TOP 5 FEMALE CELEBRITIES IN THEIR 40s

1. HALLE BERRY, AGE 42

Halle Maria Berry (born August 14, 1966) is an American actress, former fashion model, and beauty queen. Berry has received Emmy and Golden Globe awards for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2008, only woman of African-American descent to have won the award for Best Actress. She is one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and also a Revlon spokeswoman. She has also been involved in the production side of several of her films. Before becoming an actress, Berry entered several beauty contests, finishing runner-up in the Miss USA (1986), and winning the Miss USA World 1986 title. Her breakthrough feature film role was in the 1991 Jungle Fever. This led to roles in The Flintstones (1994), Bulworth (1998), X-Men (2000) and its sequels, and as Bond Girl Jinx in Die Another Day (2002). She also won a worst actress Razzie Award in 2005 for Catwoman and accepted the award in person. Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, Berry has been dating French-Canadian model Gabriel Aubry since November 2005. Their first child, a girl named Nahla Ariela Aubry.


2. DEMI MOORE, AGE 46

Demetria Gloria "Demi" Moore Kutcher (née Guynes; November 11, 1962) is an American actress. She became well-known after a string of 1980s teen-oriented movies, and was one of the best known actresses of 1990s Hollywood. In August 1991, Moore appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair under the title More Demi Moore. Annie Leibovitz shot the picture while Moore was seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude. The cover sparked an intense controversy for Vanity Fair and Demi Moore. Moore married singer Freddy Moore in 1980 and they divorced in 1985. In 1987, Moore met Moonlighting star Bruce Willis. They soon fell in love and married two months later. The star couple had three daughters together: Rumer Willis, Scout LaRue Willis and Tallulah Belle Willis. Demi and Bruce divorced in 2000, Moore began dating actor Ashton Kutcher in 2003, who is more than fifteen years her junior. After much press speculation and interest, Demi married Ashton in 2005.


3. SALMA HAYEK, AGE 42

Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez (born September 2, 1966) is a Mexican and American actress, director, television and film producer. Hayek has appeared in more than 30 films and performed as an actress outside of Hollywood in Mexico and Spain. Hayek's charitable work includes increasing awareness on violence against women and discrimination against immigrants. Hayek is the first Mexican national to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She is one of the most prominent Mexican figures in Hollywood since the legendary Dolores del Rio. She is also, after Fernanda Montenegro, the second of three Latin American actresses to achieve a Best Actress Oscar nomination. A poll found Hayek to be the "sexiest celebrity" out of a field of 3,000 celebrities (male and female); according to the poll, "65 percent of the U.S. population would use the term 'sexy' to describe her". In December 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked Hayek number 17 in their list of the "25 Smartest People in TV."


4. STACY DASH, AGE 43

Stacey Lauretta Dash (born January 20, 1966) is an American film and television actress. Dash started her career as a child actress on Sesame Street. She later made appearances in shows such as The Cosby Show, where she acted beside friend Lisa Bonet, and in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Dash's first substantial television role was in the 1988 television series, TV 101 which also featured Matt LeBlanc and Sam Robards. The series was canceled after 13 episodes. Dash's first major film role was in the Richard Pryor comedy Moving in 1988. She also had sizeable roles in Mo' Money and Renaissance Man during this time. In 1995, Dash starred as a femme fatale in a low budget film, Illegal in Blue. Dash received her big break with the 1995 film Clueless, which starred Alicia Silverstone and Brittany Murphy. Dash played Cher's high school best friend Dionne Marie Davenport, even though Dash was twenty-eight at the time. At age 40, Stacey Dash posed nude in the August 2006 issue of Playboy. The same year she launched her own lingerie line called Letters of Marque. In 2008 she has filmed Phantom Punch, Secrets Of A Hollywood Nurse for television, and the feature film Close Quarters.


5. LUCY LIU, AGE 40

Lucy Alexis Liu (traditional Chinese: 劉玉玲; simplified Chinese: 刘玉玲; pinyin: Liú Yùlíng; born December 2, 1968) is an American actress. She became known for her role in the television series Ally McBeal (1998–2002) and has also appeared in several notable film roles, including Chicago, Kill Bill, and the Charlie's Angels films. Liu began acting in 1989, after auditioning for a role in the University of Michigan's production of Alice in Wonderland during her senior year. Liu was cast in the lead role, although she had originally only tried out for a supporting part. Liu had small roles in films and TV (including the "Hell Money" episode of The X-Files and "The March to Freedom" episode on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) before landing a role on Ally McBeal. It also earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Her film 3 Needles was released in 2006. In the film, she plays Jin Ping, an HIV-positive Chinese woman. Liu agreed to star in the film for lower than usual pay because she wanted to spread awareness about the way AIDS is improperly treated in China and Thailand. Liu's other recent roles include Code Name: The Cleaner, an action comedy released in 2007; Rise, a supernatural thriller co-starring Michael Chiklis in which Liu plays an undead reporter; Watching the Detectives, an independent romantic comedy co-starring Cillian Murphy; and Kung Fu Panda, an animated film in which she voiced Viper. Liu will star in a new version of Charlie Chan which has been in pre-production; she will produce the film.