Beauties With Big Brains
Beautiful girls are a dime a dozen when it comes to Hollywood, but brains … not so much. You don’t have to look too long at the tabloids in the supermarket checkout lines (or hell watch Fox News or CNN for a few minutes and you’re sure to catch the latest on Paris or Lindsay) to see that most famous actresses and singers didn’t exactly graduate from Harvard.
But there are movie stars out there who actually did graduate from Harvard. And Yale. And Oxford. Some of the hottest actresses out there have resumes that are more impressive than their looks. Here are ten of the hottest smart girls in Hollywood:
10: Emma Thompson
Background: Two time academy award winner (Best Actress for Howard’s End, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility), she’s recently been seen in Stranger Than Fiction and in the Harry Potter movie series as Professor Trelawney.
Evidence of brains: Thompson graduated from Cambridge with a major in English literature. Won an academy award for screenwriting.
Why she’s hot: Cute blonde british girl, what’s not to like? Also, has an incredible smile.
Photographic evidence:
9: Rashida Jones
Background: Best known as Karen Filippelli on The Office. Also made appearances on Boston Public and Freaks and Geeks. Daughter of media mogul Quincy Jones.
Evidence of brains: Jones is multi-talented, having taken piano lessons from the age of five. Graduated from Harvard in 1997 after studying religion and philosophy.
Why she’s hot: Jim’s rebound girl after getting denied by Pam, which has to count for something.
Photographic evidence:
8: Alicia Keys
Background: Keys has won nine Grammy’s, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. She’s sold roughly 20 million records in her career so far.
Evidence of brains: Despite growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, Keys graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan at the age of sixteen as Valedictorian. She had a scholarship to Columbia University, but decided to pursue her musical career. Fairly smart decision there.
Why she’s hot: All about the braids and that hair. Plus there’s just something hot about a girl banging away at a piano.
Photographic evidence:
7: Jennifer Beals
Background: Beals has been around damn near forever, first coming to the scene in 1983’s Flashdance. Currently stars on Showtime’s The L Word, where she plays Bette Porter, an Ivy League Educated lesbian.
Evidence of brains: Graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in English lit.
Why she’s hot: I’m repeating myself, but come on: Currently stars on Showtime’s The L Word, where she plays Bette Porter, an Ivy League Educated lesbian.
Photographic evidence:
6: Kate Beckinsale
Background: Has starred in numerous big box office blockbusters such as Pearl Harbor, Click, and Underworld.
Evidence of brains: Won multiple W. H. Smith Young Writers competitions in her teens, studied foreign language and literature at Oxford.
Why she’s hot: Always showing up on lists of hottest women (best showing #16 in Maxim’s Hot 100 in 2003, also named England’s #1 Beauty by HELLO! magazine in 2002.
Photographic evidence:
5: Sharon Stone
Background: One of the most famous actresses in the world, appearing in one of the most famous scenes in movie history.
Evidence of brains: Actually flunked out of high school as a rebellious teenager, but there’s a good chance that was due to boredom. Stone’s IQ has been tested at 154.
Why she’s hot: She helped make it cool to leave the underwear at home.
Photographic evidence:
4. Jodie Foster
Background: Broke out in 1976 with her role in Taxi Driver. Has won two Best Actress Oscar’s for her roles in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.
Evidence of brains: Possibly the most brilliant actress alive, Foster graduated Valedictorian from a French speaking prep school in LA before heading off to Yale where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in literature. Is actually intelligent enough to keep her personal life out of the press.
Why she’s hot: Pretty much the embodiment of the word “cute”. And there’s nothing wrong with a strong woman: she took on Hannibal Lector and did pretty well for herself.
Photographic evidence:
3. Jennifer Connelly
Background: Won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in A Beautiful Mind. Has a history of picking roles in intelligent films.
Evidence of brains: Went to Yale and studied English, but eventually transferred to Stanford where she finished her Bachelor’s. Speaks three languages fluently (French and Italian).
Why she’s hot: Start at the incredible eyes and head south. Plus, you know, you have to respect a girl willing to go ass to ass. Ahem.
Photographic evidence:
2. Natalie Portman
Background: Career was launched with her role in The Phantom Menace, but she was actually working years before that with roles in movies such as Heat and Mars Attacks!.
Evidence of Brains: Graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelor’s in psychology, and has pursued grad studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Speaks five languages.
Why she’s hot: She’s been every geek’s fantasy for eight years now, and it’s pretty easy to see why.
Photographic evidence:
1. Elizabeth Shue
Background: Was an 80’s hottie in films such as The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysiting, and Back to the Future, but she showed that she’d grown up in the film Leaving Las Vegas, portraying a prostitute mixed up with a suicidal alcoholic.
Evidence of Brains: Attended Wellesley College and Harvard University, but withdrew to pursue her acting career. Went back and finished fifteen years later, graduating from Harvard with a degree in government.
Why she’s hot: Any child of the 80’s could tell you that Shue is the ultimate girl next door.
Photographic evidence:
Check out our Honorable Mentions!
i would like to see these “brains” study things other than english and literature, come on now
Yeah, it’s nice that they have degrees, but the literature courses are the kind in which you could manage to have a fair mark by writing bulls*it on the exams and by renting out the movies instead of reading the assigned books. As long as you are a native English speaker and you have a good intuition for spelling, you’re good to go.
Plenty of slow-witted people get through university fine (usually not in science or engineering) and plenty of intelligent people just don’t make university a priority (unfortunately for many).
Where’s Danica McKellar? She played Winnie on The Wonder Years and then majored in mathematics.
English literature degrees go into many aspects of works, psychological aspects, sociological aspects, formalistic aspects which serve in life and apply to many things from law, to journalism, to the arts.
I have met too many engineers/math majors who have little intellectual life beyond this, read little, and do not value the humanities. Communications skills, writing, analysis, etc. take time and work to cultivate. There is also alliteration or the music of words.
To write well one must write, but also read. It is arrogant and ignorant to suggest this is ‘easy and something to be blown off’. Our society is currently sadly lacking in these areas, so it’s hardly something to be taken for granted.
Good article.
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Ya, I agree Trentster. Danica McKellar is a joke. Like you said, Britney Spears should be on this damn list. She used the whole world like mice in her laboratory by doing an experiment on how people would react if she shaved her head and then hit a mini-van with a green umbrella. She graduated from the academy of Disney Kids with a degree in rocket science y’all. Put her on the damn list!
How about Geena Davis, both attractive and a MENSA member!
lol the Jodie Foster pic has attracted the attention of NBC newstainment dept, Chris Hansen has his eye on you.
Trent wasn’t joking about Danica….
Rextard, can you read? He said Danica is a joke, DURRRR. Maybe you should refer to the DEE DEE DEE song made by Carlos Mencia for people like you who can’t read. http://youtube.com/watch?v=7e6yEacAguk
Cindy Crawford: Had a 4.0 grade point average in highschool, scored perfectly on her college calculus exams, was valedictorian of her high school, and won a chemical engineering scholarship to Northwestern University to study chemical engineering.
Well said, Helena.
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Carmen Kass: Victoria’s Secret supermodel and president of the Estonian Chess Federation.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1834
What about Mia Kirshner, also of The L Word? She has a degree is Russian Literature, and is super smokin.
no Guido, he asked why she isn’t on the list, said she was Winnie in the Wonder Years and then majored in mathematics….which is true….what exactly are you reading?
here ya go Guid…an audio interview I found for ya, no reading skills necessary.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5201825
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Shame on you for not including Dana MacKellar (Winnie from Wonder Years).
Rextard - So you have just confirmed my point, point taken, what’s your point?
Bitches on my stick, but my name ain’t Harry Potter, yaaaa DIGGGG?!
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Helena, you’re just a dumb shit reading books and doing nothing for the world. I got an english degree while I was studying mechanical engineering because it was just too damn easy. I could take a couple english classes and pretend to pay attention and get another degree. If it weren’t for all us genius engineers, you’d be sitting in a cardboard box in the middle of an empty field playing with yourself. What has reading all those books and studying the song of words done for you? Not a damn thing.
George Bush graduated from Yale. Enough said.
Uhhh, you neglected Natalie’s awesome performance in “Leon” AKA “The Professional” she was shwing her acting potential very very young.
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Bush is not a beauty…
I liked this post, particularly the photographic evidence… but I, too, would have liked to have seen Danica McKellar on the list. She actually has a recognised mathematical theorem named after her, and she’s gorge, what else do you need?
previous posts said enough about how easy it is to major in English/lit and get a degree in college. DO SOMETHING ELSE! Try a REAL challenge like math or physics! Who says English lit majors are needed in society? complete bull-s***
it’s pretty easy to get into harvard if you’re quincy jones’ daughter, have oliver stone write your letter of reccomendation (portman), or have some other in.
no tina fey??
I agree as I have lots of sympathy for the da folks with the bs degrees such as english/lit., speech development, psychology, liberal arts, anthropology, etc … learn something more than just beating it around the bush all the time.
My favorite on that list is probably Rashida Jones.
My Enginneerd, you seem rather threatened.
Could it be because you are sitting in a box playing with yourself and no woman wants you?
Pity.
Helena do you have an English Literature Degree?
Engineerd wheres all the hostility coming from? Did you kill your English teacher? Seriously chill.. she was expressing her opinion.
favorite is kate beckinsale for sure… Im mean look at her… shes back in for a sale
[...] Beauties With Big Brains Beauties With Big Brains Honorable Mentions How Google got this guy out of a speeding ticket Atheist Mistreatment in Iraq (US Military) 10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain Also for those with daughters preparing for Junior High or already in Junior High, this appears to be a good book for them to read and help them with math. It was written by the actress who played Winnie Cooper (the g/f) in the Wonder Years. The title is “Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail” and here is a link for it on Amazon: Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail (Hardcover) [...]
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