Scarlett Johansson has the power to make grown men go weak at the knees. A blonde bombshell with acting talent to burn, she graduated from indie roles in films like Ghost World (2001) to international stardom in Lost In Translation (2003). As the object of Bill Murray's desire in Sofia Coppola's Japan set movie, Johansson seduced the world. The opening of the film, in which the camera lingers on her shapely behind, is one of the sexiest moments captured on film. Further roles as a seductress in Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003), In Good Company (2004) and Match Point (2005) have confirmed Johansson as a peerless sex symbol.

The man who can make scissorhands sexy, Johnny Depp is a sex symbol for almost every generation you can think of. Teenagers fancy him in films like What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (1998). Adults fancy him in roles like Donnie Brasco (1997), Finding Neverland (2004) and Pirates Of The Caribbean (2003). You'd have to be pretty weird to fancy him in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005) though, as he looks a little too much like Michael Jackson.

They must be the sexiest sisters in the world. Kylie & Dannii have been figures of fantasy since they were the teenage stars of Neighbours and Home And Away respectively. Having dominated the Australian soaps, the pair then both decided to become pop stars. Although Kylie has won the battle of the charts and used her cute rear to sell far more records, Dannii has dated formula one drivers and appeared in Playboy.

Was George Clooney the sexiest TV doctor ever? After years as a jobbing TV actor in Hollywood, Clooney hit the big time in the medical drama ER, starring as the womanising Dr. Doug Ross. His classical good looks and the twinkle in his eye make him irresistible to women the world over. Roles in films like Out Of Sight (1998), Three Kings (1999), A Perfect Storm (2000), Ocean's Eleven (2001) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003) have placed him at the top of Hollywood's A-List ? best to forget Batman And Robin. The ultimate older man.

The first of the sexy videogame characters, Lara Croft is an international sensation. The Amazonian heroine of the Tomb Raider series is a kind of upper-class British Indiana Jones. Her pneumatic figure, gun toting attitude and tight shorts made Lara the fantasy of gamers everywhere. The fact that Angelina Jolie was hired to bring Lara to life in the Tomb Raider movie franchise has only added to her status as a sex symbol. In her most recent incarnation however, Lara's considerable assets have been toned down to make her more appealing to female players.

Do we even need to explain that women find Brad Pitt sexy? The Hollywood star with the body of marble exploded onto the movie scene as Geena Davies' seducer, in Thelma & Louise (1991), and since then he hasn't looked back. Able to charm mass audiences in blockbusters like Ocean's Eleven and Troy, and turn in blistering performances in edgy movies like Se7en and Fight Club, Pitt has proved himself a talented actor. Will Pitt's status as a sex symbol fall now that his fairytale marriage to Jennifer Aniston has ended, or will all the girls simply blame Angelina Jolie?

The woman who put the crazy in love is one of the music world's biggest sex symbols. One of the founding members and lead singer of Destiny's Child, it helped that her dad was the manager; Beyonce threw off the shackles of being in a group and went solo in 2003. Now, she is a 'triple threat', with successful albums, movies and perfumes pulling in millions. We should celebrate Beyonce; she's one of the few female members of the A-List that doesn't seem to be starving herself to death.

One of the most celebrated stars Hollywood has ever produced, for many Marilyn Monroe is the most famous sex symbol that ever lived. Her first role was in The Asphalt Jungle (1950), but after 20th Century Fox signed her, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955) propelled her star into the stratosphere. Haunted by psychological problems, Monroe would turn to drugs and be dead by 1962, but she has remained an icon of sex in the West (rather ironically as she is supposed to have hated it). Although her acting talent is often ignored, Monroe also turned in marvellous performances in Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Misfits (1961).

The King of sex symbols in music, Elvis is still the most attractive man in pop years after his death. When the young Elvis brought rock'n'roll into the mainstream singing for RCA Records in the 1950s, his gyrating hips created hysteria in a whole generation of teenage girls. So frightened of his sexual power was conservative America, that TV companies were banned from filming him below the waist. Elvis had sold over 600m records by the time he died, and probably seduced nearly as many women.

The daughter of John Voight may have won an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted, but it was her uplifting performance as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider that established Jolie as an international sex symbol. Her kinkiness ? wearing a vial of partner Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck ? only seems to increase Jolie's sex appeal. After Brad Pitt succumbed to her charms after starring alongside her in Mr & Mrs Smith, Hollywood wives everywhere must be praying their husband doesn't become Jolie's next co-star.