by Bob Strauss

If you only know Salma Hayek from her reputation for wearing little more than whipped cream and large snakes, you might be suprised to learn there's more to this shapely Latin American import than just a bent for playful outrageousness.

Hayek, who infuses her serious commitment to acting with a sexy sense of humor, was a respected actress in Mexico before coming to Hollywood a few years ago. She had already won that nation's equivalent of an Emmy for her starring role in the hit drama Teresa, and had been featured in El Callejon de los Milagros ("Miracle Alley"), one of the most acclaimed movies in Mexican cinema.

Video clip: Salma's quest for the perfect guy QuickTime | AVI | Don't Know

After moving to the States, a determined and ambitious Hayek learned English and studied hard to acclimate herself to her new country. The big break came when stylish director Robert Rodriguez cast her opposite Antonio Banderas in Desperado, the remake of his no-budget debut, El Mariachi. Then, just months after burning up the screen with Banderas, Hayek made George Clooney her love slave and had Quentin Tarantino slurping tequila off her feet as the vampire stripper in Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn.

Now she's actually getting dialogue. In the new Fools Rush In, a romantic comedy with Friends' Matthew Perry, Hayek plays a Vegas photographer who finds herself pregnant after an uncharacteristic one-night stand with Perry's New York construction exec. The movie charts the often amusing, sometimes painful and not-so-predictable struggles that follow.

And that just a warm-up. She'll next be seen as the gypsy Esmeralda in TNT's upcoming Hunchback of Notre Dame, and she has several more film projects in the works for the immediate future, including a biopic of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.