Beach Baby Jessica Alba

Why did Entertainment Weekly dub the 25-year-old Alba — who recently hosted the MTV Movie Awards — as our Must Girl of Summer? Just one of the many reasons: She was the most-searched actress on Yahoo! in May.  Alba got her big break on television in 2000, playing the heroine of Dark Angel. ''There was something about her — an attitude, a sass — that made me keep thinking of her,'' series creator James Cameron told EW in '01. About branching out into different kinds of movies (including the female-friendly Honey: ''After Dark Angel, I knew I had the men covered,'' Alba says, ''but I wasn’t relatable to women, so I had to show a softer side of myself.'' ''Leading ladies in Hollywood usually have blond hair and blue eyes,'' Alba told EW. ''But people today... They're more ethnically mixed. Today, the girl next door looks more like me.'' One of the films on Alba's slate: the medical thriller Awake. ''It's not just that she’s talented or gorgeous... People respond to her as a personality,'' says her costar in that movie, Hayden Christensen. Among Alba's future goals: producing (''Tom Cruise has done it better than anyone,'' she says). In the meantime, she'll reprise her roles in Fantastic Four and Sin City for sequels. [EW]  More pictures in the gallery!