Heidi Klum
Sauerkraut? Schnitzel? Oktoberfest? Heidi beats them all, winning as Germany’s choicest export. Her übermodel career is prolific, but she’s not a household name around the globe purely for her mile-long legs and perfectly symmetrical face. In December 2004, she became the host, judge, and executive producer of Project Runway, and later received the first Peabody Award ever given to a reality show. Combine that with her tailor-made commercials for Guitar Hero World Tour and Volkswagen, notable movie roles in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and Ella Enchanted, and actually convincing science to literally name a rose after her, and its obvious Heidi is not just a world-class babe. She’s a world-class babe-trepeneur.
Estella Warren
Estella makes you want to forgive Canada for being Canadian. This Ontario import has been on pinup calendars and 100 Sexiest lists for years, and for good reason; when a lucky photographer captures one of the sultriest faces on the planet, replete with her famous come-hither eyes and no-nonsense lips, the world notices. She has since expanded her repertoire from modeling to include conspicuous (she’s all you can look at) roles in Planet of the Apes and The Cooler, and was featured in Law & Order and That 70’s Show. Fact: seventeen-year-old Estella turned down a shot at participating in the 1996 Summer Olympics as a synchronized swimmer, a sport she’s championed since age twelve. Thankfully, she picked something involving fewer clothes.
Gisele Bündchen
Helena Christensen
You remember the music video. There’s a gentle beach in black and white, a surf rock guitar slides into tune, and then blah, blah, blah, Chris Isaak’s douchey silhouette. But, then….four glorious, god-given minutes of Helena and her wicked games. One of Victoria’s Secret’s prized, “Angels,” this seductress’ perfect complexion is equally matched by her business savvy. In addition to her drool-inducing modeling career, she co-founded Nylon magazine, and she’s a retail business owner in Manhattan. If you’re feeling stalky, you can check out her clothes at her mother’s Yo-Yo Second Hand Shop in Copenhagen.
Rebecca Romijn
As a model, Rebecca is known best for her literally painted-on swim suits in the Victoria Secret’s in your mom’s bathroom from the past two decades. Then, she gets cooler: a featured guest on the tragically short-lived Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and host on the thankfully short-lived MTV’s House of Style. Diversifying into movies, she shifted shapes (though we never had a problem with the one she had) as the malicious, indigo-skinned, nipple-prosthetic-wearing mutant Mystique in the X-Men movie trilogy. She used those acquired skills to play a male-to-female transsexual regular on ABC’s Ugly Betty, which made us feel a little weird for still being attracted to her, but ultimately we decided not to mind it.
