Jessica Alba

When your own grandmother refers to you as a 'dirty little girl', you know you're doing something right. 'Yeah, when I was a kid, I did crazy things to get attention,' says now 21-year-old Jessica. 'I'd put on my bikini and pull my bottoms up my butt and walk around like that. So my Mexican grandma would call me 'dirty little girl' in Spanish.'

The angelic Miss Alba needs no such stunts to command our attention these days. Simply starring in James 'Titanic' Cameron's sci-fi series Dark Angel does the trick. 'I play this sort of genetically modified super-warrior constantly on the run from the secret government agency that created me.' Bit of a nuisance? 'Yeah, it was very physical so I had to train every day for a year - martial arts, motorcycle riding, gymnastics - which was a pain in the ass, because I like to be able to go out and get drunk. I don't live quite so clean these days though...' Oh yes? 'Although I still don't stuff my face with sausages.'

Reconstituted meat products aside, the path from child strumpet to coveted number one slot in our American cousins' Maxim 'Hot 100' list has not been entirely smooth: playing second fiddle to an over-educated fish in Flipper, and a girl whose boyfriend's hand is possessed in Idle Hands (neat excuse) hardly prepared her for the rigours of a Maxim photo shoot ('The sand went up my ass!'). Fortunately, however, her trip to the UK has not been entirely wasted: 'I really like hanging out with British men. The way you guys work all day then drink all night, and 'if you can't keep up, you're a pansy', that's so cool. And I like your sugar lumps.' Um, sorry? 'Those little cubes of sugar you put in your tea. We don't have those in the States.'

Perhaps not, but for a moment there, we thought we were going to be touched by an angel.