Public image
In 2001, Alba was ranked No. 1 on Maxim’s Hot 100 list. She said that “I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to.” In 2005, Alba was named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People, and also appeared in the magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. In 2002, Alba was voted as the fifth Sexiest Female Star for 2002 in a Hollywood.com poll, #4 in the Top 10 Sci-Fi Babes, #6 in FHM’s Sexiest Girls for there poll, and ranked at #12 in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women in the World” 2002 edition. In 2005 Alba was ranked at #5 on the Maxim magazine’s Hot 100 list.
On the cover of the March 2006 issue, Playboy magazine named Alba among its 25 Sexiest Celebrities, and the Sex Star of the Year. Alba was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contends gave the appearance that she was featured in the issue in a “nude pictorial”. However, she later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities that Alba has supported.
In 2006, Alba ranked #3 on E! Television’s 101 Sexiest Celebrity Bodies. In 2006 readers of AskMen.com voted Alba No. 1 on 99 Most Desirable Women, while in 2007, Maxim Magazine placed Alba on the number 2 spot of their “Top 100″. Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June covers, and in May, after eight million votes, FHM (UK and USA editions) named Alba the winner as “2007’s Sexiest Woman in the World”. Alba has been regarded as one of the world’s most attractive women, being named to Maxim’s Hot 100 in 2008. In 2007 Alba was ranked in at #1 in FHM’s Sexiest Girls of 2007 poll, in the magazine’s Latvian edition. Alba was ranked #4 on Empire Magazine’s 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in 2007. In 2006 and 2007 Alba was voted #1 as the most sexy woman in the world by the Norwegian FHM. Alba appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar. Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar featuring photos of Alba posing sexually in swimsuits, and high heels. In 2008 Alba was ranked #34 on Maxim’s magazine’s Hot 100 list, was ranked #2 on Wizard magazine’s “Sexiest Women of TV” list, and was named in GQ Magazine one of the 25 Sexiest Women in film of all time.
Alba fears being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her, commenting, “Somehow, I don’t think this is happening to Natalie Portman.” In the interview, Alba said she wants to be taken seriously as an actress but believes she needs to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hopes to be more selective in her film projects. Alba also maintains a strict no-nudity clause in her contract. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film’s directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, “I don’t do nudity. I just don’t. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won’t get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety”. She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, “They didn’t want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, ‘If I’m gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties.”
” I think there are ambitious girls who will do anything to be famous, and they think men in this business are used to women doing that. Contrary to how people may feel, I’ve never used my sexuality. That’s not part of it for me. When I’m in a meeting, I want to tell you why I’m an asset, how I’m a commodity, how I can put asses in the seats, not, ‘There’s a chance you’re going to be able to f*** me.’ That’s never been my deal.” — Alba on not using her sex appeal in order to get her goals in her acting career – 2008.
Personal life
Religion
Alba was a Christian throughout her teenage years, but left the church after four years because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining: “Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn’t. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault, and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman”.
Alba also had objections to the church’s condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and the lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining “I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn’t how I was going to live my life.” Her “religious devotion [began] to wane” at the age of 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds her belief in God despite leaving the church.
Relationships
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly, which caused controversy due to their 12 year age gap. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her twentieth birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, Alba and Weatherly announced that they’d ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the break up, saying “I don’t know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren’t happy. They’re really religious. They believe God wouldn’t allow the Bible to be written if it wasn’t what they are supposed to believe. I’m completely different.” Alba had at one time said she envisioned a much older man as her ideal partner, making references to Morgan Freeman, Sean Connery, Robert Redford, and Michael Caine. She said, “I have this thing for older men. They’ve been around and know so much.”
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while making Fantastic Four in 2004. On December 27, 2007, Alba and Warren announced that they were engaged. Alba married Warren in Los Angeles on Monday, May 19, 2008. On June 7, 2008, Alba gave birth to a baby girl, Honor Marie Warren, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. The first pictures of Honor Marie appeared in OK! magazine, which paid a reported $1.5 million for them. Alba has said that she would like to have more children.
Charity and politics
In 2005 Alba offered her acting talents for free, to raise money for AIDS charity Amfar at the Cannes Film Festival. The Industry had held a benefit for the US research foundation. Alba had caused “the greatest stir” by promising to star as an unpaid actress in one of The Lord of the Rings producer Bob Weinstein’s movies, if Weinstein agreed to bid $100,000 for tennis lessons with sports stars Monica Seles and Boris Becker.
Alba’s charity work includes participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children Villages, Soles4Souls, and Step up. Alba openly endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season.
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads photographed by Mark Liddell, which feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, drew national media attention. The ads were described by some as being “Shocking”. Alba said of doing the advertisements that”It didn’t freak me out at all.” Alba also said “I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically,” and “People respond to things that are shocking.”
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba “provoked” residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of Great White Sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People Magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over $500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
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