Elisabetta Pellini

Blonde bombshell Elisabetta Pellini got her start as a model, working not only in the usual television commercials and print ads, but in the distinctly Italian form known as the fotoromanzo: a sort of live-action comic book in which pictures of actors are overlaid with speech balloons and text. By the mid-1990s, the Swiss-born Pellini was appearing on Italian television as a guest on variety shows such as "Mai dire Go! " on which comedians riffed on films of sports bloopers in the style of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Though Pellini continued to work primarily in television, she began a concurrent film career with a small role in the 1998 romantic comedy "Cucciolo." After several years of increasingly prominent roles in TV movies, Pellini got her first big break co-starring as the voluptuous Virginia Giovardi in the romantic comedy series "Compagni di scuola" in 2001. After this success, Pellini became a regular presence on Italy's television screens: her high profile projects include a co-starring role in the melodramatic TV movie "Senza via d'uscita - Un amore spezzato," an adaptation of the Henry James novel "The Turn of the Screw," and the lighthearted comedy "Un coccodrillo per amico," in which she somewhat improbably played a Catholic nun.