1. - Ava Gardner, The Barefoot Contessa, 1954. One US critic called it: A Star is Stillborn... While auteur Joseph Mankiewicz looked at unknowns like Podesta and Joan Collins, he knew it had to be Ava. His fictional screen vamp, Maria Vargas, was based on, among others, Ava’as 1951 Pandora Reynolds. Plus Ava, herself. Rossana went on to be Hollywood’s (lukewarm) Helen of Troy, 1956. (Collins and Podesta were both called about replacing Liz Taylor when she was extremely ill during Cleopatra, 1962).