The Angelina Jolie Effect

Angelina Jolie is undeniably beautiful, with those big, pouty lips, bedroom eyes and a figure any woman would eat celery for the rest of her life for. But beyond that, what is that makes her the icon she's quickly becoming?

As part of Harper's Bazaar's July cover story, author Naomi Wolf explores why men want Angie, why women want to be her and why they want her, too.

"Ever since about 2004 – when she started crafting a new and revolutionary persona out of her prior story line as an eccentric ingenue, a story line that had been erratic and filled with missteps – she has resonated in a way no other modern female star has managed," Wolf writes, adding that her looks do have something to do with it.

"Polls show that her appeal and magnetism play at least as powerfully in the fantasy life of females," she writes, adding, "Women admire Angelina Jolie, but that would hardly stop the presses. Polls also show that if women – not just lesbian and bisexual women but straight women – had to choose a female lover, they would want to sleep with Angelina Jolie. In other words, women both identify with her and desire her."

Wolf goes on to add that somehow Angie is both respected as a good person and is also a mother and sexual being. Oh yeah, and she nabbed Brad Pitt.

PICS OF ANGELINA: