Fall TV's Sexiest Stars

By Chris Larkin
Special to MSN TV

Rebecca Romijn, "Eastwick"

The famously un-Stamosed "X-Men" and "Ugly Betty" beauty continues casting love spells over America as one of three witches in ABC's "Eastwick," adapted from the John Updike novel. At 36, she's still so bewitching that our fantasies don't even care she married and reproduced with the chubby kid from "Stand by Me."

Fall TV's Sexiest Stars
Christian Slater, "The Forgotten"

The wild man with a fetish for Jack Nicholson and rehab gets right back on his TV horse. The failure of "My Own Worst Enemy" may indeed be forgotten if this latest ABC series lives up to its promise. Slater, 40, heads a group of amateur detectives who attempt to identify the remains of unknown murder victims. (For the sake of good taste, we hope none end up being named Heather.)

Tiffani Thiessen, "White Collar"

Gone is the Amber, but not the sex appeal Tiffani-Amber Thiessen oozed while creating love triangles in "Saved by the Bell" and "Beverly Hills, 90210." In USA's "White Collar," a humor-flecked drama about catching con artists, the 35-year-old former beauty queen plays the wife of the lead cop (Tim DeKay). Unfortunately, no love triangles are immediately afoot. But give Thiessen some time.

Morris Chestnut, "V"

In 1991, his career took off after starring as a teenage father in the film "Boyz N the Hood." In "V," Chestnut's hiding a big secret, and it's not the fact that he's 40 years old.

Jenna Elfman, "Accidentally on Purpose"

Dharma's bum isn't all that shows when Jenna Elfman attempts her sitcom comeback. The funny lady, still sexy at 37, plays a single woman who finds herself "accidentally" preggers after a one-night stand with a boy toy (Jon Foster) she decides to platonically shack up with. It's "Cougar Town" with consequences.

John Cho, "FlashForward"

Harold goes to the future, without Kumar, in this creepy new ABC series about a worldwide flash forward that gives everyone a peek at what's to come in their own lives. What's coming for this Korean-born 37-year-old, who made Sulu sizzle in the recent "Star Trek" franchise, is stardom as a sex symbol.

Courteney Cox Arquette, "Cougar Town"

Our favorite friend is scheduled for some benefits this fall on ABC (our favorite friend after Jennifer Aniston, anyway). Cox's still-steamy character spent her 20s and 30s being a housewife and mom. Now, 40 and single, she's on the prowl for guys half her age. (Insert meowing noise here.)

Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, "The Vampire Diaries"

In the CW's newfangled vampire vehicle designed to suck the neck of "Twilight" and "True Blood," Ian Somerhalder ("Lost") and Paul Wesley ("Everwood") play brothers who have been 16 years old since 1864. (And you thought Morris Chestnut looked good for his age!)

Michelle Trachtenberg, Taylor Schilling and Jaime Lee Kirchner, "Mercy"

The casting director of NBC's hospital drama "Mercy" has shown none of it on red-blooded American men. These three smart, sexy nurses will defibrillate even the deadest of hearts this fall.

Laura Vandervoort, right, and Morena Baccarin, "V"

We're confused. If the remake of a 1980s miniseries about alien invaders (or "visitors") wanted us terrified by the notion of being dominated and enslaved by a race of lizards, why make them as hot as Vandervoort, 24, and the Brazilian-born Baccarin, 30? The line to be abducted forms here.

Joel McHale, "Community"

In addition to bagging on Tyra, clowning with ubiquitous guest Seth Green and pretending to pop Ecstasy on E!'s "The Soup," 37-year-old funnyman Joel McHale will also star in NBC's best-reviewed new sitcom. McHale plays a DUI lawyer attending community college after being busted for a fake bachelor's degree. As he did in the real world, McHale's character attempts, rather unsuccessfully, to lie and cheat his way through the experience.

Sara Paxton, "The Beautiful Life"

The former "Darcy's Wild Life" hottie stars in the CW's new series about how, um, difficult it is being a fashion model. Her character, Raina (who has a girl-crush on Mischa Barton), is described by CW press materials as "a stunning beauty with a secret past." We'd like to think that past includes lots of sleeping with nerds like us.

Alex O'Loughlin, "Three Rivers"

"Moonlight" fans will be happy to see this former cast member rise from the undead. O'Loughlin, who played a private investigator/vampire on that canceled series, is now organ transplant surgeon Dr. Andy Yablonski in CBS's latest medical drama. This Aussie-born dreamboat, once considered for Daniel Craig's role as the new James Bond, offers the ladies the perfect leading man to play doctor with in their heads.

Dianna Agron, "Glee"

FOX's high school musical is positively saved for musical-hating men by the presence of this drop-dead bombshell. Agron's character is a conservative Christian, too, which makes our fantasies even naughtier.

Corbin Bleu, "The Beautiful Life"

The 20-year-old tween star and musician graduates from "High School Musical" with honors to become a rippling model with, according to the Hollywood Reporter, "a Lenny Kravitz vibe."

Melinda McGraw, "Hank"

The spicy Season 2 mistress of Don Draper on "Mad Men" returns to support another powerful executive. In "Hank," the 45-year-old hottie plays the wife of a business mogul (Kelsey Grammer) brought to his knees by the economy. The ABC sitcom sees Hank confronted by the reality of a working-class life in McGraw's hometown.

Katie Cassidy, "Melrose Place"

Amanda 2.0 promises to give this much-hyped CW remake a wild ride. In the pilot, she has a make-out scene with another girl. Cassidy's apparently wild in real life, too. In 2007, she was arrested for underage drinking. Katie's dad, by the way, is the almost-as-pretty David Cassidy from "The Partridge Family."

Jessica Lucas, "Melrose Place"

If anyone on the new "Melrose" block threatens to give Katie Cassidy a run for her hotness, it's this 23-year-old stunner. Lucas stars as a wealthy and beautiful inner-city schoolteacher. Watch what she teaches co-star Michael Rady in the pilot's steamy bathtub scene!

Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth, "The Good Wife"

He seemed like the perfect storybook ending for Carrie Bradshaw. Ah, but, as it turns out, Mr. Big had sex WITH the city. At least he does in CBS's "The Good Wife," in which he plays a figure headed to jail for corruption with a side order of sex scandal. Margulies plays his Hillary-only-hotter wife, who faces the difficult balancing act of going back to her previous career, being a single mom, and trying not to watch TV whenever a report about her husband comes on.

Sofia Vergara, "Modern Family"

Sexy and comedy don't usually play nice together. But, ay caramba, this 37-year-old former Colombian model is as hysterical as she is sultry as Ed O'Neill's wife in this single camera comedy about three odd couplings. In marrying a man twice her age, Vergara becomes the hottest step-grandmother ever to grace the tube. You know it's only make-believe, though, because O'Neill's character doesn't have millions of dollars.

Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, "NCIS: Los Angeles"

Call it a comeback, go ahead. These early-'90s icons didn't have a hit (on TV or in music) for years before "NCIS" revived their Hollywood stock price. In this West Coast spin-off, they play a pair of hunky naval investigators. Calm down, ladies, we didn't say navel investigators.