Sunshine State beauty Carolyn Murphy is the 2005 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover model, the first all-American girl to land the front page since, well, last century. (The last U.S. citizen to win the competitive cover spot was Californian Rebecca Romijn in 1999.)
The 31-year-old blue-eyed blonde is a native of Panama City, Fla. The high-fashion runway model is best known for replacing Elizabeth Hurley as the face of Est�e Lauder cosmetics. She made her acting debut in the 1999 film Liberty Heights.
Other models featured in the issue include tennis star Venus Williams, Olympians Jennie Finch and Amanda Beard and 19-year-old Alicia Hall, winner of NBC’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search series. Murphy is making her second appearance in the SI swimsuit issue. The magazine is on newsstands today; the cover photo was taken on Kamalane Cay in the Bahamas by fashion photographer Jeff Olson.
By C�sar G. Soriano, USA TODAY
