WHY HAYDEN PANETTIERE?
The breakout star of TV’s hottest new drama, Heroes, Hayden Panettiere is Claire Bennet, an unbreakable high school girl who became synonymous with the show when “Save the cheerleader, save the world!” hit the airwaves and entered the pop culture lexicon. “I think it was very clever,” says the New York-born actress, although she admits that calls of “Hey, cheerleader!” now follow her around L.A. “But it’s fun. It’s not an obnoxious thing.” Technically speaking, Claire does not actually spend much time shaking pom-poms. “I told [Heroes creator] Tim Kring I need to cheer at some point,” says a laughing Panettiere. “She wears the outfit all the time!” SHE’S CROSSING OVER Her debut record, due in 2008, reflects her diverse tastes. “I wanted to make every song sound as different as possible,” she says. “I hate sitting down and listening to an album where every song sounds the same.” Hayden Panettiere, who trained to be a singer and even sang jingles for a time, co-wrote most of the album’s
