Maria Grazia Cucinotta

By Sara Templeton & Ines Mendoza

Why do we love the sizzling Sicilian known as Maria Grazia Cucinotta?

Is it her natural beauty, perhaps her very honest interpretation of social issues, or maybe its her natural acting talent that so many people respect.

But really, who can go past the fact that she uploads the recipes for her favourite local Sicilian dishes on her official web site. Now that's an impressive piece of multi-tasking!

For those who are still very much in dark over who exactly Maria is, she's one of Italy's most famous exports, an actor and model who is loved passionately by many.

Born in the town of Messina in Sicily on the 27th of July, 1969, Maria's first taste of success came when she was 16.

She worked as a model during the summer holidays in Milan, and once her schooling was complete, Maria gave modeling the flick, saying "I didn't like it because they only used my image, not my head".

After her fallout with the world of modeling, the confident Maria Grazia Cucinotta travelled to Rome where she auditioned for Indietro Tutta, an Italian television show.

She managed to score a role in the show, and hence began what would eventually become a hugely respected TV and film career.

Between drinks, Maria took elocution lessons to reduce the impact of her strong Sicilian accent, while working in television to pay the bills.

The Italian beauty said that though movie auditions "...were almost always a failure, the ones for advertising went well and I started to shoot one advertisement after the other."

She continued, saying that the TV ads helped her meet many influential people in the industry, and helped teach her a few things about being in front of camera.

Though she had appeared in movies prior to this, Maria's big break came in 1994 when was given the chance of a lifetime by Massimo Troisi.

"Massimo Troisi ... chose me for the movie Il Postino: this gave me the possibility to make myself known as an actress not only in Italy but all over the world," said Cucinotta.

And make herself known she did. Il Postino (The Postman) was nominated for quite a few Academy Awards, and while attending the Oscars, many an American was quick to ask "Who is that gorgeous Italian?"

Following World-wide recognition, the number of movie scripts that came her way increased tenfold, and she finally had the chance to pick and choose her movies - an honour on par with winning an Oscar.

She followed up the super-successful Il Postino with movies such as I, Laureati (Graduates) in 1995 - which was another success. In 1998 she completed La Seconda Moglie (The second wife), directed by Ugo Chiti, and then in 1999 she entered Hollywood with a role in the 007 Bond flick, The World Is Not Enough.

More recently, Maria has starred along Chevy Chase and Brooke Shields in Rent-a-Husband (Mariti in affitto), as well as popping up in the world-famous TV series The Sopranos episode "Isabella".

And like any self-respecting celebrity, she also appeared on The Simpsons episode "The Italian Bob" voicing Sideshow Bob's wife, Francesca.

She won the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010.

Don't expect that this will be the last we'll see of Maria Grazia Cucinotta, either.

Sexy Maria Grazia Cucinotta