With its brutal, graphic, real-time sex and violence, combined with an arty backwards narrative ala Memento, the film sparked controversy and mass walkouts at Cannes.

None of the protestors disputed Bellucci's standing as one of the world's greatest beauties, and few are likely to object to her willingness to demonstrate her qualifications.

A short time ago, Everhart wouldn't get naked because of a promise to her granny.

Now she is trying to replace Shannon Tweed as the Queen B of the straight-to-vid market. Sexual Predator was a solid entry in the erotic thriller genre, with a mystery that kept viewers guessing, and a noir tone.

Its greatest strength, however, can be displayed to the right, with a mane of red hair and the undeniable ability to fill out a sweater properly.

Winslet lost plenty of weight but none of her daring in this memorable film about award-winning author Iris Murdoch and a love that lasted throughout the descent into the Azheimer's haze.

Winslet continued an admirable tradition of excellent actresses who are striving to bring respectability to screen nudity by showing their assets in awarded performances.

In that quest, she was joined by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Salma Hayek and Diane Lane as actresses on this year's Top 12 list who were nominated for acting awards to match their screen nudity honors.

Writer/director Julio Medem said: "After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island. There, bathed in an atmosphere of fresh air and dazzling sun, Lucía begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship, as if they were forbidden passages of a novel which the author now, from afar, allows her to read."

If he says so ...

All we know is, Paz looked great, even on digital video.

At 5'4" and 103 pounds,  Selma is the poster child for the petite actresses of the world, demonstrating that an actress need not be young and stacked to be sexy, or to succeed in the business.

Although Selma is 30 years old, she still plays students, as she did in this film, and it was less than two years ago that Young Hollywood awarded her as the most "exciting new face" in film.

She matched her serious role in Storytelling with a successful comic turn in last year's The Sweetest Thing, thus displaying a versatility that will guarantee plenty of future work.

Maggie started acting in films a decade ago, but her offbeat role in Secretary was the first to establish her as a star, having garnered her six award nominations and some Oscar buzz. She counts the Golden Globe among her nominations .

This year also marked Maggie's first appearance on our list of best nude scenes, reinforcing the current trend of establishing a correlation between the best acting and the best nudity.

If nothing else, we are finally seeing a new willingness among the power elite to accept sexy and nude roles as the winners of prestigious awards, in the wake of Halle Berry's performances in 2001, which won the nods for Best Actress from the Motion Picture Academy, and the two best nude scenes from our own Academy.

Playing an insecure aspiring actress in an après-sex scene, the lithe Mortimer insists on standing in the room stark naked, so that her partner, a more successful actor, can critique her appearance in detail.

He came up with a lot of flaws in her figure, but we like the charming, vulnerable actress just fine the way she is.

Mortimer should have been a double winner. She also did an excellent topless scene in Jessica Alba's  "The Sleeping Dictionary", but that film was shelved. No problem. It's to be released in March 2003, so we'll see her  again next year.

Scoopy's note:

Somehow, in the nominating and voting process, we missed Patricia Arquette's performance in this obscure comedy penned by the offbeat screenwriter Charles Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich).

This has to be corrected! The lovely and very curvaceous Ms Arquette spent a good portion of the film stark naked. I have placed her here assuming that her performance  would have finished in or just out of the top five.

With this appearance and her nude scene in the critically reviled Rollerball, Rebecca established herself as Hollywood's official go-to girl when the leading lady has to look really good naked.

Her surprising acting prowess in De Palma's "Femme Fatale" also portended a solid list of roles in the future. Naked roles, we hope.

Swain delivered a one-two nudity punch in 2002, matching her film appearance with a nude PETA poster.  

Viewing the scene objectively, one would conclude that it really wasn't worthy of such a high spot on this list. If it had been a different actress, the role would not likely have placed in the top 20.

But it wasn't a different actress. It was Lolita, and a lot of people wanted to see her naked at last.

Diane Lane was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her performance in this film, an erotic mystery/drama from Adrian Lyne.

The nudity in Unfaithful was actually minimal - brief, hazy looks at a breast here and a breast there - but the scenes were unquestionably some of the most erotic in screen history.

Ms. Lane is also our winner of this year's Lifetime Naked Achievement award, for her screen nudity in a dozen pictures, starting when she was 16 years old.

Like Diane Lane, Salma Hayek was also nominated for a Golden Globe this year, for her role in this biopic of Mexican artist/activist Frida Kahlo.

The normally beautiful Salma gave her all for the role. Sporting a unibrow, she provided frontal nudity, lesbian scenes, and a tireless schedule of promotional appearances in two languages, in both the USA and Mexico.

Her performance was widely acclaimed, and we iterate the kudos for her nudity as well.

1. Heather Graham in "Killing Me Softly"

The movie, which was made with a $25 million budget and features sexual asphyxia,  was released in Europe without a theatrical run in North America. It is now playing on The Movie Channel, never having been released in either theaters or home media in the USA.

The BBC said, "with miscast leads, banal dialogue and an absurdly overblown climax, "Killing Me Softly" belongs firmly in the so-bad-it's-good camp."

Heather's nudity, on the other hand, is so good it's good, and not just sorta good. It's the best of 2002.

13.  Amanda Peet,  "Igby Goes Down"

14.  Kari Wuhrer in "Spider's Web" (pictured)

15. (tie) Erin Daniels in "One Hour Photo"

15. (tie) Portia de Rossi in "Women in Film"

17. (tie) Milla Jovovich in "Resident Evil"

17. (tie) Anna Lopez Mercado in "Y Tu Mama Tambien"

17. (tie) Nicole Kidman in "Birthday Girl"

17. (tie) Summer Phoenix in "Esther Kahn"