Paula Patton

It's just begun. Word to Jimmy Castor.

By Jessica Hundley
Photo: Fredric Reshew

Sure, the Ten Commandments frown on it, but is coveting another man's wife really that bad? Whatever, doing a bid with Satan is fine as long as we can leer at Paula Patton all the way down the road to hell. Hitched to blue-eyed soul man Robin Thicke and shining next to Andre 3000 in Idlewild, this brazen beauty blew up on screens last spring with a small part in Hitch (2005)..

But surprisingly, the lady who the camera clearly loves got her start on the other side of the lens. Patton was a magna cum laude film-school grad and a successful documentary filmmaker before she decided to step into the spotlight. "I remember thinking, 'What did I love to do as a kid?'" she says. "I have this theory that whatever you loved to do as a kid, you should try to do with your life. And I loved to act.............

"Now, she's living the dream. As the lead diva in OutKast's first feature film, Idlewild, Patton plays the singing vamp to Dre's piano man. "I'm pretty brazen in the movie," Patton says. "I just kinda come into town and take it on over."

That might have intimidated some actresses, but not all actresses are married to one of the most in-demand songwriters. Thicke even enlisted Patton for back-up vocals while working on Usher's '04 offering, Confessions.

"I'm the luckiest girl in the world," says Patton, fresh off receiving the news that she'd been cast opposite Denzel Washington in Tony Scott's next film, Déjà Vu. "And don't think I don't know it!" . Home » CELEBRITIES » Complex Women » The Hottie: Paula Patton