Christina Hendricks: Bond Girl

Nowadays people turn their noses up at fictional heroes shilling commercial product. That's a relatively recent development: in the '50s, Superman sold corn flakes, and back in the '70s all our comic book heroes hawked Hostess fruit pies. James Bond has been selling stuff nearly as long as he's been a film character and, shifting current tastes be damned, he's still doing it, with last month's Heineken ad giving us maybe some of the most "fun" 007 moments we've had in years.

Back in 1997, in support of Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond really went HAM on the endorsement deals, including a whole slew of spots for the Visa Check Card, which I guess was a novel idea back then? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Let's get to the real reason we're sharing this trivia: this 60-second spot features 007 (Pierce Brosnan) passing all manner of high-tech identity verification methods, only to be carded by a sassy, British-accented, 22 year-old Christina Hendricks.

I had some more stuff to say in the way of trivia and history, but you know what? I'm done talking. A British-accented, 22 year-old Christina Hendricks. The only thing hotter would be a British-accented, 40 year-old Christina Hendricks. You're welcome.