Alyssa Milano

Alyssa Milano has come a long way since her years as a child model and actress in the '80s sitcom Who's the Boss. She spread her wings in the music world, putting out a handful of pop albums that made her a hit in Japan and achieved platinum status. She also married and divorced a rock singer, Cinjun Tate of Remy Zero. Milano landed in a controversial commercial, tackled decidedly more grown-up acting roles, and gave interviews that were even more adult-oriented and even a bit racy.

The road she traveled after her time spent portraying innocent Samantha Micelli was sometimes hurtful, and other times litigious. Milano posed nude in Bikini magazine in 1993, making it more than obvious that the body that had purportedly been used as a model for Ariel, Disney's Little Mermaid, had grown up. Unfortunately, nude images of her started turning up on pornographic web sites on the Internet, which her 12-year-old brother discovered by accident. The discovery resulted in a dozen lawsuits, most of which were settled before reaching court. One case went to trail and awarded Milano $230,000. Still, the actress/singer has nothing against nudity, just the unauthorized use of her nude image. In an interview with a men's magazine, she admitted to her penchant for topless gardening. Her movie roles in Embrace of the Vampire, Deadly Sins, and Poison Ivy 2 revealed even more of her.

The Brooklyn native was raised on Staten Island. She started acting at the age of 7 when she beat out more than 1,000 other girls to land one of a handful of roles with a national company that was taking the musical Annie on the road. Broadway and commercials followed. She won her role in Who's the Boss in 1983. In 1991 she appeared in Los Angeles on-stage in Butterflies Are Free, which she also produced. Later, she landed on Melrose Place and Charmed. She wed Tate in 1999, and they divorced less than a year later. ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide