French superstar, Chanel model, Johnny Depp's one true love -- what more could a girl want?

Move over, Milla Jovovich, you're not the only Renaissance girl in town. This summer, twenty-seven-year-old Vanessa Paradis -- French pop music sensation, former Chanel model, and true love of Johnny Depp -- stars in her first U.S.-released film, Girl on the Bridge, a surreal love story of a suicidal young woman (Paradis) who becomes the human target for a professional knife thrower. Deft directing by Patrice Leconte (Ridicule) and soul-stirring chemistry between Paradis and her co-star Daniel Auteuil make for a movie that's whimsical, sexy, and smarter than your average romantic fare.

Almost equally compelling, however, is the real-life love story behind the making of Girl on the Bridge-- it was during filming that Paradis found her off-screen soul mate in Depp, America's most handsome export. "He's the most beautiful thing that's happened to me," Paradis says, save for the birth of their one-year-old daughter, Lily-Rose Melody. The couple currently keep house in the French countryside an hour's drive from Paris, although both agree they'll be lucky if they get to live there for more than a few months a year. Depp, thirty-seven -- who just finished filming Ted Demme's Blow and will co-star with Paradis in director Terry Gilliam's upcoming The Man Who Killed Don Quixote -- has described the family unit as living a "gypsy life." Further proof: At press time, Paradis is in a Hollywood studio recording her fifth album. An accomplished singer/songwriter, Paradis released her first hit single in France when she was a mere fourteen. Still, no matter how peripatetic her life, Paradis vows Lily-Rose will be in tow. "We're like parents everywhere," she says. "This is our first child -- we don't want to miss a thing."

So is there anything that Paradis -- devoted mother, skillful singer, frighteningly gorgeous mannequin, and ethereal actress -- can't do? "Well," she admits, "there's a basketball court at the recording studio, and I've been trying to play between sessions -- but I suck." Not quite a life-altering flaw, but reassuring nonetheless.