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Jennifer Connelly
Ian Somerhalder
The Model: He moved on from modelling by the time he was 13, having been a child model from the age of 10.
Acting Career: The Rules of Attraction was his first big film role, and he was Boone in the first series of Lost , meaning he was in the series that everyone actually watched.
More Than Set Dressing? With cheekbones that could cut through steel, he’s mainly been given pretty-boy roles. Recently he’s been vamping it up as handsome bloodsucker Damon Salvatore in The Vampire Diaries .
Jane Fonda
The Model: Fonda ditched college in favour of modelling, appearing on the cover of Vogue magazine during her time as a celebrated beauty queen.
Acting Career: With an acting career spanning 50 years, Fonda’s been involved in all kinds of projects. Most memorably, she played the title role of Barbarella , and won her first Oscar in 1971 for Klute .
More Than Set Dressing? Feisty and opinionated, Fonda may have been a sexy ‘60s clothes horse, but there’s more to her than just that.
Julianne Moore
The Model: Moore was a model before she landed a role on soap opera As The World Turns.
Acting Career: A mixed bag. Moore’s brought a fragile beauty and magnetic presence to many a film, but the films themselves have generally been either fantastic or awful, with little in the middle. Highlights include Boogie Nights , Far From Heaven and The Big Lebowski . Low points include Savage and Blindness .
More Than Set Dressing? No matter what the material, Moore is almost always the best thing about the films she’s in.
Rachel Weisz
The Model: Weisz became a model at the tender age of 14 before heading over to tread a few boards in the theatre.
Acting Career: Weisz’s breakthrough came in the form of 1999’s The Mummy , which cast her as a snippy, intelligent librarian opposite Brendan Fraser's hero. She returned for the film’s first sequel (but not the dire second), and earned indie credit with Beautiful Creatures .
More Than Set Dressing? Interesting film choices like The Fountain and My Blueberry Nights mean that Weisz clearly has a decent head on her shoulders.
Kelly Brook
The Model: Winning a beauty competition aged 16 tipped Brook into a modelling career, and the luscious one soon became a Page Three girl before posing for lad rags like Playboy , Loaded and FHM .
Acting Career: Sadly, Brook has been unable to translate her modelling successes to the big screen, starring in a string of duds. Those include The Italian Job remake, Romy And Michele: In The Beginning , and Cannes bellyflop Fishtales .
More Than Set Dressing? Piranha 3D pretty much answers that one, the gory remake spending most of its time caressing Brook’s body instead of telling a story.
Elizabeth Hurley
The Model: Hurley’s worked for Estée Lauder for 16 years, first signing a contract in 1995. She was their ‘face’ for years, and continues to work for the company behind the scenes.
Acting Career: Hurley’s had numerous hits and flops, starring in Bedazzled , Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery , EDtv and Mickey Blue Eyes . She most recently took a role in David E Kelley’s aborted new Wonder Woman TV series.
More Than Set Dressing? Her delivery errs on the side of wooden, but she's generally a fun, feisty presence. Hurley’s definitely more than a walking pair of legs – shame the films don’t really reflect that.
Channing Tatum
The Model: Before the modelling career began, Tatum had worked as a stripper and appeared in the Ricky Martin music video 'She Bangs'. As a model he worked for Armani and Pepsi, among others.
Acting Career: Suprisingly, 2006’s She’s The Man was not an instant springboard to fame. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra went a lot further to making Channing Tatum a household name.
More Than Set Dressing? He hasn’t strayed far from the safe-ground of action and comedy so far. However, his performance in Magic Mike was well received, and it was loosely based on his experiences as a stripper.
Lily Cole
The Model: A chance encounter in Soho when she was 14 started her on the path to modelling stardom and she had her first Vogue cover at 16.
Acting Career: Beginning with St Trinians and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the prominence of her on-screen roles has gradually increased. In 2012 she played Greta in Snow White and The Huntsman
More Than Set Dressing? Her acting career is ticking over nicely, with a role planned in Marilyn Manson’s Phantasmagoria horror fantasy with Tilda Swinton. And she’s set up her own social-networking site (www.impossible.com), getting advice for it from the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.
Lily Collins
The Model: Another English Lily, she was picked by Spain’s Glamour magazine as their international model of the year in 2008.
Acting Career: Played Snow White in Mirror Mirror and she could be about to go stellar if The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones replaces Twilight as the angsty-teen movie franchise of choice.
More Than Set Dressing? She’s won awards as a childrens’ TV presenter, but the way things are going for her, it’s unlikely she’ll be back introducing the latest episode of Spongebob Squarepants any time soon.
