Maria Menounos, Debra Messing, Leslie Bibb, and Taraji P. Henson stripped down for the shoot, draped in just a few strands of diamonds. Here's how they got their bodies—and minds—ready for the big reveal.
MARIA MENOUNOS
As a teen beauty-pageant contestant, Menounos received low swimsuit scores. "I was hippy and I didn't diet for contests. And it didn't bother me," she says. The 33-year-old Extra host has a healthy attitude about her body, but that doesn't mean she's comfortable getting naked. In fact, she's so hesitant to be bare it all that she's afraid of getting pregnant because of how much she'd have to expose. "I have some serious issues here," she admitted. "But I want to get over that." She looked to this photo shoot to cure to her shyness, and it may have worked: "This was definitely challenging," she said, "but I feel so much better having done it."
DEBRA MESSING
At 43, Messing's decision to pose nude came from a natural process of self-acceptance. "Once you have a child, once you pass 40, you have a different relationship with your body," she said. "I love my body in a way I never have before." And the parts she loves the most? "My shoulders, clavicle, and chest," she explains. "I started out in dance—there's something beautiful about a dancer's upper body. I love strapless dresses."
TARAJI P. HENSON
"My friends won't be surprised by this shoot," Henson said. "Whenever we go to the beach, I'm like, 'Is this a nude beach? Can I take my top off?'" With that kind of bravado, it's no wonder that the 41-year-old Person of Interest actress isn't afraid to parade around naked—even at her New York City home, with zero curtains on the floor-to-ceiling windows. "I know some idiot has a telescope, so I always wave," she said. "He's going to be pissed when I move."
LESLIE BIBB
Following an indulgent two-week vacation, Bibb, 37, went on a four-day juice cleanse to get ready for her shoot. "It was an angry four days," says Bibb. "Sam [Rockwell, her boyfriend] was like, 'Thank God I'm not with you right now. You are not nice on the juice cleanse.'" Luckily, prepping her skin was an easier chore, as she stopped off at a Korean spa for a body scrub pre-shoot. "Everybody's naked there, and I don't mind," she said. "But I'm like a cat with a feather anytime I see a boob job. I can't look away."
REPORTED BY KATE SULLIVAN PHOTOGRAPHED BY PATRICK DEMARCHELIER / ALLURE MAGAZINE
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