Paula Patton wears the hell out of a dress. Whether it’s a floor-length sheath or the racy little number you see here, she stuns in outfits that cling as close to her cinnamon skin as sunburn. Blessed with a delicately curvy 5’ 8” body, the 31-year-old newlywed (it’s true; get over it) turns any outfit into a showstopper.
“The dresses I wore in Idlewild,” says Patton from the Hollywood Hills home she shares with her husband, blue-eyed soul man Robin Thicke, “are the most glamorous things you’ve ever seen.” Inspired by Lena Horne’s charmingly wicked performance in 1943’s Cabin in the Sky, Patton’s sultry chanteuse Angel Davenport spent most of the film draped in glittering gowns and fur-collared frocks. But it wasn’t just about the costumes—critics adored Patton, saying the University of Southern California film school grad “acted with an eagerness and hope and pain that electrifies.” Just three years ago, though, the Los Angeles– born-and-bred beauty had abandoned acting to be an assistant director, shooting surgeries for Medical Diaries (Discovery Channel). But in 2004 Patton started auditioning again, and within a year she landed a small part in Hitch (Columbia, 2005).
“There are so many sidetracks in life,” she says. “But eventually you realize what you want.” One sidetrack she rather enjoyed was appearing in the video for her husband’s recent “Lost Without You” single, from the album The Evolution of Robin Thicke (Interscope, 2006).
This month she stars in the Tony Scott–directed thriller Déjà Vu ( Touchstone, 2006) opposite Denzel Washington. “I can’t give too much away,” she says coyly, “but Denzel’s character falls for me as he goes back through my character’s life.” Can you blame him? Damien McCaffery
MICHAEL ELINS/CORBIS OUTLINE
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