Directed by Will Gluck.

Produced by

• Zanne Devine

• Will Gluck

Written by Bert V. Royal

• Cast

• Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast

  • Juliette Goglia as young Olive

• Penn Badgley as "Woodchuck" Todd

  • Braeden Lemasters as young Todd

• Amanda Bynes as Marianne Bryant

• Dan Byrd as Brandon

• Aly Michalka as Rhiannon Abernathy

• Thomas Haden Church as Mr. Griffith

• Lisa Kudrow as Mrs. Griffith

• Patricia Clarkson as Rosemary Penderghast

• Stanley Tucci as Dill Penderghast

• Cam Gigandet as Micah

• Malcolm McDowell as Principal Gibbons

• Mahaley Patel as Nina Howell

• Jake Sandvig as Anson

• Bryce Clyde Jenkins as Chip Penderghast

• Johanna Braddy as Melody Bostic

• Fred Armisen as Pastor Bryant

• Stacey Travis as Mrs. Bryant

• Max Crumm as Pontius

• Yoshi Sudarso as Eric Ling

• Lalaine as Gossipy Girl

• Plot

The story is narrated by Olive Penderghast, a 17-year-old girl living in Ojai, California, speaking into her webcam.

Olive lies to her best friend Rhiannon Abernathy about going on a date in order to get out of camping with Rhiannon's hippie parents. Instead, she hangs around the house all weekend listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "Pocketful of Sunshine", which is played by a musical greeting card from her grandmother. The following Monday, pressed by Rhiannon, Olive lies about losing her virginity to a college boy. Marianne Bryant, a girl with a devout Christian faith whom Olive considers to be prudish, overhears her telling the lie and soon spreads it throughout the school. The school's church group run by Marianne decides Olive will be their next project. Olive confides the truth to her friend Brandon, and he understands because others bully him because of his homosexuality. He later asks Olive to pretend to sleep with him so that he will be accepted by everyone as a "straight stud".

Olive agrees to help him and they pretend to have sex at a party. After a fight with Rhiannon over her new identity as a "dirty skank", Olive decides to counteract the harassment by embracing her new image as the school tramp. She begins to wear more provocative clothing and, inspired by The Scarlet Letter, stitches a red "A" onto her clothing. Boys who usually have had no luck with girls in the past now beg Olive to increase their popularity by saying they have had sex with her, in exchange for gift cards to various stores. This in turn increases her reputation. Things get worse when Micah, Marianne's boyfriend who has had to repeat several grades, contracts chlamydia from sleeping with Mrs. Griffith, the school guidance counselor, and blames Olive. As Mr. Griffith (Mrs. Griffith's husband) is her favorite teacher, Olive agrees to the lie to spare their marriage.

Marianne's friends from the church youth group, which now includes Rhiannon, begin harassing Olive in order to get her to leave school. After an ill-fated date with Anson, a boy who wants to pay her to actually sleep with him and not just pretend she did, Olive reconnects with Todd, her old love interest, who is also the school's mascot, a woodchuck. Todd tells her that he does not believe the rumors because he remembers when she lied for him when he was not ready for his first kiss years ago. Olive now has a change of heart and begins to ask everyone she lied for to help her out by telling the truth, but Brandon and Micah have abruptly left town, and with their newfound popularity, no one else wants to tell. When Mrs. Griffith also refuses to tell the truth, Olive threatens to expose her affair, but Mrs. Griffith snidely says no one would believe her. Out of spite, Olive then immediately tells Mr. Griffith, who believes her and separates from his wife.

After a friendly talk with her open-minded mother Rosemary, Olive comes up with a plan to finally get everything out in the open. She does a song-and-dance number at a school pep rally to get people's attention to watch her via webcast. Olive texts Rhiannon, apologizing for lying to her. As she is finishing up her webcast, Todd comes by on a riding mower, serenades her by playing a recording of "Don't You (Forget About Me)", and asks her to come outside. She signs off by saying that she may lose her virginity to Todd sooner or later, but proudly declaring that "it is nobody's goddamn business". She goes outside to meet him, they begin to make out, and the two are shown riding off on the lawn mower.

Release date

• September 11, 2010(TIFF)

• September 17, 2010(United States)