It’s official. Charlize has been named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive. It’s not like any of us had any doubt that it was her, but it’s still nice to finally see it announced. The photos from the spread can be viewed here at esquire.com or here in the gallery. The interview is behind the cut below. Happy reading and viewing the super sexy photos.

Actress Charlize Theron would rather you forget that she is statuesque and beautiful and instead focus on her passion … acting. That passion earned the talented beauty an Academy Award for her performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s MONSTER. Theron was almost unrecognizable, gaining 30 pounds, wearing unflattering clothes, a bad haircut and little makeup for the part.
In fact, in many of her films she is physically toned down for authenticity purposes. I mean, c’mon, have you seen the real Wuornos? They are hardly two peas in a pod. And because of her God given good looks Theron had to fight to get that part. But fighting is something Theron has no problem …

On December 10, 2006, singer-actor André Benjamin of Outkast fame donned a cardboard turtle suit and joined a group of fellow “protesters” on the streets of Seattle. Seven years before, tens of thousands of real demonstrators had descended upon the Seattle Convention Center and surrounding hotels to protest the actions of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The turtle-clad demonstrators — whose costumes highlighted the plight of turtles killed by shrimp nets — joined other anti-globalization vocalists and rallied against the leaders of the WTO, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank in sometimes violent clashes with police. Benjamin’s participation in the re-enactment of the events of November 30, 1999, was for Battle in Seattle, …

Oscar-winner Charlize Theron has shown a range of talent acting in thrillers and in movies on social issues but her latest film about the Iraq war reveals another side to the actress — her political awareness.
Theron, 32, won the best actress Oscar of 2005 for playing a female serial killer in “Monster,” and her new movie, “In the Valley of Elah,” which opened last week, looks at the impact of the Iraq war on returning soldiers and their families.
The South African actress, who also acquired U.S. citizenship this year, took some time to talk to Reuters about the movie and her interest in politics and social issues:

MoviesOnline sat down with Academy Award winner Charlize Theron (“North Country,” “Monster”) at the Los Angeles press day for her new film “In the Valley of Elah,” directed by acclaimed filmmaker Paul Haggis (“Crash”). Inspired by true events, the suspense drama tells the story of a war veteran and father’s (Tommy Lee Jones) search for his missing son, a soldier who is reported AWOL after recently returning from Iraq. Susan Sarandon plays his wife Joan and Charlize Theron plays Emily Sanders, the police detective who helps in the investigation.

In the Valley of Elah is Academy Award-winning writer/director Paul Haggis’s follow-up to Crash. The drama follows Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones), a former military MP whose son goes missing upon his return from Iraq, and costars Susan Sarandon as his wife and Charlize Theron as the detective in charge of his case.
“I got to know [writer/director] Paul [Haggis] while I was nominated for North Country. We were doing the award circle; he was doing it for Crash. And the two of us were, like, the only losers in an alley smoking cigarettes, and he told me about this project,” recounts Theron. “We kind of kept running into each other and he kept talking about …

Hollywood.com has a video of interviews with Charlize, Paul Haggis, Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones and scenes from the film. Click here to watch now.

Scans from today’s issue of Parade magazine are now available in the gallery for your reading pleasure.

In this Sunday’s PARADE, actress Charlize Theron tells Jeanne Wolf about her hard-charging life philosophy, how she translated a modeling career into one that earned her an Oscar, her latest movie role, why she’s tired of political correctness and more. Below, tag along with Theron and interviewer Jeanne Wolf, and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into her PARADE photo shoot with photographer Robert Ascroft.
Parade’s photo shoot was just one small part of a few days in the life of Charlize Theron. Her schedule is as glamorous as you’d expect and a lot more rigorous than the surprisingly laid-back star lets on.
Right before we went to the studio, I watched her at a luncheon for the …

MoviesOnline sat down last weekend with Paul Haggis at the Los Angeles press day for his new film, “In the Valley of Elah,” which he wrote, directed, and produced. The suspense drama tells the story of a father’s (Tommy Lee Jones) search for his missing son, a soldier who is reported AWOL after recently returning from Iraq. Susan Sarandon and Charlize Theron also star. Haggis wrote two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back: “Million Dollar Baby” (2004) and “Crash” (2005). For “Crash,” Haggis won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, though the film also received an additional four nominations, including one for Haggis’ direction. “Crash” reaped numerous awards during its year of release …