Bar Refaeli flaunts her curves on the cover of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit 2009 issue in a barely-there Missoni bikini. But the 23-year-old cover girl says her best feature is her smile… and admits her teeth weren't always picture perfect.
"I had the worst smile before! It took a lot of hard work and a lot of money to get it this way," Bar joked during her Yahoo! interview.
"I had braces and neckgear," she added. "I had to go to school with it. It was just horrifying!"
But even with a mouth full of metal, Bar knew how to get attention. "I was the first person to have [neckgear]. I used to hang pens from it and go to the teacher. I was a goofball."
1. Bar's measurements are a curvy 35-24-35. SI Group editor Terry McDonnell said "a skinny waif won't work" as the cover model.
2. Bar's cover shoot was on Canouan Island in the Grenadines, but her favorite place to shoot is Israel. "The light in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea is golden. It's the most beautiful light," she said of her native country.
3. Bar is the first Israeli model ever to be featured in the swimsuit issue. "It's always a huge honor to be the first to do something," she explained. "People always remember the first to do something."
4. Bar is working on her own swimsuit, which she's dubbed The Little Perfect Black Bikini. She's working with Hurley clothing line to identify a charity to receive the proceeds from the bikini's sale.
5. Bar loves breakfast. She doesn't diet, but eats everything in moderation.
After getting through her ugly duckling phase (which lasted three years), Bar signed with a modeling agency in her native Israel and her career quickly took off. She has appeared in the swimsuit issue twice before, but this was her first cover. She only found out she had booked it hours before it was revealed to the public. "It came as a total surprise," she said. "I was invited to my agency and told that I had an audition. [Swimsuit editor] Diane Smith was there with a bouquet of flowers, a camera crew, and the cover and I was in complete shock. My mouth was open for two minutes. I couldn't believe it."
One person that did know the closely-guarded secret was Bar's mother. "My mom was in on the whole scheme but I still did call her. She knew for a week or something and she couldn't tell me. It was very difficult for her to talk to me every day and not say it."
Bar hopes to parlay the cover into even more opportunities. She's already been tapped as the host of MTV's revamped "House of Style" and will star in "Session," a psychological thriller by Israeli director Haim Bouzaglo.
To see more photos of Bar and the other models, head over to omg!, or pick up a copy of the magazine on newsstands now.
And be sure to tune in to TNT tonight for the "2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Special."
Get more on Bar Refaeli and the Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit 2009 issue here.
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