Julia Roberts, still rated America's most popular female film actor despite a quieter recent run, has named Lucille Ball as the greatest comedy performer of all time, praising her "light and funny" style. Roberts made her name in the 1990s across genres, winning a Best Actress Oscar for Erin Brockovich in 2000 and commanding fees of up to $25million a film, but it was her romantic comedies, including Steel Magnolias and Notting Hill, that won her the widest public affection. She has said she has largely moved away from that genre as she has got older, though she remains a fan of Ball's work.

Ball rose to fame through her 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy, which became the most-watched show in America, still draws around 40million viewers a year in reruns, and pioneered techniques such as 35mm studio-audience filming and ensemble casting; she earned 13 Emmy nominations and two Hollywood Walk of Fame stars before her death in 1989. Roberts, meanwhile, is returning to blockbuster fare, reprising her Ocean's role after 20 years in the upcoming Ocean's 14 alongside George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and will also star in the 2027 thriller Panic Carefully with Eddie Redmayne and Elizabeth Olsen.