Who: Hathaway made her bones as the star of syrupy Disney tween flicks like The Princess Diaries, but she's grown up fast in movies like Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, and Rachel Getting Married. Her latest film is Love and Other Drugs.

Backstory: The Brooklyn-born, Jersey-raised Hathaway is the daughter of a former stage actress, so it's no surprise that she joined a local theater group as a teenager. She made her TV debut in the short-lived Fox series Get Real while still in high school, only to see the show get canceled after just one season. In 2000, she left for college at Vassar, but soon transferred to NYU's individualized Gallatin School, a haven for other celebrity pseudo-students like the Olsen twins. (She claims to be still enrolled, although sightings of her in academic buildings have been scarce of late.) Hathaway's big break came in 2001 when she starred in the saccharine Disney flick The Princess Diaries, which led to parts in a series of similar Disney films like Ella Enchanted and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, both of which came out in 2004. She's since turned to more adult fare, earning billing as the next Julia Roberts or Audrey Hepburn.

Of note: Like many an ex-Disney star, Hathaway has worked hard to shed her squeaky-clean image and prove that she's a serious actress. She appeared topless onscreen twice in 2005, once in Ang Lee's acclaimed gay cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain, and again in the not-so-acclaimed Valley-girls-and-gangbangers flick Havoc. (Perhaps not uncoincidentally, around the same time, she developed a habit of wearing red carpet dresses that turned sheer once the flashbulbs started going off.)

These days she's trying to flex her leading lady muscles. After a reasonably well-received turn opposite Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, she played Jane Austen in 2007's historical biopic Becoming Jane, and garnered a Golden Globe nomination for her role in 2008's Rachel Getting Married. (She also graduated to the world of luxe endorsement deals in 2008 as well, signing on as the new face of Lancôme.) She's since alternated between more mainstream fare (such as 2009's Bride Wars, which she described to a reporter as "hideously commercial") and slightly more ambitious projects like 2010's Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton. Her latest film, Love and Other Drugs, a comedy-drama also starring Jake Gyllenhaal, opened in November 2010.

Personal: Hathaway seems to be fond of bad boys (and the occasional girl). She dated nightlife impresario Scott Sartiano for a while and later attached herself to Italian playboy/con-artist Raffaello Follieri, who pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in 2008. (He was accused of swindling investors out of millions by posing as the Vatican's official real estate dealmaker in the U.S. Hathaway dumped him shortly after he was indicted.) But Hathaway is also capable of raising eyebrows all by herself: In 2006, rumors surfaced that she was involved with her Princess Diaries co-star Heather Matarazzo, although many chalked it up to a publicity stunt. As of late, she has been dating an actor named Adam Shulman (pictured with Hathaway above) and lives in a rental apartment downtown with her chocolate Lab named Esmerelda.

Vital Stats


Full Name: Anne Jacqueline Hathaway
Date of Birth: 11/12/1982
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, NY
High School: Millburn High School
Residence(s): New York, NY (West Village)
Filed Under: Celebrity


[Photo, top, via Getty Images. Photo of Hathaway and Shulman via Bauer-Griffin]