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There’s never been a time in history when women weren’t sought after for their looks, their talents, and their irresistible aura. But after 10 years of exhaustive research we can definitively state that the women of the Complex era are second to none. Now, before Susan B. Anthony starts turning in her grave, take a moment to consider the rising tides of pop culture over the past decade.
One Complex cover girl broke free from the church choir, declared that she liked to kiss other chicks, and blew up like fireworks in pop paradise. Then a certain gorgeous, cow-milking blonde emerged to give our generation its own “discovered on a whim” supermodel story. Even the alluring actress who threw away her on-screen career managed to keep the world captivated as she surfed a paparazzi-fueled celeb-culture tsunami.
Over the last 10 years, the average super-famous hottie’s career trajectory has been hilarious, perversely admirable, and deliciously unconventional. In our world, it doesn’t get any sexier than that.
LINDSAY LOHAN
LINDSAY LOHAN
Issue: August/September 2010, Cover
Relevance: We were caught in the eye of Hurricane Lindsanity and emerged from it barely unscathed with only this classic KAWS-treated photo shoot. In true pre-2012 LiLo fashion, the actress failed to show up for our interview, but that didn’t take away from the fact that these jaw-dropping images deserved to be seen.
ELIZA DUSHKU
ELIZA DUSHKU
Issue: October/November 2009, Cover
Relevance: Putting Eliza Dushku on our cover in a photo shoot reminiscent of our Aubrey O’Day shoot was essentially a gift to the geeks who bum-rushed message boards to keep Dollhouse on the air. We hope they appreciated seeing her out of her signature leather pants as much as we still do.
GRACE PARK
GRACE PARK
Issue: June/July 2008, Cover
Relevance: Fanboy favorite Grace Park left her loyal followers with a crop of jaw-dropping images of her in outfits she couldn’t logically wear on her claim-to-fame sci-fi series, Battlestar Galatica and her then-new ‘08 TV drama, The Cleaner. The photo above is a just teaser, so click through her cover gallery for more.
ROSARIO DAWSON
ROSARIO DAWSON
Issue: May 2002, Cover
Relevance: Rosario Dawson was our first cover girl and we couldn’t have asked for sexier poses. The actress, who released a slew of films in the summer of ‘02, including Men In Black II, proved to be a steamy subject with this eccentric drama class-themed photo shoot.
MARISA MILLER
MARISA MILLER
Issue: November 2008, Cover
Relevance: When you slate a Victoria’s Secret Angel for a cover shoot, you’re assured to sift through a plethora of perfect pictures. Thus, supermodel Marisa Miller’s spread was pretty much a guaranteed classic.
JAMIE CHUNG
JAMIE CHUNG
Issue: October/November 2009, Hot Complex
Relevance: Jamie Chung knocked us out with her cover shoot, but it’s her gutsy “Hot Complex” feature that entranced us. The actress, who was then a rookie taking on her first major movie role in Sorority Row, even stood out in the snow for the sake of all things sexy.
NICKI MINAJ
NICKI MINAJ
Issue: December 2008/January 2009, Hot Complex
Relevance: Nicki Minaj has covered two issues to date (one in 2010 and the current 10th Anniversary issue), but we admit that none of her shoots have been as hot as when she posed for our “Hot Complex” feature when she was still the relatively unknown first lady of Young Money.
OLIVIA MUNN
OLIVIA MUNN
Issue: February/March 2008, Cover
Relevance: With her former guest editor spot at Complex, her Attack of the Show! fanboys and a crop of new films to test out her then-untapped acting skills, including Big Stan, giving Olivia Munn a cover was a no-brainer. Not to mention, couple her sense of humor with a sexy photo shoot and you’ve got insanely hot parodies of the most hilarious classic movies.
LAUREN LONDON
LAUREN LONDON
Issue: April/May 2009, Hot Complex
Relevance: When Lauren London posed for our “Hot Complex” spread in light of her then-new films Next Day Air and I Love You, Beth Cooper, we realized London wasn’t your typical video vixen turned actress. London possessed a poised Hollywood persona and made demure look explosively sexy.
ALISON BRIE
ALISON BRIE
Issue: February/March 2010, Hot Complex
Relevance: Alison Brie, fresh off the success of Community and Mad Men, was known to be decked out it in cotton layers. No one knew until this photo shoot that her prude persona was simply a ruse.
Amber Rose
AMBER ROSE
Issue: August/September 2009, Women Are Complex, Too
Relevance: Remember when Amber Rose was most famous for being Kanye’s girl and Wiz Khalifa hadn’t even been put in the same sentence as her yet? We do and we encapsulated that time with her “Women are Complex, Too” feature, in which she gave us her opinions on sexual disclosure and gold-digging while, at one point, literally wearing nothing.
PAULA PATTON
PAULA PATTON
Issue: December 2011/January 2012, Cover
Relevance: In the past few months, Paula Patton has shifted away from her “hot teacher” image made famous by her role in Precious by demonstrating two things: she can actually kick ass (in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) and she can look sexy training to kick ass (in our December/January cover shoot).
FREIDA PINTO
FREIDA PINTO
Issue: December 2008/January 2009, Hot Complex
Relevance: After the success of Slumdog Millionaire, everyone in the world wanted a piece of Freida Pinto, and so did we. Luckily, we got more than we could’ve asked for with this intimate portrait of the beautiful Indian actress for the “Hot Complex” section of the issue.
JESSICA GOMES AND ZOE DUSCHESNE
JESSICA GOMES AND ZOE DUSCHESNE
Issue: November 2007, Cover
Relevance: For our 2007 “Model Special,” we enlisted a couple of the most eye-catching runway regulars to pose together for the cover. As expected, they knew how to work the camera, and our hormones, expertly.
KERI HILSON
KERI HILSON
Issue: August/September 2009, Cover
Relevance: It’s natural to feel a little, well, animated, when you see Keri Hilson’s ‘09 shoot. In nothing but a bra and a barely-there leotard, Hilson, who was working on her debut album, In a Perfect World. . . , certainly left a lasting solo impression on dudes who only knew her then as the chick on Kanye West’s and Lil Wayne’s singles.
NICOLE SCHERZINGER
NICOLE SCHERZINGER
Issue: December 2006/January 2007, Cover
Relevance: Back in 2006, Scherzinger was the provocative frontwoman of the biggest female pop group of the moment, The Pussycat Dolls. After it became clear that Scherzinger would transition out of the group with her own solo album, we invited her to make her debut on the cover of our last issue of '06.
KATY PERRY
KATY PERRY
Issue: June/July 2009, Cover
Relevance: No firework shooting cupcake bra, no blue hair and no cotton candy background. In retrospect, this dominatrix side of the colorful California girl, which we captured during the days when all we could talk to her about was kissing girls, can be jarring to those who didn’t start listening to her until her wildly successful latest album, Teenage Dream.
JESSICA ALBA
JESSICA ALBA
Issue: June/July 2005, Cover
Relevance: Correct us if we’re wrong, but we swooped Alba for a sultry, sun-bathed cover shoot at her prime. The June/July issue dropped perfectly in the middle of the roll-out of her biggest releases: Sin City in April, Fantastic Four in July and Into the Blue in September.
MILA KUNIS
MILA KUNIS
Issue: April/May 2008, Cover
Relevance: We caught Mila Kunis as she was blowing up into a bonafide movie star (and sex symbol) with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The former That 70s Show actress stripped off the bell bottoms for a more laid back look in this shoot.
BEYONCE
BEYONCE
Issue: August/September 2011, Cover
Relevance: This wasn’t the first time Beyonce graced our pages (she did so in 2003 upon her debut solo album release), but it was the first time she did so as the reigning Queen Bey. And at the sophisticated age of 30 years old, fresh from promoting her equally mature album 4, she sure did look the part.
KIM KARDASHIAN
KIM KARDASHIAN
Issue: Febuary/March 2007, Cover
Relevance: Before our Kim Kardashian Photoshop Fiasco of 2009, we introduced the world to the pre-reality TV and pre-sex tape version of Kim K., the one fresh out of the shadows of fellow socialite Paris Hilton. For the shoot, the hottest Kardashian stripped down to the point where the little clothes she had on weren't enough to keep her most famous part covered. To see what we mean, just take a look at this now-NSFW gallery.
RIHANNA
RIHANNA
Issue: June/July 2007, Cover
Relevance: This shoot arguably gave us an inkling of Rihanna of today: tough, sexually uninhibited and dangerously happy-go-lucky. The singer, who openly dished on her love of 300 and Paul Walker (Yes, the Zack Morris looking “cop” from The Fast and the Furious), posed for this soapy shoot as she was about to release her prophetically-titled third album, Good Girl Gone Bad.
KATE UPTON
KATE UPTON
Issue: August/September 2011, Hot Complex
Relevance: Within the past year, the 19 year-old bombshell has made a name for herself modeling swimsuits on Sports Illustrated, so we decided to photograph the hottest model of the moment in a way we’ve only seen her in our fantasies: as a sexy milk maid.
AUBREY O’DAY
AUBREY O’DAY
Issue: October 2008, Cover
Relevance: The reality star and singer, who had been reeling from a televised departure from Diddy and Danity Kane, was determined to make a name for herself. Apparently, plenty of people were waiting for her to do the same because word of her NSFW photo shoot spread like wildfire, causing our servers to actually crash.
Cassie
CASSIE
Issue: August/September 2008, Cover
Relevance: Considering how sexy our first photoshoot with Cassie, who was releasing her debut album at the time, went, we asked the singer to pose for us again to promote her sophomore effort. The result was a series of tropical shots we suspect have been ripped out of the magazine and taped across dudes’ bedroom walls across the country.