The Asia-Pacific may be home to 60 percent of the global population, but it only boasts 6 percent of the most beautiful female celebrities, according to the Los Angeles Times.
At least that’s one conclusion to draw from the LA Times’ list of the world’s 50 most beautiful female celebrities, which featured three Asia-Pacific nationals.
One such women making the list was Indian actress Freida Pinto, perhaps best known for starring in the Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire. In that film Pinto starred as the female lead character, Latika, and she would ultimately take home a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work. More recently Pinto played the lead role of an orphaned Palestinian in the film, Miral, and also starred in the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
A former model in Mumbai where she grew up, Pinto has also made People Magazine’s “Most Beautiful People List” and the same publication’s “List of World’s Best Dressed Women.”
To no one’s surprise, Australian model Miranda Kerr also made the LA Times’ list. Kerr was born in Sydney but raised on a farm in a rural area of New South Wales. She began modeling in Australia when she was just 13 and quickly rose to fame domestically when she won a nationwide model search in 1997 when she was just 14.
Exactly a decade later she became an international sensation after landing a gig as one of Victoria Secret’s Angels. Since then she has consistently ranked as one of the world’s highest paid models; Forbes Magazine estimated her income between May 2011 and May 2012 at $4 million, making her the 7th highest paid during that time. She supposedly boasts a personal net worth of roughly $12 million, a figure augmented by the income of her husband, Hollywood superstar Orlando Bloom. The couple married in 2010.
Rounding out Asia’s contribution to the list is Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, much to the delight of China’s state media who covered her appearance on the list in nearly every mainstream publication.
Zhang made her cinematic debut in the 1999 Chinese picture The Road Home. She came to fame in the West the following year after starring in the hit film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon followed by her role in Rush Hour 2 in 2001.
Born and raised in Beijing, Zhang honed her acting skills at China’s top drama school, the Central Academy of Drama. The Chinese media have anointed her one of the so-called ““Four Young Dan actresses” in China’s film industry (the other three are Zhou Xun, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei).
At least two American actresses of Asian descent also made the list: Maggie Q, whose mother was born in the Philippines, and Lucy Liu, a first generation American of Taiwanese and Chinese descent.
Overall the LA Times’ list was dominated by women from the Western Hemisphere, particularly North America and especially the United States.
Among the notable non-Asian nationals making the list is FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) Michelle Obama, whose decision to sport bangs earlier this year won her near non-stop praise from America’s entertainment industry.
We can only assume that FLOTPRC Peng Liyuan will be front and center on the LA Times list next time around, after she wowed (almost) the entire world this week when making her first, very fashionable appearance on the global stage since her husband took over as China’s top leader.
Who else did the LA Times miss from the Asia-Pacific? Let us know in the comments section below.