1. Alyssa MilanoOne of Hollywood’s favorite, child actress and model Alysa Milano rose to fan-magazine fame in the role of Samantha Micelli on the popular TV series Who’s the Boss . Through the run of this series, Milano made her TV-movie bow opposite no less than Sir John Gielgud in 1986′s The Canterville Ghost. Like many former child stars, Milano has done her utmost to break her earlier image by appearing in adult roles calling for heavy breathing and come-hither glances: perhaps her most spectacular appearance along these lines was in the role of the estimable Amy Fisher.
2. Angelina JolieAngelina jolie Born in June 4, 1975 in Los Angeles, Angelina Jolie Voight (yes, Jolie is her middle name, which angelina used so she didn’t have to bear the burden of her father’s name, Jon Voight) has become one of the ‘in’ women in Hollywood. Daring to be different, perhaps to the point of being bizarre, Jolie (incidentally meaning “pretty little girl” in French) has starred in many big budget films of late and has catapulted herself from model daughter of a famous acting pair to a top billed actress in her own right.
3. Blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and possessing a sure bodacious je ne sais quoi, Heather Graham has had one of the more inspiring career trajectories of the 1990s. After debuting in the 1988 License to drive, which featured the Two Coreys and little else, Graham worked in relative obscurity for years before hitting it big in a string of successful films, including Swingers, Boogie Nights and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
4. Jennifer LopezJennifer Lopez, the multi-talented superstar, actress and singer, who hails from New York City’s Castle Hill section of the Bronx, has busted onto the scene in a manner that has left a lot of folks speechless. Getting her break when she was chosen to play the lead role in Selena , the 1997 big screen biopic of the slain Tejano singer, Lopez earned more film credits in the 1997 summer thriller Anaconda, Oliver Stone’s U Turn, Jack , with George Clooney in Out of Sight and The Cell . Recently she finished filming The Wedding Planner with Matthew McConaughey.
5. Sarah GellarBorn April 14, 1977 in New York City, Sarah Michelle Gellar has become sort of a pseudo ‘feminist’ for her generation, although she cringes at the word herself. But her role as a beautiful female who kicks ass on television certainly has made herself a role model to her female generation. While many of Gellar’s scenes as Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer use stunt double Sophia Crawford, Gellar does carry a brown belt in Tae Kwon Do.
6. Jennifer HewittJennifer Love Hewitt prefers to be called Love. Her mother named her after her college friend and roommate whom Love has never met. Her mom had told her friend (who was gorgeous and really sweet) that if she ever had a little girl, she would name her Love. Love started performing young. When she was only three years old, she got away from her mother at a dinner club, and was found on stage, singing “Help Me Make It through the Night.” Two years later, Love started taking dance lessons. While still in Texas, Love was voted a “living doll” in a Texas beauty pageant, and at the age of nine, joined the Texas Show Team, performing in the U.S.S.R. and Denmark. At ten, Love was touring the world as a spokesperson for L.A. Gear.
7. One of Spain’s foremost leading ladies of the 1990s, Penelope Cruz has managed to make her mark on international audiences as well. Born in Madrid on April 28, 1974, Cruz was one of three children of a merchant and a hairdresser. After years of intensive study in ballet and jazz, she broke into acting in 1992. That year, she had starring roles in Jamón Jamón and Belle Époque, two very disparate films. The former cast she as the desperately poor daughter of a village prostitute, while the latter featured her as one of four lusty daughters of a wealthy man in pre-Franco Spain. Belle Époque proved to be a huge success, winning nine Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent of an Academy Award) and an Oscar.
8. Shannon ElizabethAs part of the amazingly successful American Pie (1999), went almost overnight from complete obscurity to being a lust object for mammary-obsessed teenage boys everywhere. Before her turn as Nadia, the Czech foreign-exchange student who steals the heart and hormones of the film’s perpetually horny protagonist, Jim (Jason Biggs), Elizabeth did time in a number.
9. Charlize TheronAs legend has it, Charlize Theron was discovered by an agent while fighting with a bank manager on Hollywood Boulevard. Eighteen and starving, Theron purportedly got into the argument after the manager refused to cash her check. The outburst caught the agent’s attention, and eight months later Theron got her first acting job. Since then, she has become one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood, thanks to a combination of talent and the blonde, statuesque good looks so loved by the camera. Born August 7, 1975, Theron was raised on a farm in Benoni, South Africa. Trained as a ballet dancer, she was sent to Milan at sixteen to become a model following the death of her father.
10. Elisha CuthbertA former child star whose flame continued to burn bright into her teen years, blonde beauty Elisha Cuthbert has successfully carried the success from Popular Mechanics for Kids and Are You Afraid of the Dark? into a featured role on the hit FOX series 24 and a successful film career. A Calgary native who landed her first modeling job at the tender age of seven, it was a mere four years later that Cuthbert instinctively knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her days in front of the lens. Following an appearance in the 1997 feature Dancing on the Moon, Cuthbert landed a job as a field correspondent for the acclaimed Canadian television series Popular Mechanics for Kids, and her reporting proved so effective that she caught the attention of first lady Hillary Clinton, who invited Cuthbert to Washington for a meeting.
