Liz Hurley

You have people who are hugely talented and skilled. And this makes them famous and popular. And then you have some who are popular just because they are pretty, beautiful and smart. And you also have some, who are social bees, which moves them up the popularity chart.

If you know Elizabeth Hurley a.k.a. Liz Hurley - you would wonder about the category to which she belongs to. But whatever may be the category, she is hugely popular with the newspapers and the tabloids. And this has been the way for the last fifteen years.

All of 45 years, Liz is an English model and actress. 

She has been an actress since 1987 - acting in about 32 films since then. Her films have not been hugely popular - but she has been extremely popular. 

So what has made Liz move up the popularity chart over the years??

Well, in 1987, a hitherto unknown Liz Hurley met the British actor Hugh Grant. And they were good friends, a couple in fact, for 13 years till the year 2000.

And it was with Hugh Grant that she propelled herself up the popularity ranks. 

At the age of 29, in 1994, she walked with Hugh Grant to the premiere of his film - Four Weddings and a Funeral - wearing a black Versace dress. The dress was held together by several gold safety pins and it immediately put her right at the center of the media's attraction.

This "Safety Pin" dress was later voted as the greatest red carpet gown of all time.

An year later, she was signed up by Estee Lauder to model for their products. And since then, she has been an icon for them - helping them sell their stuff across the world. 

Most famously, she helped them sold their perfumes - becoming a style icon. Sensuous and Pleasures were immensely successful.

Liz Hurley also supports Estee Lauder's breast cancer awareness campaign.

All of this happened much before I knew someone called Liz Hurley ever existed. That was when she starred in a movie named Bedazzled. A review of this movie introduced me to her.

She split from Hugh Grant in 2000 and had a baby with Steve Bing in 2002. Later in 2002, she started dating Indian business man Arun Nayar.

Her relationship with Arun also went through intense media scrutiny. They finally married in India in the year 2007.

All through these years - till date, she remained good friends with Hugh Grant.

And after her much publicized marriage to Arun, she announced that she had split form him in late 2010. And this was via Twitter - the new age communication media.

And if you are wondering what had possibly triggered this, then you should have a look at the picture below. 

This was at the races in Melbourne in July last year.  If Liz is famous, so is he. He is none other than Shane Warne - the greatest spinner in the world of cricket in the last 25 years.   

Since then, the media has been intensely speculating the nature of the relationship between the British starlet and the Aussie spinner.

They had been keeping their long distance relationship alive with a lot of tweets. And when the Liz decided to go to Australia to meet Warnie, the media was all gung-ho. Her visit has made it right to the front pages of the tabloids.

What is it about Liz which makes her immensely attractive? Is it her charm or is it her intelligence? Is it her beauty or is it her persona? What makes her be in the media's spotlight continuously? 

Keep contemplating.

So here is Ms. Hurley - going from strength to strength - becoming a hugely sucessfull social celebrity. And if she does end up marrying Warne, then she is bound to be a darling of the Aussie masses.