Amber Valletta - Biography

Supermodel-cum-Hollywood actress Amber Valletta hit the runway in her late teens, and, though a frequent presence in fashion ads for several years prior, first made national headlines in July 1993. That summer, under representation by Boss Models, the 19-year-old, svelte Oklahoman blonde upstaged heavyweight Cindy Crawford as the primary spokeswoman for Capezio handbags - and turned more than a few heads in the process. Not long after, Valletta also signed on as the chief spokeswoman for Elizabeth Arden.

In 1996, Valletta succeeded Crawford again - this time as the co-host (alongside Shalom Harlow) of MTV's hit documentary series House of Style. The by-now-familiar program found Valletta and Harlow carrying viewers behind-the-scenes of the supermodel life, and (in the process) covered everything from runway preparation to before-the-camera apparel to anorexia nervosa. In 1999, Valletta's modeling intersected with social work when she helped raise over $$350,000 for the St. Jude Royal Gala Benefit in Monte Carlo, and later parlayed that effort into a promotional tour for Elizabeth Arden Splendor perfume that had Valletta and other company reps giving terminally ill children heartstring-tugging "moments of splendor."

Although hosting duties on House represented Valletta's first broad leap into filmed entertainment, she delayed her cinematic work for another four years. In 2000, the model debuted onscreen as the spirit of a murdered co-ed in Robert Zemeckis's dull and lackluster Hitchcock retread, What Lies Beneath, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford. Valletta's roles - given the actress's off-camera motherhood and intermittent magazine work - accumulated deliberately over the next several years (in films such as the Nicolas Cage holiday vehicle The Family Man and the Danny DeVito-directed black comedy Duplex); as a result, Valletta only ascended gradually to top billing. In 2005, however, she attained her highest-profiled exposure to date (and gained much-deserved respect as an actress) in the Andy Tennant-directed romantic comedy Hitch.

As Allegra Cole, the city's most eligible bachelorette, who falls for the least likely candidate (overweight and self-conscious klutz Kevin James), Valletta played an admirable straight man to both James and "date doctor" Alex "Hitch" Hitchens (Will Smith). After a noticeable onscreen absence in 2006, Valletta returned to cinemas the following year, with two back-to-back roles in supernatural thrillers. She first received second billing as a nubile young bride, in the James Wan-directed Saw follow-up Dead Silence - a slasher picture about a quiet little town plagued by the spirit of an evil ventriloquist. And later that year, Valletta portrayed Claire in the Mennan Yapo-directed Premonition, starring Sandra Bullock. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

• Born: on 02/09/1974 in Tucson, Arizona
  
• Job Titles: Model
  
  

  Family

  
  
• Son, Auden McCaw. born in October 2000 in Tulsa, Oklahoma; father, Christian McCaw
  
  

  Significant Others

  
  
• Companion: Leonardo DiCaprio. dated briefly; no longer together
  
• Husband: Christian McCaw. met in 1998; married in 2003
  
• Husband: Hervé Le Bhihan. met in 1994 at a Calvin Klein photo shoot; married in 1994; divorced in 1996
  
  

  Education

  
  
• Booker T. Washington High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma
  
  
  

  Milestones

  
  
• 1995 Appeared as herself in "Unzipped," Douglas Keeve's documentary about Isaac Mizrahi
  
• 1995 Co-hosted MTV's House of Style with best friend and fellow model Shalom Harlow
  
• 2000 Appeared in "What Lies Beneath," which starred Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer
  
• 2000 Had a small role opposite Nicolas Cage's in the "Family Man"
  
• 2000 Landed the female lead opposite James LeGros in Stacy Cochran's "Drop Back Ten," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival
  
• 2001 Appeared in the family comedy "Max Keeble's Big Move"
  
• 2003 Cast with Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore in "Duplex," a comedy directed by Danny DeVito
  
• 2005 Starred in the comedy "Hitch" opposite Will Smith and Kevin James
  
• 2005 Starred with Jason Statham in "The Transporter 2" a film penned by Luc Besson
  
• 2007 Cast opposite Sandra Bullock in the thriller, "Premonition"
  
• Became the face of Elizabeth Arden
  
• Enrolled in modeling school at 15 years old
  
• First big break; the cover shoot for French Elle magazine by Hans Feurer
  
• First shoot was posing for Italian Vogue
  
• Raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma