Actress Eva Mendes jumped at the chance to be a spokes model for Calvin Klein, because she was convinced it would give her career a big boost.

The Hitch star is the face of the designer's new underwear range. She shot print and TV adverts for the campaign with fashion photographer Steve Meisel earlier this year - but the promo, which sees the actress writhing around topless, was deemed too sexy to be shown on U.S. TV in August, and several networks refused to air the footage.

However Mendes, who declared Americans too "prudish" for censoring the ad, doesn't regret making the saucy film because it fulfilled one of her teenage dreams - to follow in the footsteps of Mark Wahlberg, whose rap alter ego was Marky Mark, and supermodel Kate Moss, who both shot to stardom as Calvin Klein models.

She says, "I grew up on those ads. When Kate Moss and Marky Mark - I mean my friend Mark Wahlberg... can't say Marky cos he hates that - came out with them, I was like 15 years old. Me and my friends just went crazy. Crazy, crazy. He was so gorgeous... delicious... and still is, of course."

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(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)