Background: Two time academy award winner (Best Actress for Howard’s End, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense and Sensibility), she’s recently been seen in Stranger Than Fiction and in the Harry Potter movie series as Professor Trelawney.
Evidence of brains: Thompson graduated from Cambridge with a major in English literature. Won an academy award for screenwriting.
9: Rashida Jones
Background: Best known as Karen Filippelli on The Office. Also made appearances on Boston Public and Freaks and Geeks. Daughter of media mogul Quincy Jones.
Evidence of brains: Jones is multi-talented, having taken piano lessons from the age of five. Graduated from Harvard in 1997 after studying religion and philosophy.
8: Alicia Keys
Background: Keys has won nine Grammy’s, eleven Billboard Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. She’s sold roughly 20 million records in her career so far.
Evidence of brains: Despite growing up in Hell’s Kitchen, Keys graduated from the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan at the age of sixteen as Valedictorian. She had a scholarship to Columbia University, but decided to pursue her musical career. Fairly smart decision there.
7: Jennifer Beals
Background: Beals has been around damn near forever, first coming to the scene in 1983’s Flashdance. Currently stars on Showtime’s The L Word, where she plays Bette Porter, an Ivy League Educated lesbian.
Evidence of brains: Graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in English lit.
6: Kate Beckinsale
Background: Has starred in numerous big box office blockbusters such as Pearl Harbor, Click, and Underworld.
Evidence of brains: Won multiple W. H. Smith Young Writers competitions in her teens, studied foreign language and literature at Oxford.
5: Sharon Stone
Background: One of the most famous actresses in the world, appearing in one of the most famous scenes in movie history.
Evidence of brains: Actually flunked out of high school as a rebellious teenager, but there’s a good chance that was due to boredom. Stone’s IQ has been tested at 154.
4. Jodie Foster
Background: Broke out in 1976 with her role in Taxi Driver. Has won two Best Actress Oscar’s for her roles in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs.
Evidence of brains: Possibly the most brilliant actress alive, Foster graduated Valedictorian from a French speaking prep school in LA before heading off to Yale where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in literature. Is actually intelligent enough to keep her personal life out of the press.
3. Jennifer Connelly
Background: Won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in A Beautiful Mind. Has a history of picking roles in intelligent films.
Evidence of brains: Went to Yale and studied English, but eventually transferred to Stanford where she finished her Bachelor’s. Speaks three languages fluently (French and Italian).
2. Natalie Portman
Background: Career was launched with her role in The Phantom Menace, but she was actually working years before that with roles in movies such as Heat and Mars Attacks!.
Evidence of Brains: Graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a bachelor’s in psychology, and has pursued grad studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Speaks five languages.
1. Elizabeth Shue
Background: Was an 80’s hottie in films such as The Karate Kid, Adventures in Babysiting, and Back to the Future, but she showed that she’d grown up in the film Leaving Las Vegas, portraying a prostitute mixed up with a suicidal alcoholic.
Evidence of Brains: Attended Wellesley College and Harvard University, but withdrew to pursue her acting career. Went back and finished fifteen years later, graduating from Harvard with a degree in government.
