I caught up with Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl Thursday night at the red carpet premiere of their upcoming romantic comedy, "The Ugly Truth," at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Interestingly, unlike the old days of Hollywood, there were no screen tests - or even  a meeting - with the two stars to see if they had chemistry on film. Butler says there's really not the time to do that much these days, and anyway, he was sold on the project from the beginning: "I was head over heels over her from 'Knocked Up.' I read the script, and I'll be honest, I get a lot of scripts for romantic comedies and most of them aren't interesting. But this was very un-PC and it had Katie. I was not going to say no."

Katherine Heigl, sporting a newly-minted short brown hairdo arrived a tad late - most likely NOT waiting for the sun to go down to get more flattering lighting as some of the camera guys joked. Something about a Jimmy Kimmel taping running late. At any rate, I had to know: what is this "Ugly Truth" of which you speak?

“It’s ugly on both sides," she says, "Women get uptight in their expectations. It's the reverse with  men. What’s often important is not soul, but the package. But by the end, from such extremes they [her character and Butler's] come together  and we're a perfect match and you wouldn’t ever expect them to wrap their brains around each other."

Speaking of perfect matches, Heigl sounds very happy with hers, husband  Josh Kelley: “I'm a different person, he makes me a better person. My intensity has lightened. He’s the funniest person. If I were to tape his routines people would be surprised. They think of him as this serious singer-songwriter. He could actually do stand-up if he wanted. He’s brought laughter, joy to my life.”

"The Ugly Truth" opens across the U.S. July 24th.