Blonde, beautiful and sweet, Cameron Diaz is one of the sexiest women in Hollywood. After starting out as a model, Diaz unexpectedly landed a role alongside Jim Carrey in The Mask (1994). Her leggy performance helped make the movie a smash and catapulted Diaz to stardom. Since then, she has proved herself to be an incredibly versatile actress, in comedies like There's Something About Mary (1998), blockbusters like Charlie's Angels (2000) and independent movies like Being John Malkovich (1999). Women were envious when she bagged Justin Timberlake, but we secretly think he's the lucky one.

One from the top. Carol Vorderman might be famed for using her mathematical brain on Countdown, but it's her sex appeal that has millions of men tuning into the show every day. Not only is she good looking though, Carol also seems to have discovered the secret of eternal youth. She doesn't appear to have aged throughout the show's 20-year run. The definition of 'thinking man's crumpet'.

Think Daisy Duke from the Dukes Of Hazzard, think tight cut-off jeans. Catherine Bach captured the hearts of millions of teenagers by strutting around in hot pants in the long running television series. The ultimate girl next door, the car General Lee was supposed to be the star of the show, but that wasn't the reason boys around the world were tuning in. The Daisy Duke poster became an icon, selling 5 million copies in America. Catherine Bach is now working on a Dukes Of Hazzard cook book.

One of the grande dames of French cinema, Catherine Deneuve is one of the most beautiful stars cinema has ever produced. Her striking looks first came to the attention of the world in the haunting Parapluies de Cherbourg, Les (1964), in which she plays a middle-class girl trapped in a loveless marriage after losing the man she really wants. Deneuve specialised in playing attractive, but psychologically damaged women. She would famously star as a killer for Roman Polanski in Repulsion (1965) and a housewife turned prostitute for Luis Buuel in Belle de jour (1967).

The child star of Steven Spielberg's Empire Of The Sun (1987) had spent his career flying under the Hollywood radar in serious independent films, but Batman Begins (2005) has changed all that. Bale's sexiness lies in the obsessive approach he takes to acting. He buffed up to near body builder levels to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000), and then starved himself to a skeleton for The Machinist (2004). His dark brooding acting style proved to be perfect for Batman, which has now brought Bale to the attention of the world.

The queen of the supermodels, Cindy Crawford began modelling aged 15 after reaching the finals of Elite Model Management's Look Of The Year competition in 1983. Despite being told early on in her career that she would have to remove her famous mole if she was going to get work, Crawford went on to become one of the most photographed women in the world. She appeared on over 600 magazine covers worldwide. Crawford's sex symbol status was confirmed when she released a fitness workout video in 1992, which sold over 2 million copies in the US.

Women find Colin Farrell's bad boy persona impossible to resist (especially women in Hollywood it seems). Hailing from Dublin, Farrell's early role on British TV in Ballykissangel (1996) gave us no idea of what was to come. Plucked from nowhere by Joel Schumacher to star as a Texan G.I. in Tigerland (2000), Farrell's performance caused a stir in Hollywood. Roles in Minority Report (2002), S.W.A.T. (2003) and Alexander (2004) have demonstrated that he is an actor of genuine talent. Farrell's hard-drinking fast-living lifestyle harks back to the age of Richard Burton and Oliver Reed, and Hollywood is all the sexier for it.

The sex symbol of the British middle class, Colin Firth found fame as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. The iconic image of a dripping wet Firth chatting up Jennifer Ehle in the show caused many hearts to flutter, and the character of Darcy has followed him ever since. Helen Fielding was so steamed up by him that she wrote Darcy into her novel Bridget Jones's Diary. Firth then famously played the character again in the Bridget Jones movie.