|| TRIVIA ||


•Miss Teen South Carolina in 1997
•Her first interview on TRL was with hip-hop artist Chingy
•Says her favorite music artist is R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles
•One of the finalists in E!'s competition to find a replacement for Brooke Burke as hostess for the show 'Wild On.'
•Vanessa's nickname is Nessa.
•She was named #15 on Maxim's Hot 100 list of 2006. (edit) She has an older adopted brother, Vincent. (edit) Vanessa is 5'8" (edit) Vanessa has co-hosted on talk shows The View and Live with Regis and Kelly. She also appeared as a guest on The Tony Danza Show and Isaac.

Vanessa filled in for Kelly Ripa and co-hosted with Regis Philbin on Live with Regis & Kelly on March 23, 2006.
•Vanessa is in Nick Lachey's music video "What's Left of Me" (2006) as his ex-love interest (ie, Jessica Simpson).
•For a Vogue photo shoot, Vanessa dressed as Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) from the '80s movie Flashdance for a tribute to the Oscars. The other ET reporters dressed for the occasion as well. The photos can be seen in the February 2006 issue of Vogue.
•At the 1998 Miss Teen USA pageant, Vanessa Minnillo said she would be interested in studying engineering at college.
•She enjoys playing flag football, volleyball and tennis.
•Vanessa has three mini-pinschers, Rudy, Little Nicky and Bubba.
•Vanessa is Maxim's October 2005 issue cover girl with a feature and photo spread. The photo shoot was inspired by the videos of Madonna, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, and Beyonce.
•Vanessa is the cover girl for the June 2004 issue of American Cheerleader magazine.