Sex in Cinema 2011

Judging from what and who went down on movie and TV screens last year, Hollywood may finally have driven a stake into that old taboo against "serious* actors showing some flesh, let alone some healthy erotic abandon. In fact, in 2010 scenes of oral copulation seemed almost to be a prerequisite for getting Oscar love. Nominees Michelle Williams and Annette Bening received oral stimulation in Blue Valentine and The Kids Are All Right, respectively, as did Natalie Portman in Black Swan, for which she waltzed home with an Oscar.

Even romantic comedies took a turn for the raunchy, with

Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal having gymnastic sex in Love and Other Drugs and Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling laughing their way through sex in Crazy, Stupid, Love.

But it was still cable TV where grown-ups hung out to enjoy the sexual high jinks of dysfunctional families such as those on Showtime's The Borgias and Weeds. Meanwhile, HBO's True Blood slaked our thirst for insanely over-the-top couplings of every possible persuasion.

Are moviegoers and TV watchers in the midst of a golden age of sense and sexuality? A year-end review of what sizzled on-screen should answer that question.

Tattoo You

Rooney Mara playing an edgy bisexual in The Girl With the Dragon Tat­too (opposite) keeps Daniel Craig on pins and needles.

Devil in Miss Jones

The icy blonde hotness of January Jones as telepathic mutant Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class could make mad men of us all.

Don't Laugh in Bed

One funny night of sexual escapades with Emma Stone is enough to tame slick ladies' man Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love (top right).

Tough Love

Amy Adams, playing boxer Mark Wahlberg's Boston bar­maid girlfriend, packs her own sexy two-fisted punch in The Fighter.

Slow Vamp

With that HBO smolder, True Blood's Anna Paquin doesn't need telepathy to arouse the beast in vam­pire Alexander Skarsgard.

Chasing Marilyn

In Nobody Else but You, a writer obsesses over the death of a small-town Mari­lyn Monroe look-alike, played by Sophie Quinton.

The Italians

Violante Placido's blowtorch sexi­ness as a prostitute in The American ignites a meltdown in professional assassin George Clooney.

Smokin'

Drug-dealing mama Mary-Louise Parker on Weeds enjoys a hair-pulling, booty-biting, backdoor throw-down with Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

Undressed to Kill

Colombiana's Zoe Saldana may be a lethal assassin, but her catlike moves in lingerie, hot pants and skivvies are equally deadly.

Room Service

Lovely German actress Saralisa Volm is a very satis­fied guest in Hotel Desire as co-star Clemens Schick provides a special kind of four-star service. I'm Not in Love

Natalie Portman goes commercial after her Black Swan Oscar by starring in No Strings Attached with Charlie Sheen wannabe Ashton Kutcher. Can the two friends keep their relationship purely physical, with no emotional attachment? Only Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, stars of the not so surprisingly similar (for Hollywood) Friends With Benefits, know for sure.

Hell-Raiser

On Showtime's The Borgias, Jeremy Irons, as the corrupt, diabolical Pope Alexander VI, shows his fondness for courtesans and prostitutes.

Gladiator Good Times

There's nothing like a raucous Jaime Murray striptease to light a Roman's candle on Starz's fleshy, bloody, campy Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

Moon Child

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia seems convinced that a runaway planet is about to collide with Earth, so why not spend her final hours naked?

Start Your Engines

Julianne Hough as the daughter of a Bible-thumping preacher in Foot­loose ranks as the hottest hood ornament in any recent movie.

Wet and Wild

No pirate could lust after booty more tempting than the sirens in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. That's why it's a Jolly Roger.

Yoga Bare

Plastic surgeon Antonio Banderas's experiments drive his mysterious captive Elena Anaya to physical and mental extremes in The Skin I Live In.

We'll Guess Wood

Doe-eyed Amanda Seyfried in the Twilight-y Red Riding Hood looks ready to find out exactly what's under wolfish woodcutter Shiloh Fernandez's hood. Women in Love Rebellious Iranian teen beau­ties Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy in Circumstance defy their country's rigid restrictions by falling in passionate love.

Dance Fever

Of the many dance sequences in Black Swan, none compare with Natalie Portman dancing with herself (left). Darkness in Paris In the French import House of Tolerance, a fancy turn-of-the-century Parisian brothel becomes a house of intolerance when a client slashes a Jewish working girl (Alice Barnole). In Cold Blood

On their honeymoon, Kristen Stewart warms up Robert Pattinson with her sexually heal­ing mojo in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part I Floored

The bored heroine of Turn Me On, Dammit! (Helene Bergsholm) sat­isfies her erotic itch by pleasuring herself to sweet nothings from a phone-sex worker (opposite).

That's Why They Call It the Blues

Not even a coed shower can save Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling's bad marriage in Blue Valentine.

Sacked

Ticked-off Maria Bello settles the score with her co-worker lover in The Company Men by firing him.

Open Wide

In Our Day Will Come, Vincent Cassel enjoys a sexy threesome that involves gorgeous Camille Rowe.

Comin' at Ya

3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy features a hero (Hiro Hayama) whose donkey-penis implant makes him very popu­lar. No subtitles needed. One Pill Makes You Larger Health-challenged Anne Hatha­way in Love and Other Drugs finds symptom relief—and rafter-shaking sex—with ever-ready Viagra rep Jake Gyllenhaal.

Luck o' the Irish

Laura Ramsey straightens the shil­lelagh of her 1970s-era Irish mob­ster boyfriend in Kill the Irishman.

Bi the Way

In The Kids Are All Right, bisexual Julianne Moore takes in restaurateur Mark Ruffalo's specialty of the day.

Skin Game

On HBO's Game of Thrones, lusty medieval prostitutes like Esme Bianco exist only to service aristos.