Denise Richards frequently features in "most beautiful women" polls

When Michael J Fox announced he was leaving the hit comedy Spin City because of Parkinson's Disease, there were raised eyebrows when Sheen was announced as his replacement.

But he has gone on to win over his doubters and has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for best actor.

Denise Richards is best known for her role as Dr Christmas Jones in the James Bond movie The World is Not Enough.

Her other film credits include Wild Things, Starship Troopers and more recently the horror flick Valentine.

Second marriage

The 30-year-old former model first met Sheen on the set of the 1993 spoof Loaded Weapon 2, but it was only more recently the pair became a couple.

Martin Sheen supported his son through his troubled period

This will be Sheen's second marriage, following a short-lived relationship with model Donna Peele, which ended in divorce in 1996.

He first found fame in the Vietnam war film Platoon and won critical acclaim for stock market drama Wall Street.

His career was at a peak during the time of the original "brat pack" era of the late 1980s, alongside brother Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Molly Ringwald.

But his career hit the skids when he started taking drugs and was exposed by notorious Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss as one of her clients.

He wound up in hospital in 1998 after a near fatal overdose and suffered further humiliation by being placed on probation by the courts for alcohol and drug abuse and battery against a former girlfriend.

Richards starred opposite Pierce Brosnan in the 19th Bond film

But he showed he was willing to work out his problems and was released from the probation order 71 days early.

The star of Young Guns and Hot Shots! had been on probation in California for two years for alcohol and drug abuse and a 1996 battery conviction against a former girlfriend.