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With writers devoting so many column inches to chronicling Sharon Stone's triumphant, middle-age-be-damned return to full-frontal nudity in Basic Instinct 2, it's important that we don't forget the infamous scene that made her a star, back when the sight of the actress vigorously bouncing on top of a co-star as if her career depended on it excited rather than vaguely depressed us. Even 14 years later, Stone seems like she still hasn't made peace with her greatest contribution to cinema:

"Basic Instinct" nevertheless turned Stone into a major star, and she subsequently earned an Oscar nomination for her turn in "Casino." But the ensuing years hardly turned out as she expected, with a string of disastrous projects, punctuated by such duds as "Sliver," "Sphere," and "Catwoman."

Stone blamed her sagging career on being typecast as a sexpot, but now she's defending her most famous work. "I think my performance has held up," she told Harper's Bazaar last summer. "That scene doesn't have impact because a woman uncrosses her legs, but because I'm good in it."

That's a tough call; while we're inclined to think that the scene has impact primarily due to the fact that Stone's dramatic leg crossing and uncrossing shockingly (hey, these were more innocent times) revealed her bare vagina, there's definitely a Heisenbergian beaver-flashing uncertainty principle at work here—once that particular variable was introduced, we're prevented from ever truly knowing how good Stone's acting might have been.