Rosamund Pike: Creamy & Cool

British beauty Rosamund Pike slips into honey white sensations for our style spread as smoothly as she bewitches 007 in the James Bond extravaganza, Die Another Day.

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Behind the Scenes

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1. Playing a Bond girl is a great leap for British actress Rosamund Pike, considering her roots--her background is mainly in theater. While studying English literature at Oxford, she appeared in many of the school's plays. After that she starred in a few BBC films. So Die Another Day is Pikes first mainstream movie. What was the experience like? "Overwhelming--I worked with Madonna, Judi Dench and Halle Berry in one fell swoop," Pike, 23, says. "It doesn't get any bigger than that." And Pike's character, the sexy, smart, mysterious Miranda Frost, seems bigger than life--she's a former gold medal Olympic fencing champ who gets entangled with James Bond. But taking on a showy role wasn't really that daunting for Pike because she has performing in her genes--both parents are professional opera singers. A big Hollywood career doesn't seem that far off for the actress, either. After all, on her first visit to Los Angeles, for this very photo shoot, she said she felt at home in the city. "I stepped off the plane," she says, "and thought, 'This place excites me.'"

2. It would be easy to say that all Bond girls are easy, but that surely isn't the case today. More and more, Bond girls are proving to be just as capably conniving and skilled with a pistol as Agent 007. They're even the subject of an upcoming AMC special (airing Nov. 6) titled "Bond Girls Are Forever." Maryam d'Abo (Kara Milovy in 1987's The Living Daylights) produced and narrates the special, which documents the evolution of the Bond girl, from the days of Pussy Galore in the early '60s to Halle Berry's upcoming turn as Jinx in Die Another Day. Interspersed are interviews with former and present Bond girls, including Luciana Paluzzi (who recounts how Federico Fellini would no longer work with her after she appeared in 1965's Thunderball), Ursula Andress (pictured), Jill St. John, Carey Lowell and Berry. Luckily, not every Bond girl's experience hurt her professionally. If anything, as "Bond Girls Are Forever" attests, quite the opposite usually happened.

3. Rosamund Pike--or actually, her Bond alter ego, Miranda Frost--would be happy to know that the St. Regis Hotel and Spa in Los Angeles is one of the few secret service-approved hotels in the country. The Presidential Suite, a.k.a. "White House West," is where Presidents Reagan, Bush (Sr. and Jr.) and Clinton have stayed when visiting the West Coast. The 7,300-square-foot suite, which takes up an entire floor and costs more than $10,000 a night, also features a private elevator, accessible via an underground tunnel, and a private helicopter landing pad directly above the room. The suite has also hosted some Hollywood royalty, like Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney, who've taken advantage of the St. Regis's luxurious amenities and service savvy (including 24-hour signature butler service for every guest).

4. One of the perks for Pike, now that she's a bona fide Bond girl, is having a makeup collection inspired by her character. Revlon's "007 Color Collection," due this winter, features "The Look of Miranda Frost"--a set of colors that include lip glosses in Polar Pink and Iced Lilac, and a mascara in Bond Black. Revlon will also launch limited-edition holiday gift sets named after famous Bond films like GoldenEye (featuring Eye Spy Shadow in GoldenEye) and From Russia With Love. Revlon spokesmodel Halle Berry will also have a set of colors based on her character, Jinx. With Die Another Day, Berry joins a select group of women--including Kim Basinger (Never Say Never Again) and Grace Jones (A View to a Kill)--who were Bond girls and Revlon spokesmodels.

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