Beyoncé Spreads the Gospel

Say her name, Beyoncé . So very vogue in Hollywood think Cher, Madonna the heart of super-successful R&B trio Destiny's Child has transformed her considerable talents into an icon of personality, and therefore no longer requires a surname. She currently has a number-one single and solo album and a growing film resume following her adorable turn as '70s spitfire Foxxy Cleopatra in Austin Powers' Goldmember with a more demure role as a gospel-singing single mom in The Fighting Temptations, opposite Cuba Gooding Jr.

"I wanted to play someone less glamorous that's actually how I got involved," says the 22-year-old Houston native. "I told my agent, in the next movie I don't want to have on makeup. I want to be just regular. And I want to have real issues. I don't want to be Goody Two Shoes, perfect, whatever. I want to have problems like everyone else, like every woman. I want to do darker films, where I can be more vulnerable."

Beyoncé seems somehow unspoiled by her sensational coming-of-age (she began her musical career at age seven, with an early incarnation of Destiny's Child; she was 15 when the group released its first single). The current trio (Beyoncé; her cousin, Kelly Rowland; and Michelle Williams) was nurtured to stardom by Matthew Knowles -- Beyonce's father and Kelly's legal guardian -- and as the founding member and chief songwriter, Beyoncé was the first African American woman to win ASCAP's award for Pop Songwriter of the Year -- and the second woman ever -- to receive that honor.