text: From March to July 2005, Gayheart starred in a Broadway production of Steel Magnolias. David Rooney of Variety praised her performance, writing: "Exuding all the breezy confidence of a girl who's always been popular and pretty, Gayheart's Shelby provides a strong center, allowing only brief glimpses of the cracks in her cheerful, optimistic veneer and refusing to be treated as fragile goods by the clucking women around her." She also appeared in a minor role in the Christmas horror-comedy film Santa's Slay (2005). In 2007, Gayheart guest-starred on Ugly Betty as Jordan, an ex-girlfriend of Alexis Meade. The following year, she returned to Broadway in a revival of the comedy Boeing-Boeing opposite Christine Baranski, Mark Rylance, Greg Germann, Paige Davis, and Missi Pyle. She had a guest role on The Cleaner in 2009.
  Gayheart returned to film in 2013, reuniting with Jawbreaker director Darren Stein for his comedy G.B.F., portraying the mother of a gay teenage boy. She also starred opposite her husband, Dane, in the 2017-released thriller film Grey Lady, which was filmed in 2014.
  In 2019, Gayheart returned to film with a minor supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, playing Billie Booth, the wife of Brad Pitt's character.
  Personal life
  Gayheart met Brett Ratner at age 15 on the day she moved to New York City in 1986, and the two carried on a romantic relationship that spanned 13 years. She and Ratner were engaged in 1997, but the couple eventually separated in 1999.