It didn’t take 20/20 vision to tab the totally gorgeous Rebecca Romijn as one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People of 1997 and 1999. The very blonde and blue-eyed Romijn is famed for her GQ cover–clad only in a bikini bottom with the strange, heavily-tattooed basketballer Dennis Rodman’s hands painted on her breasts. Loyal fans were also stirred by her cover for the 1999 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, wearing nothing but a single coat of paint. This talented model and actress loves to stand out from the crowd and never shies away from a challenge. Her latest accomplishment is no exception, when she added “Fountain Choreographer” to her repertoire, collaborating with the folks from MGM MIRAGE and WET Design to create a new step for the famed fountains of Bellagio.

Romijn–born November 6, 1972, in Oakland, California, and raised in nearby Berkeley–is the daughter of a Dutch-born furniture designer father and a Dutch-American mother who taught English to immigrants. In high school, friends and enemies alike called her the “Jolly Blonde Giant” to no apparent harmful effects. But it wasn’t until her uneventful freshman year as a music major at the University of California, Santa Cruz that a professional modeling career became reality. Soon bored with posing, she segued into acting–which kicked into high gear after she married former “Full House” star John Stamos in 1998. Her career immediately caught fire with television projects including “House of Style” and “Just Shoot Me!” and films such as “X-Men” and “X2.”