student who chooses to abstain from sex as "The Wellesley Girl." And then there was the jab last spring on "Saturday Night Live" by Tina Fey, who said Wellesley girls were drawn to Harvard Square because it was home to a large ice sculpture shaped like a phallus.

Students and faculty say they don't pay much attention to the negative stereotypes. It's part of the deal when you attend an all-women's college, they say. If anything, some find humor in the attention the school has received from the media.

"It's not something that is new to women's colleges to have those kinds of comments made. It's something we are accustomed to," says Mary Ann Hill, a spokeswoman for Wellesley who noted that applications surged 20 percent for this school year.

"Womens' colleges tend to get a lot of negative PR because half the population can't come," says Alice Kunce, the student who was referred to as "The Wellesley Girl" in the Newsweek article. "It sets us up as a kind of a target. For the most part, the student body has a good sense of humor about it."

The movie opened nationwide on Friday, but some school officials and students attended the premiere Dec. 10 in New York City. They walked away with mixed reviews of the film's portrayal of the school. On the one hand, Hill says, "they really captured the special beauty of this campus. They captured the strong mentoring relationships between students and faculty and the close bonds between the students." But some students thought the portrayal of the school in the 1950s as strictly conservative and Anglo could misrepresent today's Wellesley and discourage potential students from applying.

Last year's filming -- and the casting call -- stirred debate on campus and on the Internet. To make the movie historically accurate and to capture the look of Wellesley in 1953, filmmakers did not cast students of color as extras and instead offered them jobs as production assistants. (In 1953, the school had 12 black students. This school year, there are 133 black students and 179 international students.)

"Wellesley is no longer the WASP-ish college it was during the 1950s," Kunce says. "Mona Lisa Smile' shows Wellesley as it was, not how it is. It is my hope that [the movie] will stimulate high school girls to consider women's colleges and encourage them to look beyond the image of `Mona Lisa Smile.' "

"The movie was in the 1950s, and everything was more uptight," adds Elisa McDaniel, a sophomore who was an extra in the film. "It's probably very close to what it was. We are very liberal now, and it's a much more comfortable campus."

In the movie, Roberts plays a free-spirited Berkeley graduate from California who accepts a job in 1953 to teach art history to the conservative Wellesley women. But Roberts's character also gets an education from her students.

After reading the script, college officials decided that Wellesley's old traditions and lush campus would be highlighted in a positive way.

"We didn't want the movie to be filmed somewhere that wasn't Wellesley," Hill says. "One of the things we know at Wellesley is that we have an extraordinary, beautiful campus." It's a common Hollywood practice to have one campus sub for another. The University of Southern California doubled as Harvard University in the 2001 movie "Legally Blonde" because Harvard does not allow film crews on campus. USC also served as Harvard in 1973's "The Paper Chase."

About 200 Wellesley students were willing to drop their studies and put in 15-hour days as extras. Crews descended on the 500-acre campus for eight days of filming in October 2002 and January 2003. Various campus locations were used, including the chapel and Severance Green.

Student extras wore wool cardigans, brown and white saddle shoes, and bright red, yellow, and teal beanies to capture the New England flavor of 1953.

Debby Dowlin was among the extras who helped showcase Wellesley traditions such as the convocation ceremony and "hoop rolling." Years ago, the winner of the hoop contest was said to be the first woman who would get married. These days, the winner is thought to be the first one who will realize her dreams. Dowlin was tickled when she saw herself and her roommate in the movie cheering on the actors in the hoop-rolling scene as well as in the graduation photo.

"It depicted the beautiful campus as it really is," she says. But, she adds, "It's nice to see the movie and how far we have come."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com.