This is a cute story that kind of warms my heart. However, it also smacks of positive PR and I wouldn’t put it past Renee Zellweger and her people to stage something like this. That may sound too cynical and normally I wouldn’t assume something like that about Renee, but she seems to be playing the game lately and this is Hollywood. The official version is that a guy paid Renee’s expired meter while she was getting coffee and she gifted him with a sweet note and a $100 Starbucks gift card. It all seems too convenient that the paparazzi just happened to be there to capture the moment and even get a photo of Renee’s note. (And several agencies have these photos so it’s not like one guy just happened upon the scene. Still, she’s wearing the same workout gear she wears everywhere so she didn’t dress up for the occasion.)

She’s usually the one drinking (and carrying) the coffee. But on Wednesday, Renée Zellweger was the person serving it.

The actress was preparing to leave a Santa Monica, Calif., Starbucks when a fellow coffee-drinker noticed that her parking meter was about to expire. In the nick of time, the man slipped some coins into the meter, saving the actress from a possible ticket. Her reply? Zellweger gave him a $100 Starbucks gift card – with a sweet message.

“Wow,” the note read. “Thank you so much for the kindness. Warmly, with gratitude, Renée!

[From People]

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard a nice story about Renee extolling kindness on strangers. In late 2007, she gifted a pair of Manolo Blahniks to a girl who worked at a makeup counter at Neiman Marcus who was admiring them. That story could have been PR too, but it sounded genuine to me. Maybe Renee is just the type of person who likes to share her success in small meaningful ways with the people who brighten her day. If this is PR, it’s genius and more celebrities should follow suit. I would love to hear about a campaign to spread joy to the nice people we encounter during the day. Even if it was a marketing campaign for a product or service it could go a long way to spreading kindness. I loved that free hugs campaign, but this would be a little less touchy-feely. I would love to give some small token to the guy who holds the door open for me (I’m visiting the South now, and they all do it, but it still makes me smile every time!) or the cashier who is especially friendly. Maybe Renee started a trend!

Update: the guy was a photographer: I wrote this whole story and was then downloading the photos from WENN, when I saw the photo agency’s version. This guy wasn’t a random citizen as People reports – he was a paparazzo! They write: “The unnamed photographer spotted a parking attendant doing his rounds as he was waiting for the movie star to leave her coffee shop retreat after a shopping trip in Santa Monica, California. The quick-thinking snapper dropped coins into her meter to make sure Zellweger didn’t get a ticket.” So Renee may have given the gift card to thank the guy with the benefit of getting into the paparazzi’s good graces and receiving some positive press out of it. She seems to have succeeded on both counts! Aw, now I like her more.

Photo credit: WENN.com