#1. Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, The Gift, The Aviator, Lord of the Rings): I first fell in love with My Gal Cate when she came onto the stage at the Golden Globes in 1999 to accept her much-deserved award for her flawless performance in "Elizabeth". I loved the film, loved her and didn't think much of her actual beauty until The Cate made her way onto the stage. I just...sat there, in awe at how perfectly gorgeous this woman was, and I've been in love ever since. Simpe
Since then, I've seen (nearly) every film she's appeared in and been absolutely blown away by her craft. She can do anything, and I love her for that. :)
02. Eva Green (The Dreamers, Kingdom of Heaven) If you've seen The Dreamers, you know why she's #2 on this list. If you haven't, a simple Google search of the ladies' name will turn up select pictures to show you why. The part-French-part-British lass exudes sexiness in every inch of her frame. I've been a fan of blondes forever, but I have no problem with her brunette locks, her healthy curveature of a frame or those pouty lips that challenge Angelina. She's channeling Anna Karina circa 60's Godard....do you see a problem with that? Exactly. Oh yeah, and as my friend Bill agrees, she has the most perfect breasts I've ever seen.
03. Elizabeth Banks (Heights, Catch Me If You Can, Spider-Man 2) You're probably wondering who the hell this is, but you may recall back in 2002 when the trailers for Catch Me If You Can hit cinemas, you saw this young angelic face react strongly to Leonardo DiCaprio's wanting to take this bank teller out for a steak dinner. I thought she was cute when I saw her in the movie, but it was not until Chris Terrio's recent film Heights where she plays an Uber-gorgeous New York photographer with an estranged husband (played by James Marsden). What strikes me about Elizabeth is that she seems simulteanously shy about her beauty yet confident and strong at the same time. It's as if you were to tell her that she's gorgeous, she'd blush, but deep down she'd know it.
04. Camilla Belle (The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Chumscrubber) Okay, first things first: Camilla be 18, so spare me the emails. I WILL say however that Camilla was so fucking wonderful in The Ballad of Jack and Rose that she shot about two years ago as the daughter to Daniel Day Lewis (getting to act next to THAT guy must have been a challenge alone!) and was underage then. I haven't seen anything quite like her before; this part Brazillian beauty can look quaint and shy in one scene and then become totally alive with sexuality in the next. Her look has changed somewhat in the last few years, almost to the point where you can't tell the Rose apart from her picture on the right, but I'm not complaining. The girl is very Belle.
05. Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham (tie) (Gilmore Girls; Alexis - Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Tuck Everlasting; Lauren - Bad Santa, Sweet November) Ah, my girls du Gilmore. I've been having this argument with several of my GG pals both online and in the real world, and we all have troubles deciding whether we like Lorelai or Rory more. Graham exudes smart and edgy beauty and looks like somebody you could have a long conversation with even after a long day at work, and Bledel's amazing blue eyes ("And, like, OMG, she was the perfect Lena!') and porcelain features are pretty flawless. Not to mention that even though she's modeled for years, she refuses to have the Kate Moss figure and actually has SHAPE. Both are amazing in their own ways, so how the hell can you choose which one is the better? I guess this is the only decision I can come up with at this point: threesome.
06. Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Ghost World, Girl With A Pearl Earring) Yeah, I know, for a list like this, I have the standard pick of Ms. Scarlett on the top 10, but hey, she's pretty gorgeous and to this day I'm still trying to figure out how someone gets such a perfect pair -- my efilmcritic.com editor Chris Parry calls them "gravitationally impossible" -- such as the ones featured prominently in the picture to my and your right. (Elisha Cuthbert, an "almost" on this top 10, is another example. Really, HOW?) With the major exception of Michael Bay's turdmonkey The Island, she's also a pretty darn good actress and at this rate should get herself a pretty major award at some point. Just stay away from Bay, Stephen Sommers, Lee Tamahori and Nora Ephron and the scripts of Avika Goldsman and all should be dandy.
07. Kristin Kreuk (Eurotrip, Smallville) The 2005 edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival is up and coming, and here's hoping that I actually get to run into this gal this time, a gal with such a curious, original look that has captured far too many Smallville fans as well as made the "Scotty Doesn't Know" song just a bit funnier. I've come so embarassingly close to meeting Kristin past two years; in 2003 I went to the post-screening Q&A of My Life Without Me ... to meet Sarah Polley (At least THAT was a successful meeting) all to find out later that Kristin was in attendance and had left a few minutes earlier. In 2004, she attended the same pre-fest party that I did, but apparently only hit the party for 10 minutes -- the same 10 minutes that I was obviously at the other end of the room talking with local filmmakers and actors like Laura Bertram and Kevin Sorbo. Boo. 2005 will be my year.
08. Jane McGregor (Slap Her She's French, Flower & Garnet) Okay, so I really, really like Vancouver-native Jane McGregor (and, unlike Kristin, I have met her in person once), but I haven't actually liked a movie she's appeared in. She was flat out funny in Slap Her, She's French (which eventually did get a release by ABC earlier this year with the film retitled She Gets What She Wants) although the movie itself was a big pile of turd, and her other lead performance in the B.C. made Flower & Garnet was solid...but in a bad movie. Guess I'll have to write a part for her..
09. Emily Mortimer (Lovely & Amazing, Young Adam, Dear Frankie) I love Emily. She's such a beautiful, amazing actress both in her work stateside (especially in Lovely & Amazing, left, where her infamous nude scene was so powerful it made me watch the sadness in her face instead of glaring at her nakedness) and back home in England (Dear Frankie) that I always look forward to what she's up to next. She has no problem baring all for the camera either. :)
10. Isla Fisher (I Heart Huckabee's, The Wedding Crashers) Yeah, I liked Wedding Crashers too, but Isla was already on the radar after brief bits as Uber-hot sidekick in Scooby Doo to Naomi Watts' replacement in I Heart Huckabee's. That said, her riotously funny performance in Crashers showcases not only her cute side, but shows a funny bone as well and has made her a quick star in the process. Her Gloria measures 5 foot 3 compared to Vince Vaughn's 6 foot 5 but it doesn't matter; in one classic scene she tells her new beau Vaughn never to leave her, or else "I'll find you!" which is finished with a flawless laugh complete with crazy eyes.
MORE COMMENTS FORTHCOMING:
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