By E.C. Gladstone, Photographs: Giuliano Bekor

ost actresses would not want to be seen like this. Standing in front of me is a diminutive creature who looks like an exotic sci-fi alien, her head bubbled out by multicolored curlers, with bright white pads stuck on her cheekbones and false eyelashes tipped with tiny globes.

"Hi, I'm Vanessa."

This is Vanessa Marcil? The irresistible VIP host on NBC's Las Vegas? The woman who's been on "most beautiful/hot" lists year after year? The one Prince cast in his "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" video?

We are in Hollywood's Lightbox Studio for the photo shoot you see on these pages, with photographer Giuliano Bekor and his crew. It's always fun to get a glimpse behind the scenes to see how the magic is made, and today does not disappoint. In fact, what you don't see in the pictures— a hair stylist, a makeup artist and a fashion stylist with a rack full of couture primping our girl to perfection—is enough to make anyone look amazing, even today.

"I have the flu," Vanessa announces apologetically. "I feel like I'm going to die."

Nevertheless, once the hair comes down and the strange stuff is taken off her face, Marcil is still uncommonly alluring in jeans, a belly-baring T-shirt, Air Jordans and two Cartier lock bracelets. Not to mention sharp as a tack.

"I like people who are kind of tragic," she says, sizing me up with a smile that is half Mona Lisa and half Cheshire cat. "I hate boring people who have their shit together."

Vanessa uses unlikely words such as "tomboy" and "dork" to describe herself, preferring gadgets (her entire house is wired to remote) and gears (she races a Ducati Monster 695 motorbike and a '74 Ferrari Dino sports car) to glamour.

"I am a supertough chick," she says, but still "so vulnerable that I cry during coffee commercials." She is also obsessed with athletes, particularly of the daredevil variety, and likes to face down her own fears. But she's equally intellectual, currently reading Philip Roth and Neale Donald Walsch. "It really is my favorite thing to be around people who are smarter than me and funnier than me."

That, Marcil says, makes her virtually the exact opposite of almost every character she's played, including Brenda Barrett on General Hospital and Beverly Hills 90210's Gina Kincaid, but there are definitely some parallels between Vanessa and the Montecito Casino's Sam Marquez ...

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