Hot Actress: Sienna Miller

Miller suggests that the scandal -- which the press dubbed "Nannygate" -- was all the more upsetting because it reinforced her fear that no one was taking her seriously as an actress. "Everything happened in the wrong order," she says. "You become very known for being someone's girlfriend, and all of a sudden there's all this hype and buzz for all the wrong reasons."

Even from early childhood, Miller says, she hoped to end up on the silver screen. Her mother, actress Jo Miller, went into labor with Sienna while in the audience for The Nutcracker in New York. Once she'd made up her mind to become an actor, Miller says, she never let herself consider a Plan B. "I'm a big believer in positive thinking," she says. "Some people think destiny's crap, but I've willed myself to do most things I wanted."

Even as her career is getting under way, Miller is already worried about her expiration date. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, she says, might be one of her last chances to star in a "youth film." "It's so hard for women in this business," she notes. "And I want to be doing this when I'm fifty." She does not, however, plan on putting her personal life in the back seat. "I can't wait to have babies," she says. "Jude has three children, and I have never tried to be their mum or anything, but I've had the benefit of living with them and loving them without being the parent. But I love the idea of being a working mum and having my kid on the set."

Though her own parents split when she was five, Miller says their relationship is a model for the kind of parent she'd like to be some day. "My parents were really liberal in the early years," she explains. "Our house was always full of artists and musicians, and I knew from the start my parents were naughty and did things that other people's parents didn't." She lifts her goblet of cheap pinot grigio and laughs. "But it's great to know that you can go to your parents and say, 'I've done some things you wouldn't be proud of me for,' and they can say, 'I've done the same thing.' The fact of the matter is that nobody's perfect: Even people who project perfection, you know they're flawed."