AskMen.com , the largest online men's portal, unveiled its latest Most Desirable Woman on Tuesday, January 31st. After a month-long voting period that saw 2.5 million ballots cast, Jessica Alba was named AskMen.com's Most Desirable Woman of 2006, an honor that traditionally precedes a career year. British actress (and former Jude Law fiancée) Sienna Miller was the Top 99 runner-up; actress and high-profile activist Angelina Jolie was ranked third. For instant access to the list, visit http://www.askmen.com/specials/2006_top_99/index.html.

The Top 99 Most Desirable Women has emerged as AskMen.com's annual banner feature, generating 20 million page views on its 2006 launch date and a further 12 million on the two surrounding days. The impact of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women list extends far beyond AskMen.com's own site; the 2006 edition of the list found coverage in major media outlets throughout the world (such as Yahoo.com, MNBC.com, CNN.com, WWE.com, Pravda.ru, Access Hollywood, the New York Daily News, and the Washington Post.)

AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women list first emerged as an attempt to counterbalance the surplus of “Most Sexy” and “Most Beautiful” lists published by other men's lifestyle outlets. In casting their votes for the annual Top 99 Most Desirable Women, AskMen.com readers are asked to look beyond the nominees' surface assets and take into account the character traits that they would prize in a girlfriend or wife, such as strength of personality, ambition or intelligence. According to James Bassil, Editor-in-Chief of AskMen.com, “Those that make their way into the Top 99 do so because they most closely approximate the kind of woman that the AskMen.com reader seeks out - not on the basis of their visibility or attractiveness alone.”

One result of this unique approach to ranking is the establishment of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women as something of a predictor list; the No. 1 women of years past have gone on to experience career watersheds shortly after earning the distinction. After taking the 2002 title, Italian actress Monica Bellucci broke into the American market with a series of high-profile roles. 2003's Most Desirable Woman, Charlize Theron, won her first Academy Award a year thereafter, and Adriana Lima's 2005 anointment was followed up by her firm establishment as one of Victoria's Secret's banner models and a household name and face. “We're not entirely clear as to why the Top 99 Most Desirable Women list has become as clairvoyant as it has,” says Bassil, “but it could simply be a product of the voting criteria. Those same personality traits that our readers recognize in these women are the ones that equip them to dramatically elevate their careers.”

The predictive power of AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women list is not restricted to its upper tiers. In fact, the lower portion of the list has become a first-time visibility venue for relative unknowns, and 2006's version is no exception. “Our readers have a keen sense of who the up-and-comers are - on this year's list, it's women like Marisa Miller and Bryce Dallas Howard,” says AskMen.com Senior Editor Sabrina Rogers. “These are the kind of names that may not be familiar now, but ones that we could very well look back on in 2007 and wonder why they weren't ranked higher.”

AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women list is as much a gauge of men's current tastes as it is their future ones, and these tastes aren't entirely in keeping with what other media outlets might suggest. “The blonde bimbo has become the clichéd object of desire,” suggests Rogers, “but, according to our readers, that's not the actuality. The Top 99 is really characterized by diversity in the look and ethnicity of its constituent women - progressively more so every year.”

“The success of Housewives over the past year helped me move up in the list, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm flattered to be in the top 10 -- and grateful to all the AskMen.com readers who voted me there.”
- Eva Longoria

“I'm honored to be compared with some of the great actresses on there… It makes me feel really good that the people think of me that highly. This news just really made my week.”
- Torrie Wilson

“I've always been a fan of AskMen.com -- they were one of the first Internet sites to profile me! And I couldn't be more pleased to be deemed so desirable by AskMen.com readers.”
-- Jennifer Hawkins, Miss Universe 2004