By E.C. GLADSTONE , Photographs: STEVE ERLE

This woman is going to make someone a fantastic wife.

It's not the first thought you'd expect to come to mind when interviewing a young Hollywood hottie, and when it does, right in the middle of a late-afternoon chat with television (and soon big-screen) sweetheart Kristen Bell, it's so surprising that I actually blurt it out loud.

"Hey, thanks!" Bell responds, so sincerely that it only cements the image.

And it isn't just because of the 27-year-old blonde's shimmering eyes and mood-altering smile, or the charming way she arrives breathlessly tardy to meet me, dressed Annie Hall-style in a straw fedora, navy jacket and Ugg boots, explaining that she just got back from an overnight trip to Palm Springs on the back of a friend's motorcycle.

In an industry with a divorce rate far exceeding 50 percent, Kristen's marriageability has more to do with her impressively centered sense of self, her equal appreciation for subjects serious and silly, and her enthusiasm for what she admits might be considered boring activities.

"I love to go on walks, I love to knit," she lists. "My roommate, Amy, and I love to find different recipes out of Real Simple magazine." Her idea of a perfect Sunday is getting coffee and a newspaper, and hitting some open houses. Last summer, rather than go clubbing, the former star of Veronica Mars and new cast member of uber-hot Heroes convinced her friends to join her in an overnight camping trip in her backyard, a wildlife-filled wonderland on the Studio City-side of the Hollywood Hills.

Clearly grounded in Midwestern values, this Michigan native also admits she's both thrifty with her spending (she succumbed to the urge for Christian Louboutin heels only this year) and a conservationist. She brings her own bags to the grocery store, and still grabs the soaps and shampoos when she stays in fancy hotels. In a car-obsessed city, she proudly drives a Saturn. . .

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