Esquire Magazine  names Jessica Biel sexiest alive

Photos: 1. Jessica Biel at her unveiling as Esquire magazine's 2005 'Sexiest Woman Alive' in New York Thursday. 2. Posing by the upcoming magazine cover

NEW YORK- Jessica Biel has been proclaimed "the sexiest woman alive" by Esquire magazine. The actress dons the cover of Esquire's November issue, following last year's honouree, Angelina Jolie. The 23-year-old Biel, who began as a teenager on the family TV series 7th Heaven, plays a supporting role in the upcoming Elizabethtown and starred earlier this year in Stealth. "It seemed like it would be great -- having named Anglina Jolie sexiest woman of the year last year -- to try to come up with somebody who was on everyone's radar screen, but who was also fresh," said Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger. "It just seemed like Jessica Biel's moment." The magazine also picks a woman for three older age brackets: the Chinese actress Gong Li, 39; the 47-year-old Sharon Stone; and Rene Russo, 51. "It's easy to appreciate womanhood without any consideration of age," Granger says. "Youth isn't the automatic turn-on it used to be."