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Tuesday, November 24, 1998 Published at 18:37 GMT

Entertainment

Monroe named century's 'steamiest siren'
News image

Marilyn Monroe: Top of the Playboy poll

She may have been dead for 40 years, but Marilyn Monroe's sex appeal lives on, according to readers of Playboy magazine.

The screen icon has been voted the sexiest woman of the century in a poll of the American glamour magazine's readers.

Monroe - dubbed "the steamiest siren in the world" by Playboy - is not the only late star to shine in the list.

Jayne Mansfield is second, while Sophia Loren and Jean Harlow make sixth and 10th respectively.

Raquel Welch is third, Brigitte Bardot is fourth, and Cindy Crawford is fifth in the survey, which is dominated by stars of Hollywood's golden age.

Elizabeth Taylor is ranked seventh, while Rita Hayworth is 11th and Betty Grable is 17th.

Dominated by busty blondes

[ image: Joan Collins: Pictured at age 18, in 1951]
Joan Collins: Pictured at age 18, in 1951
True to Playboy form, the list is dominated by busty blondes.

It is also largely American, with Joan Collins (38th) joining London-born Taylor as Britain's only representatives in the Top 50.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is ranked at 65, Dame Diana Rigg - Emma Peel in the 1960s series The Avengers - takes 75th spot and Diana Dors is 92.

A spokeswoman for Campbell's model agency, Storm, said: "It's very surprising not to see more British, up-to-date faces in there, but we are talking about Playboy here."

Also included in the list are Sweden's Anita Ekberg at 14, Sharon Stone at 24, Madonna at 35, and Claudia Schiffer at 59.

More unusual names include First World War spy Mata Hari at 99, Gypsy Rose Lee at 78 and former ice skating champion Katarina Witt (95th).

[ image: Naomi Campbell: Ranked 65th by Playboy readers]
Naomi Campbell: Ranked 65th by Playboy readers
Meanwhile, students of the human form will have to wait until 2000 for a BBC One series about the secrets of beauty - both male and female.

The BBC is keeping plans for the recently-commissioned project, The Human Face, under wraps, but newspaper speculation suggests Leonardo DiCaprio and Catherine Deneuve - 45th in the Playboy poll - will be named as the most beautiful people in the world.

The top 50 of the 100 is:

1. Marilyn Monroe

2. Jayne Mansfield

3. Raquel Welch

4. Brigitte Bardot

5. Cindy Crawford

6. Sophia Loren

7. Elizabeth Taylor

8. Pamela Anderson

9. Bo Derek

10. Jean Harlow

[ image: Jenny McCarthy: Rated 15th]
Jenny McCarthy: Rated 15th
11. Rita Hayworth