Megan Fox being axed from the Tranformers franchise was hardly Paul McCartney leaving The Beatles, but the acrimonious departure of the Foxy one left a vacancy for some eye candy to hang on Shia Labeouf's arm while robots smash seven bells out of each other. A few names were put forward, but the eventual winner was underwear model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. With Transformers: Dark of the Moon being her first feature film, we thought it would be a good idea to give you ten facts about Michael Bay's latest muse.
1. Rosie Alice Huntington-Whiteley was born in Freedom Fields Hospital, Plymouth, Devon on April 18, 1987 to fitness instructor mum Fiona and chartered surveyor dad Charles.
2. After making a big splash in the fashion world with jobs for Burberry and British Vogue, she was named 'Model of the Year' at the Elle Style Awards in 2009. Soon after she starred in a short, saucy film for Agent Provocateur.
3. Brought up in rural England, Rosie still describes herself as a "farm girl" who knows where her food comes from. Of saying goodbye to her farm friends, she said: "I don't get sad 'cause you don't build relationships with those animals. There's the pigs, that's the dog that I play with and love, but it's the pig that's gonna be in the freezer next month." Possibly incurring the wrath of PETA, she added: "I've shot a few pheasants and a few rabbits. I'm probably gonna be hated for that."
4. She was voted 'Girl Most Likely to Become a Supermodel' after a growth spurt when she was 13, but she admits that it didn't always look that way. "I was the shortest kid in my year," she told GQ recently. "I was teased because I had no breasts and huge lips. And because of my double-barrelled name, people thought I was super p-o-s-h, which is actually not the case."
5. Transformers isn't her first big acting role... "There was a children's theatre group in my home town and we would put on a play at Christmas time," Rosie said. "I remember I was in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at school and I was cast as one of the extras. I'm still shy but as a girl I was really quiet and always put at the back."
6. As she says, Rosie is absolutely, positively not posh. Not at all. Her great-great-grandfather was politician Sir Herbert Huntington-Whiteley - mayor of Blackburn in 1892 and later 1st Baronet of Grimley in the County of Worcester.
7. Rosie's first modelling gig was posing for a Levi's ad. "I thought that would be the one and only time I would ever get paid for modelling so I spent all of my first cheque on a Ford Ka, even though I couldn't drive." Not sure why she didn't just spend the cash on some lessons then!
8. In 2009, Rosie became a Victoria's Secret Angel, and the following year on the set of an advert for the underwear brand, she met crash, bang, pow movie director Michael Bay.
9. Rosie admits to being "an outrageous flirt" at school, and she's left a string of broken hearts in her wake since then. She dated Tyrone Wood (Rolling Stone Ronnie's son) before moving on to Kylie Minogue's ex, French actor Olivier Martinez. She was linked by the papers to Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford and is now said to be entwined with Jason 'The Stath' Statham.
10. After Megan Fox was axed from/left the Transformers franchise, Rosie was the perfect choice to fill director Michael Bay's void for the third movie in the series. Of concerns about her lack of movie experience, Rosie explained that she hasn't "claimed to be an amazing actress" and is "working really hard with a coach to learn to act".
1. Rosie Alice Huntington-Whiteley was born in Freedom Fields Hospital, Plymouth, Devon on April 18, 1987 to fitness instructor mum Fiona and chartered surveyor dad Charles.
2. After making a big splash in the fashion world with jobs for Burberry and British Vogue, she was named 'Model of the Year' at the Elle Style Awards in 2009. Soon after she starred in a short, saucy film for Agent Provocateur.
3. Brought up in rural England, Rosie still describes herself as a "farm girl" who knows where her food comes from. Of saying goodbye to her farm friends, she said: "I don't get sad 'cause you don't build relationships with those animals. There's the pigs, that's the dog that I play with and love, but it's the pig that's gonna be in the freezer next month." Possibly incurring the wrath of PETA, she added: "I've shot a few pheasants and a few rabbits. I'm probably gonna be hated for that."
4. She was voted 'Girl Most Likely to Become a Supermodel' after a growth spurt when she was 13, but she admits that it didn't always look that way. "I was the shortest kid in my year," she told GQ recently. "I was teased because I had no breasts and huge lips. And because of my double-barrelled name, people thought I was super p-o-s-h, which is actually not the case."
5. Transformers isn't her first big acting role... "There was a children's theatre group in my home town and we would put on a play at Christmas time," Rosie said. "I remember I was in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at school and I was cast as one of the extras. I'm still shy but as a girl I was really quiet and always put at the back."
6. As she says, Rosie is absolutely, positively not posh. Not at all. Her great-great-grandfather was politician Sir Herbert Huntington-Whiteley - mayor of Blackburn in 1892 and later 1st Baronet of Grimley in the County of Worcester.
7. Rosie's first modelling gig was posing for a Levi's ad. "I thought that would be the one and only time I would ever get paid for modelling so I spent all of my first cheque on a Ford Ka, even though I couldn't drive." Not sure why she didn't just spend the cash on some lessons then!
8. In 2009, Rosie became a Victoria's Secret Angel, and the following year on the set of an advert for the underwear brand, she met crash, bang, pow movie director Michael Bay.
9. Rosie admits to being "an outrageous flirt" at school, and she's left a string of broken hearts in her wake since then. She dated Tyrone Wood (Rolling Stone Ronnie's son) before moving on to Kylie Minogue's ex, French actor Olivier Martinez. She was linked by the papers to Gossip Girl star Chace Crawford and is now said to be entwined with Jason 'The Stath' Statham.
10. After Megan Fox was axed from/left the Transformers franchise, Rosie was the perfect choice to fill director Michael Bay's void for the third movie in the series. Of concerns about her lack of movie experience, Rosie explained that she hasn't "claimed to be an amazing actress" and is "working really hard with a coach to learn to act".
