Mendes smoulders

The ever so sensual American actress Eva Mendes enlivens next year's Campari calendar with her smouldering allure. She has lived out her fantasies, frollicking with a white stallion, downing luscious cocktails and playing with a pack of male hunks in a steamy new calendar.

Campari Tales, the concept for the year 2008, is an adult, glamorous and glossy storybook where

Ms Mendes's alluring sensuality is the absolute protagonist and her enchanting beauty is captured by Marino Parisotto, one of the world's best photographers.

The 12 shots dabble with a series of fables and fantasy and place a sensual spin on scenes from Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and The Beast and Little Red Riding Hood.

The stunning 32-year-old said: "I had never posed for a calendar before and I was thrilled that Campari has given me the opportunity to interpret these wonderful stories... who wouldn't want to live a fairy tale even if for a short while?"

The calendar features beasts and princes alongside the princess, but Ms Mendes's co-star is unmistakably Campari. With its bold red strokes Campari emboldens the heroine and it becomes the red line that unifies and defines the calendar, as it has done so for the past eight years in previous editions.

The calendar is printed in limited edition 9,999 copies and distributed internationally.