Cosmetics Giant, L'Oréal has woken up to the value of the South Asian beauty market and has signed up Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai to join its "dream team" of some of the world's most beautiful women. The flagship brand of the world largest cosmetics company, L'Oréal Paris is delighted to welcome the Indian movie superstar as its newest international ambassador. Ms Rai joins the L'Oréal Paris dream team that includes some of the world's most beautiful and inspirational women such as Laetitia Casta, Andie MacDowell, Milla Jovovich, Noemie Lenoir, Virginie Ledoyen, Agbani Darego, Gong Li and Catherine Deneuve.

L'Oréal enthuses that "Aishwarya Rai truly personifies the L'Oréal Paris woman displaying beauty, sophistication, charm, modernity, confidence and a reluctance to settle for anything less than the best. She also adorns the values of today's woman: intelligent, self-assured and decisive. Be it her mesmerising blue-green eyes, her inherent talent and grace, or her obvious intellect, Aishwarya is undoubtedly one of the most admired actresses on Indian cinema."

The accolades that Aishwarya has accumulated are numerous: beginning with the 'Miss World' title in 1984 and leading to coveted stardom she has acquired in the Bollywood film arena working with the most prestigious Indian Directors. In a short span of five years, Aishwarya has appeared in over a dozen films and has been nominated for several awards in the Indian film industry. Her starring role in 'Devdas', her latest box-office success, which was presented at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2002, has revealed the talent and charm already known in India to the rest of the world. Aishwarya will appear on international screens again soon with a key part in Gurinder Chadha's latest adaptation of Jane Austen's classic tale 'Pride & Prejudice'.

Recently Aishwarya has earned the singular distinction of being the first India actress to be invited on the jury of the Cannes International film festival and is hotly tipped for a role in the next James Bond film alongside Pierce Brosnan. On becoming an Ambassador for L'Oréal Paris, Aishwarya commented, "I am absolutely delighted and very excited to be associated with L'Oréal Paris. The brand's tag line "because you're worth it" has always been very close to my heart".

A spokeswoman for L'Oréal said that "Aishwarya is a prefect symbol of L'Oréal Paris's understanding of the diversity of beauty. She will represent L'Oréal Paris Demo-Expertise, hair colour and cosmetics."

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