Relax! Julia Roberts is 'confident' Barack Obama will fix recession

Julia Roberts has faith that President Barack Obama can fix the recession, solve the banking crisis, the health care crisis, the unemployment crisis, the environmental crisis and put a man on the moon.

Oh, wait. That's been done.

Roberts, who stars in the new romantic spy thriller "Duplicity" with Clive Owen, is not exactly reeling from the recession.  "I'm a pretty frugal person," she revealed in New York at the film's press junket. "I'm not a big shopper, but I certainly notice our grocery bill.  Yeah, you shop for a house of five people it's a big bill. It's tough times. "

According to Forbes 2007 20 Richest Women in Entertainment list, Julia was ranked No. 8 with $140 million. Even allowing for the stock market drop in the past year, she's probably still doing OK.

And check out one of her homes. That's about the size of my entire neighborhood.

And let's be honest. When she talks to the Dish Rag about how great it was to have her kids -- Henry, Hazel and Phinnaeus -- on the "Duplicity" set, she does have help from an army of bodyguards, nannies and assistants.

"They [her children] would be in the trailer and we would have a big party in there and then I would leave that behind and go on to the set.  No, I mean they wouldn't be on the set, though, watching me act.  I don't know where they thought I would go, but they're well watched and taken care of so I didn't have to worry."

So Julia, when the recession will end? "Cyclically, history has shown us that we go through these times economically so that we can all kind of maybe just adjust ourselves a little bit and start over in a more level playing field, so I'm optimistic that it will all come to right eventually."

The country was in deep doodie, Julia acknowledges. " We were headed down a bad path. Everybody knew it and there was no way to correct it. Now he's here to slowly, but surely, save us from ourselves."

So yes, yes, she's confident. And grateful.

"We asked this man to be our president, a job that I don't know why anybody would want anymore after eight years of George Bush.  I mean really, the fact that someone as bright and capable as Barack Obama wanted to be president, we should all be eternally grateful."

Do you agree with Julia?

Can Barack Obama fix everything? How long do you think it will take to fix the economy?

If it took us eight years to get into this fine mess, is there a half-life? 

Will it take four years to dig our way out?

Or (gulp) longer?

Photos: Hands-free movie star Julia Roberts in NYC on March 7 while her kids Henry, Phinnaeus (above) and Hazel (at left) are carried by various assistants, bodyguards and nannies. Must be nice. Credits: FilmMagic