All About Movies

Without a note of acting experience, or even any real interest in it, Anna Paquin became the second youngest person in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Oscar for 1993’s The Piano. She celebrated the win like any preteen would -- she went on a school camping trip in New Zealand, where she grew up.

Over 15 years later, Anna Paquin is fresh off a critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie and is starring in her first TV series, HBO’s vampire delight, True Blood. She currently has roles in three movies lined up: Miss Irena's Children, Flying Into Love and Metamorphosis.

The Observer once described Anna Paquin as “oddball sexy,” a term that introduces what it is about her that we find so desirable: She’s cute, yes, but she’s a misfit too, and she’s been one at least since she won that Oscar.

In fact, even today, at 26, Anna Paquin still looks a bit like the emotionally troubled teen with a questionable reputation who finds refuge at the school theater. Can’t speak for others, but at our high school, this girl was smokin’ hot.

The "Queen of Remakes" nickname that Naomi Watts carries doesn't do justice to her acting talent. Trained in acting since childhood, including a stint at North Sydney Girls High School with Nicole Kidman as a classmate, Naomi Watts started her career in Australian television before earning major kudos in David Lynch's bizarre Hollywood odyssey Mulholland Drive.

While some of her biggest hits (King Kong, The Ring) have indeed been remakes, and there are rumors of another one on the horizon (2011's The Birds, with George Clooney), the Oscar-nominated Naomi Watts has also shown her diverse talents in highly praised films like 21 Grams and Eastern Promises. 2008 featured Naomi Watts in yet another remake, the perpetually creepy Funny Games.

Naomi Watts is a natural beauty with looks that the camera loves and that audiences desire. To date, she's been singled out by People (50 Most Beautiful People, 2002), FHM France (100 Sexiest Women in the World, 2006), FHM UK (Most Eligible Women, 2006), and us (AskMen.com's Most Desirable Women, 2006).

There was nothing sexy about Naomi Watts' performance in 2008's Funny Games. As the strongest voice in a family being held hostage, she was decidedly unglamorous -- and unquestionably talented. In 2009, she teams up with Clive Owen for the thriller The International and her pal Nicole Kidman for the twisted drama Need. She also has roles in We Are All the Same and Kicked, Bitten and Scratched.

The Emmy award-winning Katherine Heigl started modeling at age 9, and made early appearances on-screen with roles in Steven Seagal's Under Siege 2 and the slasher doll saga Bride of Chucky. It was her breakout role on TV's Roswell in 1998 that made her a familiar face.

In 2007, Katherine Heigl scored a double whammy with an Emmy win for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Grey's Anatomy and a role as Seth Rogen's pregnant companion in the smash hit Knocked Up. She continued her streak by headlining the 2008 comedy 27 Dresses. This summer, she'll appear opposite Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth.

While Katherine Heigl has been busy winning our affections on-screen, she's also found time to flaunt her perfect bod in photo shoots for magazines like Maxim and FHM -- the latter featured her in two installments of its 100 Sexiest Women in the World feature. In 2008, reader and staff votes put her at the top of AskMen.com's list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women.

Katherine Heigl has done little to send our eyes elsewhere. 27 Dresses was an outright chick flick, but its success means we'll be seeing a lot more of her in 2009, both on Grey's Anatomy and in the battle-of-the-sexes comedy The Ugly Truth, costarring Gerard Butler.

The Iranian-Spanish beauty Sarah Shahi is a descendant of a 19th-century king, which surely explains her inclinations toward fame. A former beauty pageant winner in Texas, she studied opera and English at Southern Methodist University before becoming a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys and gracing the cover of their 2000 calendar.

A meeting with the late director Robert Altman sent her to Hollywood, and roles on Alias and Dawson's Creek soon followed. She went on to play DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales on The L Word for three seasons, then Sarah Shahi left the show for her current television home on NBC's Life.


Many actors are lucky to create one TV character who can stick with audiences. Sarah Shahi is working on her second one. As ex-drug-addict-turned-cop Dani Reese on Life, she blends Dani's faults with her own to create an unflinchingly realistic character. This girl's got talent.

Sarah Shahi isn't difficult to look at, either. Maxim featured her in its 2005 and 2006 Hot 100 lists, and she made the top 5 of AfterEllen.com's 2007 hot list. Sarah Shahi will attract attention on the small screen on Life in 2009, and will heat up the big screen as a stripper in an as-yet-untitled murder mystery.

There’s little doubt that maids the world over owe Nadine Velazquez a debt of gratitude, as the actress has single-handedly infused the profession with a jolt of unexpected sensuality with her irresistibly sultry work as Catalina on My Name is Earl. The NBC series has proved instrumental in cementing Nadine Velazquez’s reputation as one of the small screen’s sexiest icons, and her role in 2008’s made-for-television movie Husband for Hire effectively perpetuates that image. It’s certainly an impressive turnabout for an actress previously best known for appearances in entirely forgettable efforts, including 2004’s Eddie Griffin action flick Blast and the needless 2005 House of the Dead sequel.

Though she remains best known for her role on My Name is Earl, Nadine Velazquez has started -- slowly but surely -- to branch out into other endeavors designed to establish her as more than just another pretty face. In addition to her appearance alongside Mario Lopez and Mark Consuelos in Husband for Hire, Nadine Velazquez has busied herself by taking on a small but pivotal role in an upcoming Christina Ricci comedy entitled All’s Faire in Love. The arrival of her risqué 2009 calendar indicates that Nadine Velazquez isn’t quite ready to completely abandon her sultry reputation, and we’re grateful for her willingness to capitalize on her jaw-dropping beauty.

Though she’s only been in the business since 2005, Emma Stone has quickly amassed a small yet potent resume that’s effectively established her as one of the most promising up-and-coming comedic actress to come around in quite some time. She started out her career by taking on one-episode guest spots on shows like Malcolm in the Middle and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, but it was her scene-stealing work as the object of Jonah Hill’s affections in the 2007 smash Superbad that firmly established her as a new face worth watching.

With her off-kilter looks and sarcastic sensibilities, Emma Stone has effectively cultivated the image of an approachable girl-next-door type -- the kind most guys have known (and probably lusted after) at least once in their lives. She’s certainly perpetuated this notion by taking on roles in a pair of 2008 comedies, The House Bunny and The Rocker, and her upcoming gigs will only strengthen her appeal and confirm her impending superstardom. She’ll first be seen alongside Noureen DeWulf as one of the title characters in the Matthew McConaughey/Jennifer Garner romcom The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, then she'll segue into her very first starring role in Paper Man. There’s little doubt that Emma Stone’s days as a bit player are coming to a swift end, as she’s primed to join the ranks of such famously funny ladies as Kate Hudson and Meg Ryan.

As a wee one, the lovely Elizabeth Banks competed on Nickelodeon's Finders Keepers and, once Hollywood found her, it had every intention of keeping her. While climbing the ranks, she used her girl-next-door appeal well as office babe Betty Brant in the three Spider-Man films, and then she got naughty as a bookworm with a wild side in The 40 Year Old Virgin.

2008 saw Elizabeth Banks in no less than seven projects, the most noteworthy of which include the silly comedy Role Models, the politically minded W. (in which she played First Lady Laura Bush), and Kevin Smith's hilarious Zack and Miri Make a Porno (in which she played a broke roommate-turned-porn star). She opened 2009 with a role in The Uninvited.
Elizabeth Banks' bathtub romp in The 40 Year Old Virgin scared Steve Carell away, but we remember it fondly. 2008 saw her get wild again as the sweet and sexy Miri, prompting the question: Who wouldn't want to make a porno with her? Through her wholesome looks and on-screen sincerity, she also made Laura Bush likable in W.

In 2009, we'll get to see the more villainous side of Elizabeth Banks when she plays a nurse with suspicious motives in the horror remake The Uninvited. No matter how mean she might act, though, we still find her adorable.

Nicknamed “Miss Thang,” the January-born and South Dakota-raised January Jones got her start as an Abercrombie & Fitch model before hitting the acting world. A role as a bank robber in the Bruce Willis-led Bandits earned her a shot as an angry lesbian porn star in 2003's Anger Management, after which she played Stifler's (Seann William Scott's) romantic interest in American Wedding.

January Jones now splits her time between television and movies thanks to roles in Tommy Lee Jones' award-winning The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, the football movie We Are Marshall and the critically lauded TV drama Mad Men. Earlier this month she was nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe for her role in Mad Men.


January Jones has been on our radar since the Maxim Hot 100 of 2002 list. Her model features make her a winner with guys, including Ashton Kutcher, who dated her from 1998 to 2001. As model-turned-housewife Betty Draper on Mad Men, we've watched her grow stronger through the show's second season, with the third due in 2009.

January Jones also put her looks to manipulative use in 2008 as a sleek con artist for a guest spot on Law & Order. We'll see her incite more desire as a pretty young thing seducing British DJs in the 2009 movie The Boat That Rocked.