Elisabetta Canalis "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo"

It seems that certain Italian television shows are a hotbed of WAG activity. Variety show Striscia la Notizia (‘Strip the News’) has given the world Elena Barolo, Melissa Satta and Giorgia Palmas, while Carabinieri (which seems to be the Italian version of The Bill) gave us the stupendously good looking Martina Colombari. Elisabetta Canalis is held in particularly high esteem, as she has had the honour of starring in both shows.

She has been romantically linked with Christian Vieri (who has also steamrollered Satta and Elena Santarelli), Didier Drogba and most recently Parma’s Brazilian striker Reginaldo.

Elisabetta has squeezed a high density of nude modelling and TV appearances into her 29 years, and she has also found time to carve a slightly rubbish film career. She ‘acted’ in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (which just fell outside of Oscar contention, I understand) and Virgin Territory, a film starring Tim Roth, Hayden Christensen and Mischa Barton. It came out in France under a different title last year, and it is still struggling to be released elsewhere.

Biography

Elisabetta Canalis was born on September 12, 1978, in Sassari, Italy. The daughter of a radiologist and a literature teacher, Elisabetta’s early years were generally spent engaged in the everyday pursuits one expects of a little girl. That she would one day become a renowned actress and model certainly never crossed her mind or the minds of those close to her. Instead, she focused on her various pastimes, including swimming, dancing and horseback riding (Elisabetta is actually an accomplished rider, having participated in several horse shows during her adolescence).

By the time she graduated high school, Elisabetta decided that the time was right for her to leave home. She enrolled at a prestigious university in Milan, where she began studying foreign languages. It was in Milan that Elisabetta began exploring the possibility of becoming an actress, and started the slow and arduous process of auditioning for as many projects as she could find.

After being passed up for a small role in an Italian farce called Love Fish, Elisabetta successfully landed a gig in 1999 on a variety show called Striscia la notizia. She stayed with the program for three years, firmly establishing herself to Italian viewers as one of the most interesting and talented performers to hit the scene in ages.

elisabetta canalis in deuce bigalow

In 2000, while still working on Striscia la notizia, Elisabetta joined the reporting team of Controcampo -- a show devoted to the ins and outs of a multitude of different sports. Elisabetta was primarily responsible for providing commentary for Italian soccer games, and it wasn’t long before she began dating a particularly well-known player named Christian Vieri.

Although she was becoming an increasingly familiar face with television audiences, Elisabetta hadn’t yet been offered the chance to sink her teeth into an actual character -- something that changed in 2002 when she joined the cast of an Italian drama called Carabinieri. After a stint with the program for two seasons, Elisabetta caught the eye of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo’s producers. Impressed with Elisabetta’s natural flair for comedy, they offered her a small -- but pivotal -- role as "Lady in Castle" opposite star Rob Schneider.

In 2005, Elisabetta also returned to the small screen in Love Bugs 2 -- an Italian sitcom that paired her with a beloved comedic actor named Fabio De Luigi.

elisabetta canalis in guilty pleasures

2006 kept her busy with various Italian endeavors, including a comic variety show called Superciro. As for film, Elisabetta’s was cast in the 2007 North American movie Guilty Pleasures -- a bawdy 14th-century comedy starring Hayden Christensen and Mischa Barton.