Film critics are quick to compare Monica Bellucci to previous Italian beauties, but she is her own brand of sultry icon. With roles as a topless vampire in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a taciturn war widow in Malèna (2000), a sci-fi vixen in the Matrix sequels (2003) and many others, Bellucci has proved to be a bold blend of earthy and ethereal, actress and star.

10 FACTS ABOUT MONICA BELLUCCI:

1.

She has her look-alike puppet in the French show “Guignols de l’info, Les” (1988).

2.

Her favorite movie is Una Giornata particolare (1977) by Ettore Scola.

3.

She was member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

4.

Owns an apartment in London (King’s Road), where she gets when she wants to be alone and relaxed.

5.

She met her husband Vincent Cassel on the set of L’Appartement (1996)

6.

Her first daughter’s name, Deva, means “divine” in Sanskrit, while her second daughter’s, Léonie (also called “Mimì”), is a classic French name. Léonie is also named after French actress Arletty, a favourite of Monica’s.

7.

Doesn’t always live with her husband Vincent Cassel, for avoiding routine the two live in separate apartments in the same home in Belleville, Paris.

8.

She has a wax statue in the Grevin Museum in Paris.

9.

Monica is pictured as a goddess by Rankin, on the cover of Hunger magazine’s second issue this year.

10.

She was intended to be a lawyer. In order to pay for tuition at university, she began modeling.