Winona Ryder becomes face of brand she once tried to shoplift

CEBU, Philippines - Actress Winona Ryder has always loved the work of designer Marc Jacobs. In fact, a $760 sweater that he designed was part of the $5,500 of merchandise she was convicted of shoplifting from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills on December 2001.

If she wasn’t before, the 44-year-old star will surely be getting the friends and family discount now. Jacobs revealed Monday on Instagram that the “Reality Bites” star is the face of the latest Marc Jacobs Beauty campaign.

“It is with great pride (and pleasure) that I ‘leak’ this image from our upcoming 2016 Marc Jacobs beauty campaign,” he captioned it. “It stars my dear friend of over two and a half decades, the stunningly beautiful and extraordinarily talented, Winona Ryder.”

Jacobs continued to gush about his friend, posting pictures of them together over the years to prove it, and promised to share additional campaign images soon.

“No one I know could exude the adjectives I’ve listed as perfectly as Winona does. She does not model the look, she gets into the role and exudes it! A brilliant mind, talent, and physical beauty like no other.”

Ryder told Allure magazine that the beauty campaign is her first.

“Shooting it was a long day, but an amazing one,” she said. “I hate to sound so clichéd, but it was a lot of fun. Look, I’m not a model, so doing any kind of fashion shoot, I need a little bit of help in terms of that fact that I don’t naturally fall into the poses or whatever. I’m always trying to get camera guys to tell me what side is the better one for me because as an actress, it’s important not to be aware of stuff like that.”

What went unspoken was how far Ryder has come in the years since her shocking arrest for removing the security tags from clothes and putting them into a bag with clothes she had purchased. Police also found prescription painkillers on her. At the time, Ryder was just a few years past two consecutive Oscar nominations, with an impressive resumé that included a successful transition from teen movies such as “Heathers” to adult fare, like “The Age of Innocence.”

Ryder claimed a director told her to shoplift in preparation for a role, according to the testimony of security personnel. That didn’t fly with the court, and she was convicted of felony grand theft and vandalism in 2002. She was sentenced to three years of probation, 480 hours of community service, and more than $10,000 in fines. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanors.

Johnny Depp’s ex declined to speak about the incident until a 2007 interview with Vogue.

“I never said a word,” she said. “I didn’t release a statement. I didn’t do anything. I just waited for it to be over.”

The arrest “in a very weird way, was a blessing,” she noted, “because I couldn’t take the painkillers anymore.”

After moving near her parents in San Francisco for a while and taking some time away from acting, Ryder has returned to Hollywood in movies, including the 2010 Oscar-nominated “Black Swan” and shows such as the well-reviewed HBO series “Show Me a Hero.”