In 2013, four years after Bitcoin (BTC) launched, skepticism surrounding the nascent digital asset was far from waning. Early price swings spurred think pieces describing a financial investment bubble or even fraud, and the world’s first widely adopted cryptocurrency had little to no value as a currency that could be exchanged for goods or services. “People say it’s a Ponzi scheme, it’s a bubble,” Cameron Winklevoss told The New York Times in a piece published that April. “People really don’t want to take it seriously. At some point, that narrative will shift to ‘virtual currencies are here to stay.’ We’re in the early days.”

Cameron and his 6-foot-5-inch twin sibling, Tyler, were then best widely known as the crew-rowing bros who’d won a $65 million settlement in 2008 after a protracted legal battle with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, that recognition being largely due to the story’s somewhat fictitious retelling in 2010’s Oscar-winning film The Social Network. At the time of the aforementioned article’s publication, you could purchase one BTC for $115, and the Winklevosses held $11 million worth.

“It has been four years and it has yet to be discredited as a viable alternative to fiat currency,” Tyler told The New York Times. “We could be totally wrong, but we are curious to see this play out a lot more.”

Wrong, they weren’t. Dug in to the most bullish of positions—Cameron reportedly told CNN Money in 2015, “We’ve never sold a Bitcoin, we’re in it for the long haul”—that initial $11 million investment saw the media declare them “Bitcoin’s first billionaires” by 2017, at which point the value of the BTC had skyrocketed to nearly $11,827, well over a 9,000 percent increase from its 2013 price.

While the Winklevosses may have hit the jackpot, they clearly didn’t see Bitcoin as a lucky speculative investment, but part of an emerging crypto market brimming with untapped potential. Very shortly after revealing the initial Bitcoin investment to The New York Times, the brothers publicly announced their intent to put not just money, but their time, effort, and reputation on the line in launching Gemini, a new cryptocurrency exchange. Built from the ground up to comply with financial laws and regulations, Gemini stood out from other early crypto ventures that were known to operate in legal gray areas.

“In our early experiences with Bitcoin, we found how few people were building Bitcoin exchanges the right way,” Tyler said in a 2016 interview with New York Business Journal. “They really weren’t taking the regulation seriously; they were taking it too much like how you would approach something when you’re 18, full of the excitement of youth and throwing caution to the wind.

“We were passive investors in a Bitcoin company whose CEO went to prison for laundering, which was a valuable lesson for us, because it showed us how to do this the right way,” Tyler added, referencing BitInstant founder Charles Shrem IV, who has since been released. “Since that experience, we’ve taken considerable steps to ensure a higher standard of care. We’ve created a great security system that essentially acts as a more effective form of insurance.”

Gemini officially launched in October 2015 with a notable, consumer trust-building certification that very few crypto exchanges could claim: “We’re licensed by the New York Department of Financial Services, which is the highest regulator in the land for both banks and insurance companies in New York,” Tyler said in a statement. “We have bank exams every six to twelve months, which is a very rigorous process. We want to look and feel just like your other financial service companies, so we spent a lot of time ensuring that we do this the right way.”

Following its launch, Gemini quickly moved to expand its offerings beyond Bitcoin. Most notably, it became the world’s first licensed Ether exchange in May 2016. While also a decentralized digital currency, Ether and the Ethereum network on which it’s used are more ambitious in scope than Bitcoin, which was conceived primarily as a currency to be used as a medium for the exchange of goods and services without the need for intermediaries like banks. Ether, in contrast, is the cryptocurrency (or “gas”) that fuels the Ethereum blockchain network, which is often described as a “world supercomputer” that allows developers to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. From creating financial platforms for lending, borrowing, and trading to drafting insurance policies built on smart contracts that are automatically executed when conditions are met, Ethereum’s applications as a blockchain-based network are almost endlessly vast.

As it evolved to offer more cryptocurrencies—Gemini now allows its users to trade and buy over 70 “coins,” or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether that are built on their own native blockchains—the company has remained unwavering in its commitment to market integrity and security. In 2018, it began using Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance technology, a system widely used in traditional financial markets, to monitor all its transactions—a fitting development, considering that Cameron had presciently said in a 2015 CNBC interview, “This is our effort to bring Bitcoin mainstream, to build it into a regulatory box. When we think of Gemini. com, it will be like a Nasdaq for Bitcoin.”

The following years saw Gemini undergo a number of System and Organization Controls examinations—independent audits that assess the operational effectiveness and security of businesses—to overwhelmingly positive results. But, like so many ventures in the crypto space, Gemini’s biggest challenge to date came about in part because of 2022’s “crypto winter,” a brutal cryptocurrency-wide downturn punctuated by the notorious collapse of the FTX crypto-trading exchange. A year earlier, Gemini and crypto lender Genesis Global Capital had partnered to launch Gemini Earn, a program that allowed users to earn interest on their crypto by lending it to Genesis. The controversy erupted in November 2022—the same month in which FTX collapsed—when Genesis unexpectedly halted customer withdrawals, citing “unprecedented market turmoil.” This freeze left over 200,000 Gemini Earn users unable to access approximately $900 million in digital assets…and seriously pissed off the Winklevoss twins.

Having worked tirelessly to establish an iron-clad credibility with its user base, they fiercely advocated for Gemini users as the company engaged in legal battles with Genesis and its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG). Cameron even went so far as to call out DCG CEO Barry Silbert via an open letter, writing, “There are over 340,000 Earn users that are waiting. It’s important to them, and it’s important to us. Every time we ask you for tangible engagement, you hide behind lawyers, investment bankers, and process.”

Those relentless efforts paid off. By the end of June 2024, Gemini had returned 100 percent of digital assets that had been frozen as of November 2022, including all appreciation. “It’s important to note that the Genesis bankruptcy was not a crypto problem,” the Winklevosses said in a joint statement to Gemini users. “It was old-fashioned financial fraud compounded by a lack of regulatory clarity. To that end, we will continue to fight for clear rules and guidance for our industry that foster both innovation and consumer protection. And we will win this fight. The future is bright.”

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It is indeed. In June 2025, Gemini confirmed it had filed for an initial public offering, taking its first steps to becoming a publicly traded company. Gemini has expanded to support over 160 digital assets, including tokens—digital assets built on existing blockchains—like XRP, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu. Gemini’s inaugural “Global State of Crypto” report, released in partnership with Data Driven Consulting Group, indicates a worldwide growth of crypto adoption. According to the report, roughly half of the Gen Z and millennial global population either are or have been invested in crypto.

Perhaps most encouragingly, Bitcoin has hit multiple record highs in 2025, with the most recent being a breach of $120,000 in mid-July, suggesting a value of over $11 billion on the Winklevosses’ initial $11 million Bitcoin investment. “Orange is the new gold. Bitcoin is gold 2.0, and that’s been true since day one,” Tyler said during a panel discussion with David Sacks, the White House crypto and A.I. czar, at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas. “$100,000 per bitcoin, that’s exciting. But if you take twenty-one million into the above-ground marketplace of gold, really it should be a million dollars a coin.” If Bitcoin goes to $1 million, then the Winklevoss twins will be centibillionaires.  

This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September/October 2025 issue.

“One of the things I love about motorcycles is the variety of people who are fanatics about them—you tend to have this idea of a motorcyclist as either a super trendy tatted café racing hipster, or a Sons of Anarchy denimed-up gangster.

But the truth of the matter is that people who love escaping into the hills on motorcycles are about as varied as they come,” reveals Maxim Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher, who also happens to be co-author of Assouline’s new uber-luxe The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles coffee table book. “That means that the type of motorcycles that were built to appeal to these passionate riders over the past 150 years are about as varied as Ben & Jerry’s.”

For the second edition of The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles, Stecher and co-author Ian Barry added ten new 21st-century bikes to the hundred they collected for the first edition, which focused on the previous century.

Featuring only the rarest, coolest, and most pivotal motorcycles since 1900, this new edition adds to Assouline’s vaunted Impossible Collection series, which has previously shined a light on everything from wines to Patek Philippe timepieces to even Formula One cars—which also happens to be included in our Ferrari F1 feature in Maxim’s September/October issue.

And these aren’t just routine coffee table books, mind you. They’re massive in scale (16 x 19 inches), and boast beautiful time-consuming and rare printing techniques such as hand-tipped images and hand-binding; the 170 images come presented on thick, archival-quality cotton paper with a PVC clamshell case and metal plaque.

With Barry’s pedigree designing and building museum-level custom bikes under the Falcon Motorcycles marque, and our esteemed editor’s long history in automotive journalism, the hundred bikes assembled here are each a gem worthy of the book’s title. Consider Evel Knievel’s famed Harley-Davidson XR750 on which he leapt over the Caesars Palace fountains, breaking countless bones upon impact when his jump fell awry.

Or early unicorns of engineering, such as Glenn Curtiss’s iconic 1907 V8, for which the famed aviator impossibly bolted a massive 4.4-liter V8 engine onto essentially a glorified bicycle frame to create a true spectacle of mechanical force. Hitting 136 mph, the Curtiss V8 shattered the land speed record and held it for decades.

But which is our deputy editor’s favorite? “That’s a tough one,” Stecher struggles, seemingly running through the hundred motorcycles in his mind. “I’d say my two favorites are the BMW R7, which graces the cover—an unbelievable one-off specimen of German engineering and art-deco design that was thought lost for nearly 70 years until discovered in 2005 in a BMW warehouse. What a story, and what a bike. And maybe the Britten V1000—a superbike entirely designed and built by a New Zealand madman in his garage, which beat factory teams with infinitely deeper wallets. That’s another thing: I really dig the visionaries behind these bikes, all of them the best kind of rogues and renegades this planet needs.”

Of course, a tome of this rare scale and quality boasts a $1,400 price tag to match. Find The Impossible Collection of Motorcycles (2nd Edition) at Assouline.com.

This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September/October 2025 issue. Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher  on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.

As the storied Rolls-Royce marque celebrated its 120th anniversary last year, a sea change was taking shape in its top office. After nearly 14 years as CEO, during which time the opulent automaker saw a 500 percent surge in sales, Torsten Müller-Ötvös announced he was stepping aside in favor of UK-born industry veteran Chris Brownridge—a return to the brand’s roots, you might say.

“To be invited to lead this great British brand, at such a pivotal moment in its long and remarkable story, is an extraordinary privilege,” Brownridge said of his ascension. “Rolls-Royce is one of the world’s most recognized, desirable, and influential brands, and I’m keenly aware of the enormous affection and esteem in which it’s held.” Earlier this year, he demonstrated his commitment to the evolution of the iconic Spirit of Ecstasy, presiding over the debut of Black Badge Spectre, the most powerful car in Rolls-Royce history, based on its $400,000-plus electric ultra-luxury grand tourer.

Just prior to that, he’d announced plans to invest around $375 million to expand the marque’s famed Goodwood, U.K. factory to focus more on the bespoke side of the business, a thriving division that has gained a reputation for ever-more-incredible custom creations. Some of its most notable bespoke commissions in 2024 included solid 18-karat gold sculptural elements, hand embroidery consisting of more than 869,500 stitches, veneers including 500 individually-shaped pieces of wood, and one-of-a-kind holographic paint finishes.

At the same time, the brand opened an impressive new Private Office in New York, catering to stateside clients wishing to order bespoke vehicles and collaborate directly with the marque’s designers. We recently spoke to Brownridge about his appointment, vision, and plans for the future.

What aspects of the brand’s direction are you most eager to develop or refine?

Every day, I gain a deeper appreciation for our ability to connect with clients through Bespoke. I am continually inspired by the talent and vision of our artisans in Goodwood and our teams around the world. Our ambition is to further expand personalization options, ensuring each motor car reflects the unique desires of its owner. This includes investing in the Goodwood facility to accommodate increasingly complex Bespoke projects—reinforcing our unwavering commitment to individualized luxury.

How does the Black Badge Spectre embody the pinnacle of the Black Badge ethos?

Black Badge is the alter ego of the Rolls-Royce brand— darker, bolder, and more visceral. Spectre, our electric super coupé, provides the ideal canvas for this expression. Its emotionally charged design and powerful stance made it the natural choice for our most performance-focused model to date. With 650 brake horsepower and exclusive features like “Infinity Mode” and “Spirited Mode,” Black Badge Spectre pushes the boundaries of bold design while maintaining the serene luxury expected of Rolls-Royce. In many ways, this is the motor car Black Badge was destined for.

How has the Black Badge program evolved over the past decade?

Black Badge was introduced to appeal to a younger, more dynamic clientele. It has since matured into a bold symbol of individuality— perfectly aligned with the expressive capabilities of our Bespoke division. Over time, we’ve introduced enhanced performance features, culminating in the Black Badge Spectre—the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever. Simultaneously, Black Badge has allowed us to innovate with new materials, further expanding the visual and tactile palette available to our clients.

What is the current state of the Black Badge program, and who are its clients?

The Black Badge collection continues to thrive, attracting those who seek a more daring and unconventional Rolls-Royce experience. Our client base for Black Badge is very diverse, but our Black Badge owners value bold design married with dynamic performance. They are seeking a truly personal connection to the image their motor car projects and deliberately move away from expected aesthetic codes.

What was involved in engineering the most powerful Rolls-Royce in history?

The development of Black Badge Spectre required a transformative approach to power and performance—executed the Rolls-Royce way. Teaching Spectre how to behave with increased torque and horsepower while remaining, first and foremost, a Rolls-Royce demanded precise calibration of the transmission, suspension, and steering systems. Our engineers also crafted a sound profile befitting this elevated performance. The result is a motor car that redefines power for the brand with-out any compromise regarding the refined character that defines Rolls-Royce.

How do you balance innovation and electrification with the heritage that defines Rolls-Royce?

At the start of the 20th century, our founder, Charles Rolls, declared that electric drive would be the technology of the future, ideally suited to the type of car he–together with Henry Royce–was destined to create. Traveling in a Rolls-Royce has always been defined by silence, effortless power and the unrivaled “magic carpet ride.” With our meticulously engineered Rolls-Royce electric drivetrain, that renowned feeling of “one endless gear” takes on a new quality: Even more powerful, silent and refined than our legendary V12, it delivers the ultimate Rolls-Royce experience.

What motivated the $375 million expansion of the Goodwood manufacturing facility?

This strategic investment is dedicated to expanding our Bespoke and Coachbuild capabilities, not to increase annual production volumes. As client demand grows for increasingly complex and highly individualized commissions, the enhanced facility will support advanced paint techniques and intricate “one-off” interior treatments, reducing wait times for our clients. Our mission is not more volume, but more magnificent, meaningful commissions.

How has Rolls-Royce come to lead the industry in vehicle customization?

Bespoke is not an option at Rolls-Royce—it is the essence of what we do. From the initial consultation to the final handover, every touchpoint is tailored to transform each motor car into a singular expression of the client’s lifestyle. Our goal is to ensure that no two Rolls-Royces are alike—each is a one-of-one commission that reflects the individuality of its owner.

What is driving the increase in Bespoke and Coachbuild demand?

True luxury lies in individuality and exclusivity. Our clients are highly accomplished individuals who turn to Rolls-Royce to express and celebrate that success. They don’t want a car—they want a statement. A unique Bespoke commission is their way of making that statement.

What inspired the growth of the Private Office program? Doesn’t its invite-only nature create limitations?

Private Office was conceived to serve clients with highly ambitious bespoke visions—clients for whom time is their most precious resource. Not everyone can travel to Goodwood [UK], so we brought the experience closer to them. The Private Office allows direct access to our design team and creative resources, empowering our most visionary clients to bring their ideas to life in collaboration with our brand.

How does one receive an invitation to the Private Office?

Invitations are extended to clients who demonstrate a strong affinity with the brand, often through previous Bespoke commissions or a clear vision for a one-of-a-kind vehicle. At Private Office New York, for instance, access is granted via dealer-client advisors. While every Rolls-Royce dealership houses a Bespoke Lounge, clients whose requests are particularly elaborate are invited to the Private Office where they can work directly with a Rolls-Royce designer and dedicated client experience manager.

How does direct collaboration with Goodwood designers enhance the commissioning experience?

Working directly with our designers—whether at Goodwood [Rolls’ UK headquarters] or in Private Office locations—immerses clients in the creative journey. Their personal stories and preferences are deeply integrated into the final design, resulting in a motor car that is not only one-of-a-kind, but profoundly personal. These collaborations often inspire new techniques and innovations in design, material use, and craftsmanship.

Are there plans to open additional Private Office locations? What determines their placement?

Currently, our Private Offices in Goodwood, Dubai, Shanghai, Seoul, and New York are serving hundreds of clients on highly complex projects. Our focus remains on delivering world-class service at each location. While we have no immediate plans to expand, we will continue to evaluate based solely on one criterion: our ability to meet and exceed client expectations.

Are more ultra-limited Coachbuild commissions planned? What determines eligibility?

Wait and see! We continue to explore ultra-limited Coachbuild projects with clients who have a deep understanding of the brand and a compelling vision. These commissions are profoundly collaborative and ensure alignment with Rolls-Royce’s heritage and standards. While we can’t reveal specifics at this time, we are always seeking opportunities to evolve the Coachbuild concept in response to client demand.

This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September/October 2025 issue.

Back in 2015, just a month before graduating high school in small-town Wisconsin, Alex Bruesewitz fired off a tweet that altered the course of his life. It was a picture of Trump Tower Chicago with the caption: “The sign on Trump Chicago will look just as good in the White House.” Out of the blue, Donald Trump retweeted him. Two months later, he announced his run for president.

“I liked how Trump took time out of his day to share one of my posts,” Bruesewitz recalls. “I thought it was a huge deal. He built an ally for life, just basically doing that one interaction.” Fast forward to 2025. That 18-year-old kid from Ripon, Wisconsin, has become one of the most influential political strategists in America. Last year, Bruesewitz, now 28, was tapped by the Trump campaign to spearhead its podcast strategy, credited with helping the former president reach millions of new voters. Bruesewitz has been named senior adviser to Never Surrender, Trump’s new leadership PAC.

In this role, he leads digital messaging for the group, with his consulting firm X Strategies LLC managing all digital properties linked to the Trump political brand, including powerful social media accounts like @TrumpWarRoom and @TeamTrump with millions of followers. Most recently, Bruesewitz was named on the 2025 TIME100 Next, a list that spotlights changemakers from around the globe who are shaping the next generation of leadership and redefining what progress, influence, and impact mean in today’s world.

We sat down with Bruesewitz to learn how a kid from a town of 7,000 people became Donald Trump’s go-to social media mastermind.

Tell us about your upbringing in Ripon, Wisconsin. How did that shape you? Ripon is a very quaint community.

The employers are factories and farms and teaching—really small-town America vibes. Everybody knows each other. I had the same kids that I grew up with through K through 12. My graduating class was 110 kids. It was really a unique experience, but growing up there made me aspire to see the world and lit a fire in my belly to be more ambitious.

How did you get interested in politics at such a young age?

I was raised by a single mom who is as conservative as it gets. She worked long hours, and after school, we would watch the news, typically The O’Reilly Factor, maybe Hannity & Colmes. And then we would turn on Home Improvement. Every night, that’s how we would spend time together.

I always felt a bit contrarian. All my teachers were super liberal, and I liked to troll them. Every Friday in middle school, you had to find a news story, read it, and stand up in front of the class to summarize it. Then you had to read your source. My teacher would always yell at me because I’d always cite Fox News. She’d say, “Fox News is not a real news network.” Even in sixth grade, I was trolling my teacher.

You founded your company, X Strategies, when you were just 19. What does the company do?

My business partner Derek and I met right around the time that Trump was the Republican nominee in 2016, and we formed the company shortly after he got sworn in. The company’s goal was to help conservatives communicate online better in the age of Donald Trump. We would try to get clients to either let us run their social media accounts or give them advice on how to grow. My very first client was called Freedom Project Academy, a Christian conservative homeschool academy in Appleton, Wisconsin. They agreed to pay me a very small dollar amount each month to help manage their social media accounts. Eight years later, they’re still a client.

You’ve said social media has become the battleground of the political landscape. Can you explain what you mean by that?

President Trump brought the political discourse online in a way that nobody had done before. A lot of people claim that Barack Obama used X effectively. But Obama just posted on X. He didn’t interact. President Trump was the first social media president. X became the town square, the public square of political discourse. That’s where I focused most of my energy on building a following. It’s where folks in journalism get a lot of their news coverage from. It’s where TV rooms get their show rundown ideas. It became so important to have a presence there. Initially, my competitors were TV bookers. A lot of members of Congress were paying thousands of dollars to a booker to get them on Fox News once a month, and they thought that was a success. Instead, I tried to sell them on investing a few thousand bucks on their social media presence. It’s more tangible, makes you more relevant, and gives you more control over your message.

When did you first actually meet President Trump?

I didn’t meet the president until after he left office. I was working on a campaign for a guy named Max Miller who was running against Tony Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Trump. I first met Trump in a photo line at a rally. Shortly thereafter, I met him at a fundraiser in Naples, and he started becoming more familiar with me. Then we spent some time together more formally at a LIV Golf tournament, which was a great time.

How did you end up working on his 2024 campaign?

I didn’t formally work for the campaign until July 1, 2024, but I’ve been working with Don Jr. and a lot of the family for almost four years now. When I formally started, Susie Wiles tasked me with the podcast strategy. She asked me to oversee and spearhead the efforts to engage with online influencers. It was a super easy role for me because the president has so many friends and family members who are well-connected, and they all wanted to help him. I was basically just the liaison between all these cool people and the president, helping facilitate scheduling. It’s pretty funny—the media talks about how it was a brilliant strategy, but at the end of the day, these people have large platforms that reach millions of people. We have mutual friends, so people connected me via email or text, and then I just set up meetings or interviews. It was really that simple, and the president knocked it out of the park because he’s awesome.

What do you think was your biggest win during the campaign?

I think the Theo Von podcast was a great moment that showed a really unique side of the president. He was very engaged in some hilarious conversations with Theo, and the clips went insanely viral. Dana White actually introduced us to Theo, which we’re super grateful for. The Adin Ross interview that was set up by Barron was super fun. Barron set it up, and then I helped work with Adin and his team on their vision for the interview. Andrew Schulz is a great guy, too. That was one I really wanted the president to do. I’m a big Andrew Schulz fan—I think he’s an incredible person and a hilarious comedian. I worked hard to set that one up and actually made a trip down to Andrew’s studio in New York before they ended up having the interview.

What was particularly effective about these podcast appearances?

I always found it ridiculous and personally offensive when the media would describe Trump—this guy who I’ve gotten to know as funny, hilarious, and accomplished — as if he’s a crazy person or a monster. These podcasts gave him the medium to showcase the Donald Trump that we see privately—more comfortable, more relaxed, more fun and engaging, where he’s not defensive because he doesn’t have a host that’s viciously lying about him like the mainstream media does. What I also like about these podcasters is that they’re not political by nature. They also weren’t massive Trump fans—they were Trump-curious. It’s funny watching the media cover it as this “rightwing manosphere” when these guys aren’t right wing. Theo Von and Joe Rogan voted for Bernie Sanders in 2016. These guys are very liberal in many respects. It was fun watching the president interact with them and also watching the comment sections in real time. Trump won over all these people. You’d see comments like, “Wow, I didn’t know Trump was like this. He’s awesome,” or “That’s not how the media portrays him. The media just lies.” You could watch how Donald Trump on these podcasts was winning the hearts and minds of independent to left-leaning viewers because they finally got to see the real Donald Trump.

You didn’t go to college. What do you think about college these days? Do you have advice for younger people who are thinking about it?

Know what you want to do. It’s weird—when I was like 22, people would ask if I went to college, and when I said no, they’d give me looks like, “Oh, this idiot.” Fast forward to today, when I tell somebody I didn’t go to college, it’s “Alex, you were so smart! Great decision!” There’s been a total shift in thinking about higher education since I graduated high school, which has been almost 10 years now. I think it’s for the better. We had a system where everybody was kind of being turned out to be the same—the same K through 12 curriculum, not unique for the student. I didn’t like that path because I wanted to be different. The one-size-fits-all style of education has been a disaster for our country. Pretty early on, the education system figures out what the student is good at and what they’re not good at. But instead of trying to put them in lanes where they’re going to excel, they keep shoving stuff down their throats that they’re never going to pick up, learn, or appreciate. I’m not 100% anti-college. I think it can be necessary. I just don’t think it’s for everybody the way our education system has set it up.

What do you do for fun when you’re not working?

I play a lot of video games like NBA 2K, though I’m trying to cut back on that. I like to read, and I like to travel. I travel a lot. One of my favorite places to travel is actually Los Angeles. I’ve spent a lot of time there, and I have a lot of friends out there. I’ve been hanging out in Los Angeles since 2018, and it’s been fun watching the cultural shift. There are so many people you wouldn’t expect—rappers, musicians, athletes, actors—who hit me up just to hang out and talk politics. They’re Trump-curious, and a lot of these people that were offered money to support Kamala Harris’s campaign rejected it and voted for Trump instead. You would never expect a Republican political operative to be able to hang out in that world, but I love it.

Recently, a mansion made splashy headlines the world over for its record-breaking purchase. And while you might think the draw would be the $55 million that architect and developer Aldo Stark of Prestige Design Homes earned from its sale, it’s actually the abode’s opulent Ferrari-themed design that dropped jaws. Casa Maranello, as it’s so eloquently named, is not only an ode to lavish living, but to the Italian supercar maker whose identity ripples through the DNA of the 2.5- acre lakefront campus like the crimson flags flown by Ferraristi the world over.

The Prancing Horse obsession starts as soon as you pass the gates and walk by an expansive fountain at the home’s entrance. Floating on the pool-like water, a defiant horse rears on its hind legs—a life-size Ferrari logo fully manifested in bronze. Walk through the imposing front double doors to the grand salon and you’ll see a replica of one of the planet’s most valuable cars centerstage. There in the room’s pole position, a reduced scale Ferrari 250 Testarossa reminds all who enter the abode where its name was born (the Italian city being, of course, the home of Ferrari).

From that vantage, you can also catch a view of Casa Maranello’s focal point: the 12-car garage, outfitted in photos with a lust-worthy suite of gleaming Ferraris—and a lone Rolls-Royce Phantom. Unfortunately, none of these vehicles are included in the sale, but that’s OK. The glass-walled garage allows the proud owner to park his own collection for stunned onlookers to enjoy from the comforts of the living room, viewed behind glass like an adult-size Hot Wheels collection.

While Italy plays prime muse, its Douglas Elliman agency states the home was “inspired by European artistry and precision.” And that inspiration emanates not just from Italy but also Switzerland—specifically the iconic “Goldfinger Route,” aka the Swiss Alps’ Furka Pass through which Sean Connery escapes the titular Goldfinger’s goons in his Aston Martin DB5. Located in what is humbly dubbed “Billionaire’s Row” in the prestigious Stone Creek Ranch development of Delray Beach, Florida, Casa Maranello is clearly built with one focus in mind: revelry. But beyond the ample hosting capabilities of the 21,725-squarefoot mansion lies a profound ability to relax, recharge, and meditate.

Despite its hefty price tag, Casa Maranello seems not to have been imagined as a first home, but rather more of a Miami party pad. Small hints to its festive purpose abound: the 20-person Brazilian onyx dining table in the dining room, crystal chandelier-festooned high-ceilings, and a marble-lined 30-foot-long cocktail lounge dubbed the Maranello Bar all seem to suggest Casa Maranello might be more of an afters-at-mine destination for one of Magic City’s sports superstars. Perhaps the perfect pad for Tua Tagovailoa or Bam Adebayo to call home.

Should any of your new friends want to sleep over, the halfdozen bedroom suites, including a pair of primary suites, supply five-star resort levels of comfort. Each boasts walk-in closets and en-suite spa level bathrooms. For your other playmates, you can offer four well-appointed guest suites which still ensure both lavish style and privacy in case anyone should need it.

Of course there are plenty of distractions outdoors should you want to keep the party going the next day—centered around the 95-foot pool plucked directly from an Aman Resort. Most of the verdant campus looks out onto the glimmering lake, all landscaped for decadent daytime soirées. Drinks can be served from the pool cabana’s bar, which also comes equipped with a full kitchen and bathroom. Or guests can elevate the rest and recovery to the next level by indulging in the home’s insane Bulgari-inspired spa. The five-diamond wellness oasis boasts its own indoor pool, as well as a Himalayan salt room, sauna, and steam room.

If action is more your bag, Casa Maranello also entertains with its own basketball court that doubles for pickleball. There’s even a putting green and its own private soccer field. Because what would a $55-million Ferrari-dedicated mansion be without its own pitch? One amusing detail reported is that Casa Maranello was not merely paid for via cash or loan, but was partly swapped for a nearby $26 million 18,000-square-foot mansion. Like trading baseball cards, but for the G800 crowd.

This article originally appeared in Maxim’s September/October 2025 issue.

She’s known as the vivacious personality who’s as likely to pop up at Paris Fashion Week or on stage at the ESPY Awards as she is at the most-talked about billionaire wedding of the year. But life for Brooks Nader wasn’t always so huge.

The Baton Rouge-born model and entrepreneur is bringing her 1.7 million Instagram fans behind-the-scenes of her real-life American dream trajectory. The eight-part series Love Thy Nader follows the genetically blessed and hilarious gaggle of Brooks, 28, Mary Holland, 27, Grace Ann, 25, and Sarah Jane, 23, as they keep their parents Breaux and Holland on their toes. “For the majority of our childhood, my dad was working for a non-profit and my mom was at home with the babies,” Nader recalls. “We didn’t have a lot of money, we really just had each other and had to be self-entertaining. I wouldn’t trade that upbringing for the world.”

Despite being raised “extremely Christian and extremely conservative,” she was obsessed with Hollywood and fashion, and would sneak off to read magazines while in the grocery store. “I always wanted to express myself and I wanted to look sexy. I fantasized about living in L.A. or New York, but it seemed worlds away. I also had to toe the line because of where I’m from.”

Nader went to Tulane University on a full-ride scholarship, but with one whisper from someone that they could connect her with a model scout, the then-18-year-old saw the early inklings of a new path. Idolizing the success of humble-origin stars like Cindy Crawford, Pamela Anderson, and Christie Brinkley, she was convinced that she could be next. “I called my parents and said, ‘I’m moving to the Hamptons for the summer!’ They were totally against it, but I moved and got a finance internship all on my own.” She quickly got connected with an agent, too. The subsequent call to tell her parents she was dropping out of school went down like a lead balloon. “They said, ‘This is the dumbest thing you could ever do.’”

Those early years in New York City, taking graveyard shift-hour trains to shoot images for lingerie websites in cold Brooklyn and New Jersey warehouses for very little money, taught her grit and resilience. “I’m thankful and grateful for those jobs to this day; they kept me afloat. You can’t wait for other people—it’s all up to you. You have to put in the work, go do it, and see the vision for yourself.”

If one thing is apparent, it’s that nobody puts Nader in the corner. As making it into the pages of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was always on her bucket list, she begged her agency to put her forward. “They said, ‘No, we don’t think you have the status. We don’t think you fit their mold at all.’” Noticing the magazine was hosting an open-call audition in Miami, Nader booked a flight and a cheap hotel and stood in the blistering heat for eight hours with 10,000 other hopefuls. The gamble paid off—she was one of six girls from that day who made it into the issue. When Sports Illustrated opened up the fan vote for Rookie of the Year, Nader came out on top. “Then five years later, I made it onto the cover,” she says triumphantly. “I think people really started to take me seriously then. And yes, I did send a signed copy over to my former agents, too.”

It’s this lust for life and cheeky persona, teamed with a tenacious work ethic, that shines through in the show. Her “built-in besties”— aka her sisters—will probably have an easier ride in the industry thanks to the foundations laid by Nader, who says “being a good role model is everything to me.” Next up, they’re cooking up a brand to work on together; likely something in the fashion or beauty space. “It’s a blessing that we get to work together, play together, and create together,” the leader of the pack says.

With her whirlwind schedule, Nader estimates that there have been months lately where she’s been on four or five planes a week. Coupled with long filming days for Love Thy Nader and taking part in last year’s Dancing with the Stars, it’s been a rewarding, but grueling, chapter. “[DWTS] put me in a new mental headspace. It was physically so challenging. Ballroom dancing is a whole different animal.” She adds, “I had some disadvantages in the distraction department… but in the end, I feel like I picked up a lot of skills from it.”

Nader is referring to the offscreen on-and-off romance with her dancing partner, Gleb Savchenko, which ended in April. These days, she is having a “blast” being happily single. “To impress me, it’s all about personality,” she smiles. “I did the whole pretty boy thing. I just want you to make me laugh. And someone who is a great listener, respectful, caring, chilled out, someone who supports my dreams—and is cool with my chaos!” “I feel like I’m always making the plans, so I find it sexy when someone takes control and plans a date— whether you’re picking me up in a car or helicopter,” she adds with a laugh.

Navigating life in the public eye has thickened Nader’s skin, just like those formative years she spent in Manhattan cutting her teeth as an ambitious young model. Last spring, she confirmed that she was “getting the D-word,” as she calls it, amicably ending five years of marriage to her first serious boyfriend. “When I was younger, all I knew was that I should get married, have a husband and be a good wife,” she says poignantly. “That’s what was in our brains from a young age. I thought that was what women were supposed to do. That’s probably why I ended up getting married at such a young age.”

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Currently splitting time between Los Angeles and downtown Manhattan, it’s safe to say she has achieved the day-to-day set-up her childhood self wouldn’t even begin to believe. Something that remains on her bucket list might just be the biggest full-circle moment of all. “I’d love to play a version of myself in a movie. A crazy Southern girl who is living in the wild world of New York. Kind of like how Eva Longoria is pretty much herself in Desperate Housewives; she always said she didn’t even have to act!” Your move, Hollywood.

The list of legendary Maxim covers is almost too vast to count, but we can tell you exactly how many of them were shot by Antoine Verglas: 23. Shannen Doherty’s June 1999 cover (which is honored on this year’s Hot 100) marked the French-raised, New York City-based photographer’s debut with the brand, and he’d go on to capture some of the most beloved and significant moments in Maxim’s illustrious history. But even by the time he joined the family a quarter-century ago, Verglas was already a seasoned veteran.

Breakthrough success came in the late-1980s shortly after he moved to New York with his girlfriend, who had a contract with Ford Modeling Agency (now Ford Models). Using a seemingly innate ability to network, he managed to score candid photoshoots and accompanying interviews with several future supermodels, including Linda Evangelista, Stephanie Seymour, Claudia Schiffer and Cindy Crawford—the latter of whom left quite an impression. “I remember being very intimidated by Cindy,” Verglas tells us. “I was hiding behind my camera.” Nerves be damned, the work was ultimately published in France’s Photo and Elle, igniting a career that never slowed a beat over the subsequent decades and yielded a positively stacked portfolio, in which this magazine has maintained quite a presence.

Verglas identifies several standouts, among them our August 2002 cover shoot with Beyoncé… before she kicked off her superstar solo career and Jay-Z power partnership. “She was promoting her role in Austin Powers in Goldmember,” Verglas says, recalling her comically seductive role as Foxxy Cleopatra in the cult-classic comedy. “The entire set was gold, it was very cool and 1970s.” Indeed, then-Princess Bey donned scant all-gold attire.

Another fave is one of the most famous in Maxim’s three decades of publication: the positively angelic July 2003 cover. “I loved the shoot with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu,” which united the Charlie’s Angels leading women some three years after the blockbuster premiered, Verglas says. “You could tell they were really getting along.” Notably, another Maxim shoot is dear to Verglas not because of subject, but location. “Maxim’s first ‘Real Swimsuit Issue’”—the February 2000 issue featuring then-burgeoning fashion model Kim Smith—“introduced me to The Baths beaches in Virgin Gorda in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s since become my favorite location to shoot at because of the beauty of the rocks and the way the light goes through them.”

The industry has of course changed drastically since Verglas last shot a Maxim cover, starring Entourage star Dania Ramirez, in August 2010. These days, anybody can make beauties and beautiful locales look pretty for Instagram—even Verglas admits that the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy series and Apple iPhone “are really pretty amazing,” though he cites the Pentax 67 as his favorite pre-digital camera.

“I think digital imagery and retouching technology has totally changed photography in general,” he opines. “Social media has revolutionized glamour photography by making it accessible and democratized. And social media is obviously a large platform for new talents—everyone is a photographer or a model, and magazines are no longer the only way to exhibit your work. Also, beauty standards have evolved tremendously.”

For any photographer with career aspirations beyond the creation of viral social-media posts, “You need a combination of technical expertise, creativity and a sense of aesthetics, business and social skills,” he says. “You also need to push your own style and brand and use all platforms available to get your name out there.” Paramount is understanding the glamour photog’s purpose. “I think every photographer has a different style and different ideas regarding the capture of emotions, beauty and so on. Personally, I want to make sure the model feels comfortable, safe and beautiful—you’re there to make them look stunning.”

As for his future work, look out for a retrospective book on four decades of Verglas’s photography. In the meantime, his fans should feel free to flip through our pages, where we are honored to continue to publish his uniquely beautiful work regularly.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Maxim magazine.

“There is no typical cigar enthusiast,” declares Tom Chamberlain, dashing editor-in-chief of London’s The Rake, who is carrying on the longstanding tradition of cigar-loving English gentlemen with a flair that runs to bespoke smoking jackets and a truly enviable humidor. “Over the time I’ve written about cigars, I have come to know a community of curious connoisseurs. Sometimes the only thing that binds us is our shared love of this combustible item, and that’s enough.”

Chamberlain makes the remarks in the opening pages of perhaps the most impressive book on cigars ever published—Cigars: A Biography by one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, Aaron Sigmond. The dapper “Sig,” as he is known to cigar-world friends in all corners of the globe, has previously authored The Impossible Collection of Cigars; Playboy: The Book of Cigars; and not one but two impressive volumes on Arturo Fuente, following stints as the founding editor of Smoke magazine and The Cigar Report. Years in the making and clocking in at 400-plus pages, the new book is his magnum opus, illustrated with gorgeous custom photography by Ian Spanier.

“None of us is trying to be like Winston Churchill, but we do want to discover cigars’ transcendent properties,” Chamberlain notes, “which in turn become a critical aspect of our personalities, leaving aside the sheer gustatory pleasure of smoking them. Despite years of probing, I couldn’t be more delighted that the search goes on for all of us, and in this book, Aaron takes us closer to the answer in his inimitable, idiosyncratic way.”

With comprehensive chapters on the many lands where cigars are made, tobaccos and terroirs, storage and aging, important brands, cigar merchants and cigar lounges, spirits pairings, and smoking accessories and style, this book covers more ground, and with more verve and flair, than any on the subject to date. Whether your interest is more aesthetic or scholarly, you’ll want to pick out a favorite leather armchair, open a bottle of something precious, and have your humidor close at hand when you delve into its pages. While there is far too much to cover here, we’ll highlight some of Sigmond’s engaging reportage, starting with his geographical insights.

“It’s said that 200 is the approximate number of hands (some coarse, some smooth, some stained, some covered with mud, sawdust, glue or ink, but all skilled in their respective craft) that converge and come into contact with a single cigar prior to you opening a box and lighting up,” he writes at the beginning of the chapter titled “Cigars: The Lands.” “Some suggest it’s far more than 200, even double. The precise number notwithstanding, hand-harvested, hand-sorted, hand-rolled, hand-crafted, hand-banded, hand-hewn, boxed premium and ultra-premium cigars are extraordinarily labor-intensive.”

Nowadays, he points out, “to get a true sense of the breadth of the finest dark tobaccos and finished cigars firsthand, one must venture forth. To Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador and Mexico,” and even farther afield.

As with grapes destined to become fine wines, “harvest season is to many the most exciting time of the growing year,” Sigmond writes, noting an opportune occasion to engage in a bit of appealing agritourism. “The tobacco harvest is no different: There’s action in the open fields, in the tented wrapper fields under cloth, and in the casas de tabacos (curing barns) too. With wines and grape-based brandies (Cognac, Armagnac and Brandy de Jerez), when the harvest activities conclude—after picking-crushing-pressing fermentation/maturation-blending-bottling or, in the case of brandies, casking—a long aging process begins.” Cigars and tobacco, on the other hand, “are very much a year-round affair.”

As such, “hands fly fervently, constantly, day after day. Therefore, to reverent cigar devotees, every day in a tabacalera, fábrica de tabacos and fábrica de puros y cigarros (tobacco grower warehouses and cigar factories), when hands move at a deft, almost melodic pace, is exciting and action-packed. For a cigar’s journey encompasses the sweep of its entire life cycle, culminating on the shelves of the finest puro purveyors and in the possession of cigar enthusiasts worldwide. Germination and nursery cultivation, seedlings planted in fertile terroir across the globe, fragrant leaves fermented and aged to impart maximum flavor and quality: Your rolled, banded, boxed cigar will pass through these 200 hands on its way to yours.”

Cigar manufacturers carrying out these time-honored traditions can now be found in some truly diverse places on the planet— from Thailand to Tampa—though Cuban cigars, aka “Havanas,” still remain the gold standard worldwide. “Change is clearly afoot,” Sigmond asserts, quoting a recent industry report. “With changing cultural attitudes and global shortages of Cuban cigars, European smokers”—the world’s top market—“are turning to tobacco from other countries.” For two centuries “Cuba was the undisputed alpha and omega of cigars,” Sigmond writes. “Yet as the 20th century gave way to the 21st, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua came into their own and matured as peer cigar powerhouses with the passing of each ensuing year. While Cuba will always maintain its alpha designation, is it still the omega as well?”

One telling fact is that “companies that established their reputation by selling Havanas (even current-generation technologybased cigar sellers) have now turned to other countries for their own namesake brands. This is not only a pronounced endorsement legitimizing the equality of all the major cigar producing nations, but it’s also history repeating itself, as these moves are all but identical to those made by Davidoff in the 1980s with its Honduran cigar ventures, and Dunhill’s 1990s Dominican play.” Undeniably, he opines, “the global market has quite conspicuously and continuously transitioned over the past 50 years. Nonetheless, Cuba—in Europe principally, likely also in the UAE and (for now) China—will remain king for the foreseeable future. What is certain however is that at a minimum we’re in the midst of a worldwide consumer shift.”

This can only come as good news for those for whom Cuban cigars remain difficult to come by; it is, after all, still illegal to import them to the United States. “It’s a brave new cigar world out there,” Sigmond sums up. “And while that world remains firmly rooted in heritage, tradition and terroir, it’s now coupled with modern farming technology (temperature and moisture sensors, thermal and aerial imaging), plant hybridization and multi-origin and microclimate puro blending innovation; all of it developed and employed by a new breed of global cigarmakers and, in turn, cigar merchants whose collective passion seems equal to that of past generations.”

Only time will tell if this is really the dawn of a new cigar age. “Which is where well-aged cigars come into play,” he points out, “to keep us company as we bide said time.”

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Maxim magazine.

From the outside it resembles the other historic, distinctively gabled manor houses that dot the Swedish countryside. However, this one contains something of a secret. Inside you’ll find the VO Vapen manufacture, a sanctuary of precision and artisanal virtuosity where privileged visitors encounter not merely firearms but cultural artifacts—“expressions of Swedish hunting philosophy where respect for nature intertwines with appreciation for timeless craftsmanship.”

Many consider VO Vapen to be the world’s finest bespoke gunsmith, and the firm creates what are widely hailed as the most exclusive hunting rifles on earth in its unique stone building—antique on the outside, state of the art within. They are masterpieces that can command over $800,000 and require up to 18 months of painstaking work to complete. Ever since master gunsmith Viggo Olsson founded the family business in 1977, their annual yield has remained deliberately limited. Only a handful of rifles yearly emerge from their workshop, each representing the pinnacle of meticulous materials melded to function and form.

VO Vapen remains dedicated to exclusive collections, limited editions, and one-off creations for those demanding nothing short of perfection. Deep-pocketed sportsmen and discreet collectors from around the world are the firm’s principal clientele, though certain hallowed names stand out among them, including King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prince Carl Philip of Sweden; Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi; Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai; and (the late) Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman.

“Through our journeys to the Arabian Peninsula, we developed a fascination with the mighty falcon,” says Ulf Olsson, who leads the family enterprise today. This curiosity about falconry would eventually birth an iconic weapon, the VO Falcon Rifle, honoring both traditional Arabian hunting methods and the magnificent predators themselves. Across the continent in Poland, meanwhile, Carlex Design had also been building a reputation for bespoke craftsmanship. The firm creates extraordinary modifications for the likes of the Mercedes G-Wagon and other ultra-luxe vehicles. Upon encountering the Falcon Rifle—with its intricate engravings that took over six months simply to research—Carlex found inspiration for what would become a four-year-long project: the G-Falcon.

This automotive masterpiece features a handcrafted roof with detailed falcon reliefs delicately highlighted with gold on polished metal—what Carlex calls a “One of One” creation. Such vehicles represent their most refined work, meticulously crafted by their elite team of artisans using advanced finishing techniques like hand-relief metal and patinated leathers, as well as exclusive paint finishes utilizing their proprietary Diamond Dust technique.

Carlex’s journey began modestly in 2008 as a tailoring workshop that renovated car interiors. “We know that true design requires sensitivity and moderation,” a representative of the company says. “In our projects, three elements always emerge: cohesive design, superb craftsmanship and noble materials.” Their fascination with natural treasures—rare exotic leathers, meteorites, precious metals and woods—singularizes their creative process and led to its magnificent evolution.

Today, Carlex specializes in ultra-limited G-Wagon conversions, including their exclusive Vintage series that blends luxury with truly timeless style. Their team comprises exceptional designers and craftsmen whose experience pushes them toward ambitious goals. Each bespoke project demonstrates their commitment to distinctiveness, with materials handpicked and transformed into interior masterpieces that balance luxury, comfort and functionality.

Alternatively, the VO Falcon Rifle itself stands as a tribute to the ancient art of falconry. With scenic gold-inlaid engravings depicting Peregrine and Saker Falcons—the varieties most prized by falconers in the Gulf region—it honors creatures that captivate with their tireless flight, grace and natural hunting instinct. Olsson’s visits to institutions like the Abu Dhabi Falconers Club, Emirates Falconers Club and Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital helped identify authentic regional falcon species for the design.

“To further connect the VO Falcon Rifle to the region, we developed a unique technique using Damascus steel for the octagonal barrels,” Olsson says. “It took over a year to develop and build them, ensuring uncompromising quality and accuracy.” This beautiful handmade steel, with origins in the Arabian world, was unprecedented in its application to multiple rifle components—even the special takedown-key features Damascus steel. Combined with stocks made from premium walnut root, each rifle becomes a functional work of art.

The collaboration between these two masters of their respective crafts seemed almost predestined. “The fact that Carlex embraced our ideals of craftsmanship and precision made this partnership natural,” Olsson says. “Rarely do you encounter artisans willing to dedicate years to perfecting their vision.” The recent Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition provided a singular opportunity to acquire these two extraordinary items together.

While impressive individually, together they form “The Fellowship of Falcons”—a car and rifle duo nearly as remarkable as the predator that inspired them. The partnership has proven so successful that future collaborations are already in development. “We’re currently planning several joint projects—some highly bespoke, others more accessible to the public—which we’ll reveal at a later time,” Olsson hints.

In both the rifle and the vehicle, one finds a celebration of the falcon—a creature that hunts with instinctive precision, attacking with astonishing force through a combination of speed, power and elegance. Just as the falcon represents mastery of the skies, these creations represent mastery of human craft—a fitting tribute to both the bird and the deep-rooted hunting traditions of the Arabian world that have elevated it to such cultural significance.  

This article originally appeared in Maxim magazine’s Summer 2005 issue.

After 30 years of sizzling print issues, Maxim knows a thing or two about celebrating the world’s most tantalizing talents. The highly-anticipated annual Hot 100 temperature check of who’s rising in entertainment, fashion, pop culture, and sports has become a reader favorite—and with the smokeshows on these pages, it’s clear to see why. In honor of our milestone issue, which is covered by legendary supermodel Elle Macpherson, let’s hear it for three decades of scorching trailblazers who’ve heated up the magazine.

Alessandra Ambrosio

A Victoria’s Secret OG, this Brazilian knockout got her Angel wings back in 2004 and has been in our hearts ever since. The fashion icon and businesswoman’s memorable Maxim cover shoot in Monte Carlo for the December/January 2016 issue remains one of our all-time favorites.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley 

From a farm in rural England to the bright lights of Hollywood, RHW’s career was reaching new levels in 2011 when she heated up our July cover. Already prolific as a model and Victoria’s Secret Angel, her turn in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon blockbuster introduced her name—and pout—to an international audience. 

Sydney Sweeney 

Boasting talent and beauty in abundance, Sweeney is the breakthrough star of her generation. The Washington native’s impressive résumé  includes Emmy-nominated turns in Euphoria and The White Lotus, while her leading lady qualities, as seen in Anyone But You, have also proved to be box office gold.

Olivia Culpo

Since taking home the Miss Universe crown in 2012, Rhode Island-born Culpo, Maxim‘s sexiest woman of 2019, has parlayed that success into a career as a model, influencer, media personality, and restaurateur. The trained classical cellist is expecting her first child with her NFL star husband, Christian McCaffrey. 

Teyana Taylor  

This New Yorker was just 15-years-old when she got her big break in 2006, answering a call from Beyoncé to choreograph the music video for “Ring the Alarm.” The 2021  Maxim Hot 100 cover model is still sending temperatures rising as an award-winning actor, director, dancer, recording artist, model and reality TV star. Soon, she’ll play Dionne Warwick in an upcoming biopic about the singer.

Josephine Skriver

After being discovered as a teen on a soccer trip to America, this divine Dane was eventually catapulted to international fame when she became a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2016. Skriver, who has also been a face for Maybelline, Fendi, and Versace, made her Maxim cover debut on the September/October 2021 issue. These days, you’ll find her running activewear brand JoJa with bestie Jasmine Tookes. 

Saweetie

Grammy-nominated artist Saweetie made history when she became the first rapper to grace a Maxim cover. Since making her debut in the July/August 2020 issue, the Bay Area-born hitmaker, real name Diamonté Harper, has expanded her resume to include acting roles, reality TV cameos and a guest mentor appearance on The Voice.

Jasmine Sanders

When blue-green-eyed stunner Sanders and her sister coined the nickname “Golden Barbie,” they likely had no idea how far it would take her. Maxim’s November/December 2019 cover star is an in-demand name for the likes of Ralph Lauren, Just Cavalli and Bulgari, and she’s got over 6 million fans along for the ride on Instagram.

Ashley Graham

Trailblazing supermodel Ashley Graham fronted the Maxim Hot 100 in 2023. The bombshell is in demand as a runway regular, campaign star and media personality, having lent her bubbly personality to host coverage of Miss USA 2016, Miss Universe 2018, and ABC’s Countdown to the Oscars. The Nebraska-native has worked tirelessly to challenge beauty standards—her empowering TEDx talk on size inclusivity in the industry has been viewed more than 4.5 million times. 

Georgia Fowler

Plucked from New Zealand and landing in New York after being scouted as a teen, Fowler’s captivating face is a favorite of everyone from Chanel to Gap. The Kiwi, who covered Maxim’s March/April 2019 issue, recently tapped back into her Antipodean roots, teaming up with Australian brand Bond-Eye on her first swimwear collaboration.

Shanina Shaik

Hazel-eyed Shaik can thank her diverse background—an Australian-Lithuanian mom and Pakistani-Saudi dad—for blessing her with one of the most memorable faces in the biz. After slaying runways since 2009, Maxim’s May/June 2019 cover girl is immersed in her second act, co-hosting the wellness and lifestyle podcast Eighty Twenty.

Kate Love

The statuesque Canadian super added another feather to her cap when she fronted Maxim’s March/April 2020 issue. A sought-after model for the likes of Guess, Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated, her fairytale wedding to NBA star Kevin Love at the New York Public Library was breathlessly covered by Vogue. The couple welcomed their second child this year. 

Emily Ratajkowski

One of the world’s most recognizable models, Ratajkowski, aka EmRata, has many strings to her bow. The New York Times bestselling author has dabbled in acting, fashion design, and podcasting. Next up, catch her back on screens in Lena Dunham’s Netflix series Too Much, airing this summer. 

Alexandra Daddario

The All My Children alum was all grown up by the time she was reintroduced to audiences on Season 1 of The White Lotus. With a showreel that includes projects as varied as True Detective and Baywatch, the New Yorker and new mom is currently gracing screens in Mayfair Witches. 

Jasmine Tookes

California girl Tookes has spent nearly 15 years working the runways for every designer label you can think of—and is now increasingly designing collections of her own as her profile as an influencer is booming. Passionate about fitness and style, our February 2017 cover star helms the athleisure brand JoJa with fellow former Victoria’s Secret Angel Josephine Skriver.

Nina Agdal

This sports-loving Danish supermodel is entering another era, as her life as a new mom and fiancé to social media megastar Logan Paul is put under the microscope in the Max reality show Paul American. Agdal is no stranger to Maxim, having graced the March 2017 cover. 

Martha Hunt

Discovered at a local model search in North Carolina in 2004, Hunt’s career has taken her to dizzy heights ever since. The former Victoria’s Secret Angel, who made Maxim’s cover in December 2017, is still booked and busy and launched a nonprofit focused on spinal health.

Devon Windsor

The traffic-stopping 5-foot-11 Midwesterner has parlayed over a decade of walking the runways for Chanel, Dior, Versace and Victoria’s Secret into the success of her eponymous brand. Following her Maxim cover debut back in October 2017, the brains beauty launched popular resort wear and activewear lines.

Lais Ribeiro

This Brazilian goddess had plans to be a nurse before the industry came knocking. Since her inaugural Victoria’s Secret fashion show in 2010, it hasn’t slowed down for Maxim’s September/October 2018 cover girl. Ribeiro and her husband, former Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, recently welcomed their first baby together.

Hailey Bieber

When Maxim named Hailey Baldwin as the Hot 100 leader in 2017, the budding model discussed the advantages of dating a fellow celebrity. Fast forward to today, she’s married to Justin Bieber (with whom she welcomed a child last year). She’s also become one of the most successful models of her generation, with a burgeoning multi-million dollar skincare empire, Rhode, in her portfolio.

Elsa Hosk

From a former pro basketball player to a fashion darling. After acing her athletic career and becoming an internationally renowned supermodel, Swedish stunner Hosk has pivoted once more. Maxim’s February 2016 cover star is now dressing her fans around the world via her chic clothing label Helsa. 

Stella Maxwell

Standout Stella was anointed at the top of Maxim’s Hot 100 list in 2016. The Belgian-born, Northern Irish-New Zealand stunner has a portfolio as multi-faceted as her upbringing. When not walking the runway or gracing campaigns, you’ll find her running her luxury pet grooming products brand, PeroPero, or advocating for LGBTQIA causes. 

Sara Sampaio

The Gilles Bensimon-lensed cover of the Portuguese supermodel for Maxim’s May 2016 issue is as unforgettable as she is. This one-time mathematics major-turned-supermodel has achieved international fame as a face of Calzedonia, Victoria’s Secret, Armani Beauty, Moroccanoil and Graff.

Anne Vyalitsyna

Maxim’s September 2016 cover star, the striking, freckle-faced Russian known in the industry as “Anne V” is as busy as ever. Alongside regular runway appearances and countless cover shoots, she was recently revealed as a new face of Calvin Klein.  

Romee Strijd

When a 15-year-old Strijd decided to give modeling a proper shot, the phone never stopped ringing. A Victoria’s Secret Angel since 2015, the dreamy Dutchwoman fronted Maxim’s cover in October of the following year. These days, you’ll still find her on the runway most seasons, all while raising her two young daughters.   

Bregje Heinen

While pillow-pouted Dutch model Heinen still fronts fashion campaigns on the regular, she’s increasingly a presence on the big screen, gradually racking up acting and producing roles in Hollywood…exactly what she expressed a desire to do in the pages of Maxim’s September 2017 issue.

Barbara Palvin

Life has been good to Hungarian beauty Palvin since her December/January 2017 cover. She has since received her Victoria’s Secret Angel wings, inked ambassadorships Armani Beauty and Jimmy Choo, and even branched into acting.

Charli XCX

Summer 2024 might have been the pinnacle of this British chart-topper’s career to date, but even back in her smoking May 2015 cover story, we called her one of music’s brightest stars. Her multi-Grammy award-winning sixth studio album, Brat, became such a phenomenon last year, the Collins Dictionary named the term its word of the year. 

Candace Owens

Candace Owens is a bold voice we all recognize—fearless, sharp, and unapologetically herself. Whether she’s hosting her podcast or sharing her thoughts, Candace brings energy and style that make her one of today’s most recognizable and loved voices.

Emily DiDonato

DiDonato was destined for fame. After being discovered in a mall, she started out in the industry as a high schooler and her career took off almost instantly, with Maybelline and Armani booking the then-unknown face for major campaigns. The August 2015 cover star is still popping up on runways, in demand as a social media influencer, and presiding over a skincare brand she co-founded called Covey.

Isabeli Fontana

This beloved Brazilian beauty has been on the cover of Vogue 58 times—a great indicator of how incredibly in demand this model has been throughout her entire career. Maxim’s October 2015 cover star is every bit as smoldering and seductive a decade later.

Lily Aldridge

Since getting her break as a teen model for Abercrombie & Fitch, Aldridge has become one of the most steadily booked models of her generation. The April 2015 cover star has lent her captivating beauty to all the American greats, including Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Coach, J.Crew, Levi’s and J Brand. Fun fact: The Kings of Leon track “Sex on Fire” was written in her honor.

Elizabeth Hurley

Alongside her memorable roles in ‘90s and ‘00s comedies including Bedazzled, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, and Serving Sara, the British leading lady has helmed her namesake swimwear line for two decades and has been a passionate ambassador for Breast Cancer awareness for 30 years. The posh multi-hyphenate made her Maxim cover debut in 2024, aged 59, when she topped the Hot 100 list.

Candice Swanepoel

With legs like stilts, the South African sensation is a graceful gazelle in front of the lens. Unsurprisingly, she topped our 2014 Hot 100 list and subsequently graced the March 2015 cover. These days, the former Angel has gone full-circle, as her swim brand Tropic of C has been tapped to collaborate with Victoria’s Secret. 

Léa Seydoux 

Maxim’s November 2015 siren is a darling of French art house cinema who has enjoyed mainstream success as a Bond Girl, a muse of Wes Anderson, a fashion model and a regular on best dressed lists. Ooh la la!

Gracie Hunt

Heartfelt Hunt is a sports-loving and philanthropic former Miss Kansas USA crown holder. The daughter of Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, the ambitious heiress, who covered the March/April 2023 issue, hinted that she may one day become the first-ever female NFL commissioner. Watch this space!

Eva Longoria

When the Texas-born Latina posed on the cover of Maxim’s September 2006 issue in a barely buttoned black shirt, she was at the height of her Desperate Housewives fame. Since then, she’s soared as a producer, philanthropist and activist. Longoria is also a joint owner of a women’s soccer team Angel City FC.  

Sophia Bush

Best known for her role as One Tree Hill’s Brooke Davis, Bush has appeared on two Maxim covers, most recently in April 2014. Lately, she’s busying herself as an angel investor, podcaster, activist and the co-founder of clothing platform Fashionkind.

Shay Mitchell

The Pretty Little Liars alum has parlayed her screen success into an impressive next chapter as a businesswoman. The brown-eyed girl, our February 2015 cover star, is the founder of fast-growing travel bag brand Béis, which reached $200 million in annual revenue in 2023. Boss behavior!

Jennifer Love Hewitt 

Did you know this star ties the record for the most Maxim covers ever? The actress and perennial pin-up has been a steady presence on screens for eons, thanks to cult-classic movies such as I Know What You Did Last Summer and Heartbreakers, as well as her lengthy turns on shows like 9-1-1, Criminal Minds, The Client List and Ghost Whisperer.

Lana Del Rey 

Since bursting onto the scene with a totally different sound and highly stylized look in comparison to her counterparts, this distinctive chanteuse has become a prevailing pop-culture presence. The Grammy-nominated musician made her Maxim debut on the cover of the December/January 2015  issue, following the release of her smash-hit album, Ultraviolence.

Beyoncé

Foxxy by name, foxy by nature. Already on the cusp of mega stardom, Bey’s gilded August 2002 cover arrived in tandem with her Hollywood debut as Austin Powers in Goldmember badass, Foxxy “Whole Lotta Woman” Cleopatra. In the ensuing decades, the boundary-breaking force has become the most-awarded and most-nominated artist in Grammy history.

Bella Hadid

An avid equestrian whose sleek strut and chiseled features have catapulted her to the top of the fashion industry, Hadid is the supermodel every casting director has on speed dial. Lately, she’s doubled down on her horse-loving roots, becoming a poster child for modern cowgirl style thanks to her romance with trainer Adan Banuelos.

Heather Graham

For the June 2013 issue, Graham dished on the then-newly released third installment of The Hangover franchise. It was the latest comedy role for the star, whose turn in seminal movies such as Boogie Nights, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Say It Isn’t So made her both a national treasure and endearing sex symbol.

Ashley Tisdale

“Dreams do come true”—so proclaimed the cover line running beside a smoking hot Ashley Tisdale in May 2013. And for the High School Musical alum, that means utilizing her global teen stardom in running the successful beauty line, Being Frenshe, and wellness platform, Frenshe. 

Ronda Rousey

Trailblazing athlete Ronda “Rowdy” Rousey was a total knockout on the cover of the September 2013 issue. As the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo, the inaugural female fighter to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and the only woman to be both a UFC and WWE champ; it’s no surprise that the UFC CEO Dana White, called her “the woman who would change everything.”

Christina Aguilera

From 1990s Mickey Mouse Club kid to smoldering pop star, the Staten Island-born Grammy winner’s January 2003 cover shot in water was pinned on bedroom walls across the country. The “Dirrty” performer, who also appeared on the October 2013 cover, was named as one of “The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone.  

Katy Perry

Even before she went to space, Perry’s profile on Earth was stratospheric. Back in January 2011 when she sizzled in lace and leather on our cover, Perry was on-track to becoming one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She made history soon after when five songs from the Teenage Dream album hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; a first for a female artist.

Jessica Alba

The Dark Angel star’s breakout 2000 Maxim cover propelled the then-19-year-old’s status as one of Hollywood’s hottest names to watch. Since then, Alba landed on the cover two more times, all while building her personal care company, The Honest Company, into a billion-dollar business.

Camille Kostek

The Connecticut-born all-American beauty got her start as an NFL cheerleader for the New England Patriots before making waves as a model, TV host, actress, and social media personality. The body positivity advocate graced Maxim’s May/June 2024 pages after years of manifesting the opportunity, calling the cover story “an honor.” 

Sarah Shahi

This captivating Iranian-American actress had wound her way into viewers’ homes thanks to The L Word and Fairly Legal by the time she starred on our October 2012 cover. A decade later, she blew up all over again thanks to the NSFW Netflix sensation Sex/Life. Shahi is currently giving fans something new to fantasize about as Dr. Gabriela Torabi on Paradise.

Anna Paulina Luna

The Republican congresswoman and Air Force veteran is one of the youngest members of the House—and a trailblazing Latina representative to boot, as the first Mexican-American woman elected to represent Florida in Congress. Luna made her Maxim debut in 2014, and a decade later, she was back to claim our November/December 2024 cover.  

Margot Robbie

After getting her start in Australian soap Neighbours, Robbie hit the big time when she was cast in The Wolf of Wall Street. An advocate for greenlighting movies that empower women, her influential production company LuckyChap Entertainment backed I, Tonya, Promising Young Woman, Boston Strangler,  and, of course, the international smash hit that was 2023’s Barbie.

Kaley Cuoco

Her role as the sassy, low-rise jeans-wearing teen Bridget Hennessy on 8 Simple Rules put Cuoco on the map—and her 12-year run as The Big Bang Theory’s Penny kept her there. The March 2010 cover girl also voiced Harley Quinn in the animated namesake TV series.

Tyra Banks

As the first African American woman to be featured on the covers of GQ and the Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue, this Los Angeles native had already achieved supermodel status by the 1990s. Banks, who was also one of the original Victoria’s Secret Angels and a longtime face of CoverGirl cosmetics, cemented her global fame as the host and executive producer of America’s Next Top Model. For our August 2000 issue, she appeared alongside Coyote Ugly co-star Izabella Miko.  

Olivia Wilde

Wilde was 2009’s Hot 100 frontrunner. The Hollywood heavyweight is increasingly busying herself behind the camera, having directed Booksmart and Don’t Worry Darling. Soon she’ll appear opposite Charli XCX in the erotic thriller I Want Your Sex.

Anna Kournikova

When we called the Russian tennis ace the “sexiest sports star in history”—we meant it. Featured on Maxim covers four times, Kournikova’s October 2010 feature even came with a free pair of 3D specs to bring her beachy shoot to life in a whole new way.

Cameron Diaz 

The household name, crowned 2011’s Hot 100 leader, came out of retirement this year after a decade-long break to co-star with Jamie Foxx in Back in Action. One of the most highly regarded actresses of her generation, you can also enjoy Diaz responsibly at home via her popular organic wine brand Avaline.

Megan Fox

Two-time cover star Megan Fox knows how to get us excited. It’s been more than 15 years since the jaw-dropping actress blew our minds in the cult-classic horror flick Jennifer’s Body, and rumor has it, a sequel may even be in the works. 

Lindsay Lohan

LiLo posed up a storm on steamy Maxim covers in September 2007 and September 2010. A fixture in the industry since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, the fiery redhead took a lengthy break from acting only to reappear in 2022 with a run of rom-coms—and a Freaky Friday revisit—regaining her crown all over again.

Nicole Scherzinger

“Don’t Cha” wish your girlfriend was hot like…Nicole Scherzinger? You bet. The July 2010 cover sensation and former Pussycat Dolls frontwoman made her Broadway debut this past year, blowing critics out of the water as Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. 

Angelina Jolie

The Oscar winner’s mesmerizing face stared back from the cover of our December 2006 issue, in which we proclaimed her Woman of the Year. The humanitarian recently captivated audiences as she took on the role of opera singer Maria Callas in the eponymous critically acclaimed biopic. 

Jessica Simpson

The three-time cover star—and 2004’s Hot 100 slam dunk—cemented herself in the MTV reality TV canon with unforgettable one liners (“chicken or fish?”) on the early aughts show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica. The chart-topping singer’s unforgettable appearance as Daisy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard remake also had denim hotpants top of mind. The Texan is regarded as one of the first celebrities to build a billion-dollar fashion brand, which you’ll find everywhere from Amazon to Macy’s.

Jaime King

April 2008’s smokeshow cover star was Sin City star Jaime King. The actress and filmmaker recently returned to her modeling roots, walking the Roberto Cavalli catwalk during Milan Fashion Week earlier this year. 

Cindy Crawford

No one has ever looked at a can of Pepsi the same since Crawford’s 1992 Super Bowl commercial. One of the women who helped forge the term “supermodel,” the Midwesterner was the first fashion model to appear nude in Playboy. Our December 2005 cover star’s pursuits include helming fitness videos, TV hosting, running a skincare line and forever remaining a staple of campaigns. 

Sara Foster

When a white lingerie-clad Foster graced the April 2005 cover, the then-model was riding the wave of Hollywood fame after her role in action comedy D.E.B.S. These days, she’s a successful investor and media personality. Foster runs the fashion label Favorite Daughter with her sister Erin, whose hit show Nobody Wants This she also produced.

Eva Mendes

Although she retired from acting over a decade ago, the Hitch honey is still a subject of endearing fascination. The ultra-private star, who graced two Maxim covers in 2007, is married to actor Ryan Gosling, co-owns a successful kitchen cleaning tool brand, and recently wrote a children’s book available in English and Spanish versions.

Josie Maran

Beauty has been the throughline in Maran’s life. The stunning mogul, whose trailblazing clean skincare brand debuted in 2007, was synonymous with Maybelline commercials in the late 1990s and 2000s. At the time of her May 2004 cover, Maran was about to become a crush for fantasy-lovers everywhere after featuring as one of Dracula’s brides, Marishka, in Van Helsing. 

Sarah Michelle Gellar

A pint-sized pinup of the 1990s, Gellar’s IMDB page reads like a list of the most iconic movies of the decade, among them Cruel Intentions, Scream 2, and She’s All That. The Buffy babe, who slayed on the December 2007 cover, is set to reprise her unforgettable role when a long-awaited reboot comes to life in 2026.

Kristen Bell

On her March 2006 cover, we declared Bell “TV’s Hottest P.I.” The national treasure has been a familiar and consistent presence on screens ever since, thanks to Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl. Her recent lead role in Nobody Wants This, about dating in adulthood, had audiences falling in love with her all over again.

Daniela Botero

Colombian knockout Daniela Botero is the real deal—model, actress, and total stunner with those unforgettable green eyes. She’s graced the cover of Maxim USA, lit up international runways, and somehow makes elegance look effortless. From Paris to New York, she’s been winning hearts (and covers) all over the world.

Gina Gershon

You could say Gershon was Bound to be famous. Ever since her role in kitschy classic Showgirls, Gershon has been one of the most consistently cast character actresses of her generation. Our October 2003 beauty is also a published writer, having penned a memoir and a children’s book.

Shakira

The sexy “She Wolf” whose “Hips Don’t Lie.” Colombia native Shakira was propelled to international fame with her first English-language album Laundry Service in 2001. The pint-sized star was smoldering in cowgirl-style getup on the July 2002 cover before she went on to become the best-selling female Latin artist ever. 

Lucy Liu + Drew Barrymore

July 2003’s cover was a scorcher. The Charlie’s Angels heavenly trinity of Diaz, Barrymore, and Liu were heaven-sent in white swimwear in line with the blockbuster sequel’s summer release. Lately, Liu (who also graced our September 2002 cover) has flexed her horror chops in Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, while child star-turned-multi-hyphenate Barrymore has turned her attention to everything from producing to launching lifestyle brands and hosting daytime TV. 

Kate Upton

After going viral for dancing in a video uploaded by a friend to YouTube in 2011, Upton’s subsequent ascent as a high-fashion model helped to break the mold. With curves and a smile reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, the girl next door was quickly christened “America’s Favorite Bombshell” by Vogue. In 2018, she made her Maxim debut when she topped the Hot 100 list.

Paris Hilton

“That’s hot!” Behind the Y2K socialite and hotel heiress’s bubbly persona is a formidable businesswoman, who arguably carved out the job description for today’s influencers. The Simple Life starlet fronted the April 2004 issue in butterfly-embroidered bikini bottoms, with the coverlines notably referring to her infamous leaked sex tape. 

Pamela Anderson

The Playmate of our times, “Pammy” has more Playboy covers under her belt than anyone else. In September 1999, Anderson was reflecting on a decade that saw her become the “Tool Time” girl, Baywatch’s beloved C.J. Parker, and the most talked-about figure in the world. In recent years, the cultural icon has gone au naturel, eschewing makeup and reclaiming her narrative with the release of a popular memoir and documentary about her life, lovers and legacy.

Mariah Carey

The diva extraordinaire with a five-octave vocal range made her Maxim debut on the September 2003 cover. One of the most influential singers of all time, the New Yorker is known for hitting some of the highest notes ever sung by a human. 

Halle Berry

In July 2000, a pixie-cropped Halle Berry sizzled along with her X-Men co-stars Famke Janssen and Rebecca Romijn. Just two years later, she became the first Black woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for her unforgettable role in Monster’s Ball. She’s still the only female star to claim this feat. Alongside making movies, Berry is increasingly getting involved as an angel investor in the women’s health space.

Jennifer Esposito

This born-and-bred New Yorker covered the November 1998 issue in the midst of her Spin City heyday. Ever since, the Italian-American actress has been minted as TV royalty, thanks to a resume overflowing with roles on shows like Samantha Who?, Law & Order, NCIS, The Affair, and Blue Bloods. 

Helena Christensen

This former Miss Denmark has been modeling since the tender age of 9. Almost 50 years later, the striking brunette has retained her crown as a catwalk mainstay, while juggling successful pursuits as a photographer and fashion entrepreneur. The brunette beauty starred on the cover of Maxim in July 1996, famously smoking a cigarette in her lingerie.

Mila Kunis

Los Angeles-raised Ukraine-native Mila Kunis was made for stardom. At just 14-years-old, she lied about her age in an audition which would ultimately bag her the career-making role of Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show. Over two decades since her October 2002 cover, the doe-eyed beauty is still one of the hottest names in Hollywood. 

Carmen Electra

Three-time Maxim cover star Electra got her start as a muse for her ex-boyfriend, Prince. By the late 1990s, she’d become a bonafide celebrity following her glamour model posing for Playboy, a brief stint on Baywatch, and a hosting gig on MTV’s Singled Out. The former Pussycat Dolls member and Scary Movie star, whose marriage to Dave Navarro was the subject of the reality show Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen + Dave, is cemented in pop culture history. In recent years, Kim Kardashian cast her and fellow 1990s icon Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg in a viral campaign for Skims.

Irina Shayk

Between her bone structure, voluptuous lips and sleek physique, Shayk is the sexy high-fashion supermodel that men and women everywhere can’t get enough of. The exquisite Slav made her Maxim debut with a saucy swimwear shoot for the July/August 2014 cover.  

Olivia Munn

Munn’s trysts with on-screen partner Jon Hamm in Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbors has people getting hot under the collar this year. So too did her appearance on our February 2011 cover, when the A-lister was just starting out on the small screen.

Jessica Biel + Kate Beckinsale

In a triple threat of Hollywood heartbreakers, Biel and Beckinsale flanked bad boy Colin Farrell on a memorable July/August 2012 cover. The spotlight never left these two brunette babes. Next up, Biel is leading the bill in new thriller series The Better Sister, while Beckinsale is returning to her native UK to front the action-charged series Lioness.  

Salma Hayek

The barrier-breaking Latina sensation showed off another side to her when she sizzled on the cover of the May 1997 UK edition of Maxim. The feature came after the scene-stealing stunner found mainstream success in Hollywood thanks to pictures like Desperado and Fools Rush In. Also a prolific producer, the actress will next be seen in the action comedy Sacrifice.

Catherine Zeta-Jones

The sole female Oscar winner from Wales heated up the July/August 1998 UK edition of Maxim. At the time, the raven-haired temptress was at the peak of her Zorro fame. Zeta-Jones will be back on screens soon in a new Prime Video revenge thriller series about a swindler.

Monica Bellucci

May 2003’s cover was the bella Bellucci. Since her debut in 1991, the Italian saucepot has become a Fellini-esque femme fatale and staple of European cinema. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to The Matrix Reloaded, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The Passion of the Christ, and a turn as a Bond Girl aged 50 in Spectre, the former model’s prowess on-screen has proved she’s far more than just a beautiful face.

Famke Janssen

Much to the delight of Bond fans everywhere, the Dutch actress appeared on the cover of the January/February 1998 issue. Having found fame as Xenia Onatopp, the fighter pilot with killer thighs alongside Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, Janssen became a favorite in the Marvel universe thanks to her role as Jean Gray in the X-Men series.

Arianny Celeste

The renowned Octagon girl sent pulses racing on Maxim’s May 2010 cover. Her popularity in the sport ultimately led to modeling work with Guess and Bebe, appearances on UFC Ultimate Insider and hosting gigs on MVP and Overhaulin’. The Las Vegas-bred Latina now devotes her time to running her subscription company Girlfriend Box.

Alyssa Milano

The Melrose Place alum’s inaugural Maxim moment happened in March 1998, and 15 years later she was back for more on the cover of the July/August 2013 issue. The Brooklynite is best known for her role as physic sister Phoebe on Charmed. Lately, she made her Broadway debut in Chicago, all while doubling down on her activism and advocacy work.

Gal Gadot

From Miss Israel to Wonder Woman. Former Israel Defense Forces fitness instructor and law student Gadot parlayed her modeling career into acting, enjoying her first big break in Hollywood thanks to her role as weapons expert Gisele in Fast & Furious.

Amber Rose

Philly-native and January/February 2025’s cover star turned her profile as a model and music video mainstay into a chapter as a TV personality and author, once penning a book titled How to Be a Bad Bitch. This year, she launched a libido-enhancing shot called Lust Amber Rose to help men and women better get in the mood. 

Selita Ebanks

This doe-eyed doll sent pulses racing on the June 2010 cover.  The Caymanian model—who is known for her work with Victoria’s Secret and Ralph Lauren—has recently gone back to her roots, quite literally, as the star of the Hulu reality show, Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise.

Dua Lipa

From Grammy wins to Guinness World Records, this British-Albanian chart-topper has already had career highs that most musicians can only dream of. A bona fide fashion favorite, she’s also a face and muse of Saint Laurent, Chanel, Versace, PUMA, and Mugler. Meanwhile, her multi-platform media company, Service95, continues to expand.  

Elisha Cuthbert

With a phenomenal five Maxim US/UK covers notched up, it’s the ultimate Girl Next Door. This Canadian cutie has been both a teen dream and a prime time staple as Kim Bauer in 24. Now a mom-of-two, Cuthbert still acts on occasion—while spicy clips of her as Danielle, the hottest next door neighbor ever, still do the rounds on social media.

Eliza Dushku 

This supernatural seductress was a fan favorite thanks to her role as Faith on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and as the life-saving, time-reversing protagonist in Tru Calling. Smoldering on both her May 2001 and March 2009 covers, the Bostonian has since pivoted from Hollywood to become a certified therapist in a bid to revolutionize trauma care.