February 3rd’s “HOT or NOT?” candidate was Jessica Biel. You voted. She’s:
Jessica Claire Biel (born March 3, 1982) actress and former model, who has appeared in several Hollywood films, including Summer Catch, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Illusionist and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. She is also known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven.
After leaving 7th Heaven at the end of the sixth season, Biel was cast as the lead heroine in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film was met with mixed reviews, but became a box office success, scoring the number one spot in its opening week.
In fall 2003, Biel began working on the third installment of the Blade film series, Blade: Trinity. Almost immediately after finishing Blade Trinity in 2004, she headed to Australia to shoot the action/thriller Stealth. Both movies were critical and box office failures. Stealth had a budget of $130 million, but grossed just $76 million worldwide. Biel also made a notable cameo appearance in the 2004 film Cellular, which starred her then real-life boyfriend Chris Evans.
Biel went on to audition for the role of Claire Colburn in the romantic comedy Elizabethtown, but the role was eventually given to Kirsten Dunst. Biel was instead cast as Ellen Kishmore, a smaller role. She then played in the indie flick London, opposite then-boyfriend Chris Evans.
Biel’s film career blossomed when she played a turn-of-the-century duchess in the period piece, The Illusionist, co-starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. The movie received mostly-positive reviews, and was a turning point for Biel, who had previously played more contemporary roles. She was awarded the Rising Star Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and won an Achievement Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival for her performance.
Biel played an Iraq War veteran in the 2006 film Home of the Brave, a drama about soldiers struggling to adjust back into society after facing the hardships of war. Her performance was well-received, but the movie was a commercial failure. After being pulled from theaters twice, it eventually went straight to DVD in late 2007. Biel and Home of the Brave co-star Samuel L. Jackson were nominated for Prism Awards for their performances.
Meanwhile, after a three-year absence from the series, Biel returned for what was to be the series finale of 7th Heaven (the show was later unexpectedly renewed at the last minute by The CW Television Network). The episode had already been initially shot, but producer and creator Brenda Hampton was determined to have Biel featured in the episode, so Biel agreed to shoot her scenes during a break from filming her upcoming 2007 movie Next.
In Next, Biel played alongside Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore. She then played in the summer comedy, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, co-starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James. Like her earlier film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Chuck and Larry received mixed reviews, but opened its first week at number one at the box office. She also produced and starred in a short film titled Hole in the Paper Sky, which was released in 2008.
Biel was invited to announce nominations at both the Golden Globe Awards (with Rosario Dawson and Matthew Perry) and the Academy Awards in 2007.
In late 2007, Biel signed on to play a stripper in Powder Blue, alongside Forest Whitaker (who also produced the film) Ray Liotta and Patrick Swayze.
At the start of 2008, Biel shot Easy Virtue, an adaptation of the play by Noël Coward. Like the play, the movie is set in the 1920s and Biel plays young widow Larita, who marries John Whittaker in a spur-of-the-moment in France, but must face her disapproving in-laws when they return to England. The film premiered in September 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opened to great reviews with the Hollywood Reporter describing her performance as “an irresistible force of nature — a kind, witty, supremely intelligent and beautiful woman who … is capable of rejoinders that thoroughly undercut her opponent’s withering criticism.” In 2009, Biel lent her voice to the animated sci-fi film Planet 51.
In April 2008, Biel began working on the political satire Nailed, with Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie centers around a woman who accidentally gets a nail lodged in her head, then travels to Washington D.C. to fight for better health care. Filming wrapped up in late-June after several production shut downs. She is also co-producing and starring in Die a Little, a contemporary adaptation of the novel by Megan Abbott. A start date for filming has not yet been set.
In 2009, Biel presented the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony.
