Rise to Fame
Coyote Ugly (2000) was a mess of a film, critically dismissed and still walked out with $133 million worldwide, which is essentially how her acting career started. She'd been modeling for Ford, covering Vogue and Glamour, and the bar-girl comedy was the pivot. I, Robot (2004) with Will Smith was the real upgrade, a $347 million sci-fi thriller where she played the robot psychologist to his action-hero chaos. Sex and the City was already in the mix, giving her a recurring role as Natasha, Mr. Big's wife. She was building a career out of projects that weren't supposed to work.
In the Spotlight
Blue Bloods is the job that made her a fixture. Donnie Wahlberg talked her into taking it after they worked together on a 2008 pilot that didn't go anywhere, which turned out to be the most consequential casting conversation of her career. For 14 seasons on CBS she played ADA Erin Reagan across 293 episodes before the show wrapped in December 2024. When CBS pulled the plug, she said she wanted her job back. Since the finale, she's stepped back to focus on her 18-year-old son Jack, which is probably what she'd say anyway.
Side Notes
The tabloid version of her life is more famous than most of her roles. She dated Tom Brady for two years, and after they split in 2006, she confirmed she was pregnant in early 2007. Brady was already with Gisele Bundchen by then. Son Jack was born that August. She married businessman Andrew Frankel in 2015, becoming stepmother to his three sons. Both families ended up in each other's orbit, and by all accounts they made it work. The messiest situation on paper ended up being one of the less dramatic celebrity co-parenting situations on record.