You know what I like about George Clooney’s new girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis? She’s not really trying to be classy and faux-demure like Sarah Larson, his last girlfriend. When Clooney was with Sarah, she got the typical Clooney whitewash of her sketchy Vegas “cocktail waitress” past, but she started believing her own hype. She thought she would have had a profile in Harper’s Bazaar even if she wasn’t on her knees for Clooney. She was wrong. Elisabetta doesn’t have those same delusions. She seems to know that she’s not a Harper’s Bazaar kind of girl. She’s not trying to cover up all of her naked pictures or the whiff of working girl. She’s strictly Maxim Magazine. Yes, Elisabetta’s big American magazine debut is a Maxim profile with an obligatory lingerie-and-swimsuit-clad photo shoot (slideshow here). Of course. Here’s the profile:

During the recent Venice Film Festival premiere of The Men Who Stare at Goats, men were staring mostly at George Clooney’s date, Elisabetta Canalis.

Known throughout her native Italy as “La Canalis” or “Eli” (which we’re pretty sure translates to “so freakin’ hot she makes you want to punch yourself in the prosciutto”), Elisabetta first made a name for herself as a showgirl on the whacked-out TV hit Striscia la Notizia. (Think of some crazed melding of a late night show, giant talking puppets, and bevies of women prancing about in lingerie, and you get the picture.)

From there Elisabetta went on to pose in dozens of ad campaigns, appear on MTV Italy’s Total Request Live, and star in her own best-selling calendar (thank you, Google image search!, making her the most wanted target of the Italian paparazzi.

Up next for the olive-skinned sexpot? If there is a God, she’ll take an interest in magazine publishing and apply for an internship here at Maxim. But judging by the reception she received on the red carpet and the gushing comments made by bloggers who flooded the Web with her glorious image, we can only hope and pray and make blood offerings that a Hollywood career is about to be made. Don’t forget the little people (i.e., us), Elisabetta!

[From Maxim]

What bugs me about Elisabetta (and I don’t think I’m alone) is that I can’t figure out who she looks like. In the first pictures of her and Clooney together, she could have passed for Cindy Crawford’s hard-living sister. In subsequent red carpet appearances, I get a slightly Teri Hatcher-Hilary Swank-Monica Bellucci-Eva Longoria feel from her. And now, in these Maxim pictures, isn’t there a whiff of Eva Mendes? She has a really interesting face that looks totally different in every picture. Whoops… I guess we aren’t supposed to be looking at her face, though. Yeah… Clooney’s not looking at it either.

Thanks to Maxim for the pictures.