Kate Beckinsale — Sexiest Woman Alive

Kate Beckinsale has been named Esquire magazine’s 2009 Sexiest Woman Alive.

In taking the title, the British actress — who is married to film director Len Wiseman and has a daughter, Lily, with ex-partner Michael Sheen — follows in the footsteps of starlets like Charlize Theron and Halle Berry, who have previously taken the honor.

“This whole notion of being named ‘Sexiest Woman Alive’ is going to earn me quite a beating,” Kate told the mag for its November issue. “You can’t have that title with four brothers. I’ll get wedgies. Headlocks. Noogies.”

“I like the idea of it, too. I do,” she adds. “I’m feeling that I must earn this. I need to go out and become much better at pole dancing or something.”

Kate, 36 — who lives in Los Angeles — recently revealed that she goes back to London when she’s feeling homesick.

“I’ve just come back from being in London for five months,” she said. “I was homesick, so my daughter and I went back for five months. My daughter went to school there, for a little bit.

“I went to see some of my relatives. So, I got it out of my system, for a little while. Five months was a good long time. I haven’t been able to do that.

“I’ve been working so much, I haven’t really been able to take a minute to do that, since moving to LA six or seven years ago. So, because I was taking a break, it was nice to go home for a bit.”