Anne Hathaway

While many leading ladies say they never imagined a future on the big screen, Anne seemed destined for the thespian life. Her parents, a lawyer and stage actress, named her after Shakespeare's wife, and as an adult she admitted: "I don't know what made me so arrogant and so focused, but I always thought I would be an actor."

Born in New Jersey on November 12, 1982, she was the middle of three children. Her professional career began when she was 16, with a role in TV drama Get Real, then on the big screen in The Other Side Of Heaven.

En route to the film's New Zealand set she auditioned for the role that brought her megawatt smile to the public's attention that of accidental royal Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries. Her clumsiness during the interview she fell off a chair persuaded the director to hire her on the spot.

More fairytale and goofy girl-next-door parts followed, namely in 2004's Ella Enchanted and The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt.

From then on Hollywood insiders were sold. Prada director David Frank enthused: "The bottom line is she can do comedy… The ones who have comic flair keep going when the dramatic roles thin out."

Departing from lighter fare, Anne went on to play Jake Gyllenhaal's brash, bitter wife in acclaimed cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain.

The one shadow in this gilded life came with the break-up of her four-year relationship with handsome Italian entrepreneur Raffaello Follieri, who was later convicted on fraud and money laundering charges.

Her grace under fire prompted a groundswell of support. Making light of her heartbreak on US TV shows she quipped: "This summer, I broke up with my boyfriend - and two weeks later he was sent to prison for fraud! I mean, we've all been there, right, ladies?".

The porcelain skinned beauty, who inked a Lancome advertising contract and accepted a role as the White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland bounced back with a best actress Oscar nomination in 2009 for her role in Rachel Getting Married.