What started as just a spread of women in bathing suits to fill space during a time of year with little sports news has turned into a seminal beachwear fashion issue that has launched the careers of several of the world's top supermodels. And this year, the most anticipated annual magazine issue is going 3-D. See our list of the hottest Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girls.

Brooklyn Decker's 2010 SI cover
Then: This fashion model showed off a swim collection last year and is married to a top-ranked tennis player

Now: She made a very personal admission in a recent interview. The beauty is starring in a funny new film

Christie Brinkley's 1979 SI cover
Then: This cover girl spent three consecutive years on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The "Uptown Girl" also appeared in her rocking then-husband's music video

Now: Today the former supermodel is reportedly worth millions. She appeared in a now-canceled TV show

Rachel Hunter's 1994 SI cover
Then: This model married a raspy-voiced singing legend, but they divorced in 2006. She got her acting start on a comedy about a regular guy living in Cleveland and played a hot mom in a music video.

Now: Hunter showed off her moves on a reality competition and hosted a fashion challenge program.

Cheryl Tiegs' 1979 SI cover
Then: By the time this Minnesota native was 17 she had already appeared on the cover of a major fashion magazine, but it was the 1978 image of her in a pink bikini that made her an icon.

Now: The former supermodel has since appeared on a reality show that measured contestants' inner beauty and developed her own accessory and wig line for Revlon.

Petra Nemcova's 2003 SI cover
Then: The Czech model founded a nonprofit organization that aims to improve children's lives. She was injured in a major natural disaster and her fiancé was killed.

Now: After recovering from the tragedy, the supermodel is now engaged to an English actor. She featured prominently in a music video by an indie rock group

Elle Macpherson's 1986 SI cover
Then: The Australian supermodel with a fitting nickname made the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover a record number of times.

Now: All her hard work must have paid off because she's now the host of a spin-off reality series and reportedly enjoys a hefty bank account.

Tyra Banks' 1997 SI cover
Then: This model-turned-actress was the first African-American woman on the cover of the iconic issue, not to mention a high-end men's fashion magazine. She got her start on TV with a role on a sitcom about a street-smart teen living in Bel-Air.

Now: She's a top model on her own reality show and recently ended a daytime talk show.

Rebecca Romijn's 1999 SI cover
Then: This model-actress married and divorced Uncle Jesse and famously donned head-to-toe body paint as a shape-shifter in a comic-book franchise film series.

Now: She recently wed a former child star and played a scheming fashion executive on a now-canceled TV show.

Heidi Klum's 1998 SI cover
Then: After this German model appeared on the cover of a fashion bible and her first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue hit the newsstands, she became widely known as one of the top supermodels.

Now: Klum cultivated a business empire as a successful TV host and was named one of the world's top-earning supermodels. The former Victoria's Secret model married a famous musician. Check out the cute photos of their kids.

Bar Refaeli's 2009 SI cover
Then: She was the first Israeli model to appear in Sports Illustrated but caused controversy when an image from the cover shoot was painted on the side of a plane.

Now: The Jewish model is perhaps best known for her on-again, off-again relationship with an Academy Award-nominated actor. She sizzles in a new lingerie ad campaign.

Beyoncé Knowles' 2007 SI cover
Then: This Grammy-winning "Dreamgirl" graced the cover of a music-themed Sports Illustrated in a bikini from a fashion label she started. When this "King of Hip-Hop" put a ring on it, the singer was solidified a member of one of Hollywood's elite power couples.

Now: The diva hopes her new scent will have women feeling "sensual". A famed director has just signed on to direct the singer-actress in a remake of a 1976 film.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has turned down another offer to be a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars”. Sharpton said he doesn’t have time due to his involvement with this civil rights organization.

An edgy public radio show has revealed what it purports to be the secret recipe for Coca Cola -- a formula which has become the stuff of legend after decades of careful marketing by one of the world's most recognizable brands.

The recipe is supposedly kept in a locked vault, and Coke at one point had an advertising campaign about the two top executives who knew the secret and couldn't fly on the same plane or the formula could be lost forever.


"We think we may have found the original recipe for Coca Cola," said the host of "This American Life" Ira Glass in opening the hour-long program that aired over the weekend.

"One of the most famously guarded trade secrets on the planet -- I have it right here and I am going to read it to you and read it to the world and make my case for why it is real, despite what Coca Cola may say."

The handwritten formula was discovered in a pharmacist's old book of recipes and published in the company's hometown paper -- the Atlanta Journal Constitution -- in 1979, Glass said.

"If that seems a strange and random place to find this kind of thing, well, Coke was invented by a pharmacist and was originally sold at pharmacy soda fountains," he said.

The book apparently originally belonged to an acquaintance of Coke's inventor, John Pemberton, and was then passed from one pharmacist to another before it was eventually discovered by the newspaper columnist.

The newspaper even published a picture of the recipe, which was clear enough to read each ingredient.

What convinced Glass is that the formula matched -- and filled out -- a partial recipe found in Coke's archives that also became public.

More Info :

President Obama's daughters Sasha And Malia Obama reportedly have received thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from foreign diplomats. The girls don’t get to keep the gifts.

A Los Angeles County employee was found dead in her cubicle on Saturday, a day after she was last seen by co-workers. A cause of death hasn’t been determined

Would you like to wear this?

Top designers at Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week Fall 2011 sent down an array of unique, odd, and downright bizarre styles

With details of a recent cosmetic surgery-related death still unfolding, we recall other news-making fatalities that have been linked to the quest for the perfect body.


Claudia Seye Aderotimi
Twenty-year-old Aderotimi, a Londoner visiting the States, died February 8 of complications stemming from an unlicensed cosmetic procedure performed in an unorthodox setting. Aderotimi was said to have paid more than $1,000 for the procedure. Police are searching for a suspect whose background is musical, not medical.

Lidvian Zelaya
At the end of December 2010, 35-year-old Zelaya died of cardiac arrest after checking in for two procedures at a Southern Florida facility. The exact cause of death is still unknown.

Wang Bei
Chinese singer Wang Bei, 24, suffered respiratory and circulatory failure in November 2010 after she reportedly sought a facial enhancement. She came into the public eye as a contestant of an American Idol-style show. The exact cause of death is swamped in rumors.

Solange Magnano
In 2009, the former South American beauty queen, modeling agency head and mother died of a pulmonary embolism at age 37. Her death was linked to gluteoplasty.

Rohie Kah-Orukotan
This 37-year-old mother of three — who was no stranger to medical practice — went to a Florida facility for liposuction in 2009. There, she experienced seizures and was rushed to a hospital, with disastrous results.

Maritess Lopez
Lopez died at age 36 after obtaining a "mommy makeover" in 2008. Her Virginia Beach doctor released her an hour after the procedure, but she began experiencing adverse side effects at home.

Donda West
The death of this scholar and mother of a hip-hop star made huge headlines in 2007. The 58-year-old had gone to a high profile surgeon to have a tummy tuck and breast reduction and died of a heart attack the next day. Though the procedure may have played a role in her death, the coroner ruled out wrongdoing.

Olga Arroyo
In 2007, 41-year-old Arroyo, a New Jersey police officer, underwent plastic surgery in a private home at the hands of an unlicensed Colombian native. She died on the scene from a fatal injection.

Kathleen Kelly Cregan
In 2005, Cregan secretly traveled from her home abroad, with the intent of surprising her husband with a new look given by a New York City doctor. (How did she hear of him?) She went into cardiac arrest hours after the procedure and died at age 42.

Olivia Goldsmith
The best-selling author of this book-turned-film checked into a Manhattan clinic in 2004. Goldsmith wanted a chin-tuck — one of many procedures she'd sought from the same doctor — but went into a coma shortly after the surgery began and died several days later at age 54.

Susan Malitz
In 2004, 56-year-old Malitz checked into a scandal-plagued New York hospital to undergo a routine facelift from a top doctor. As the Connecticut woman was being prepped for surgery, she went into cardiac arrest and died shortly thereafter.

Julie Rubenzer
Rubenzer, 38, went to a Florida-based doctor in search of a breast augmentation in 2003. There were many red flags, including the doctor's training, certification and lack of medical privileges. The patient stopped breathing, went into cardiac arrest, never regained consciousness and was taken to her hometown, where she died three months later.