Fox, a lone wolf

BEING crowned the world's sexiest woman apparently does not guarantee an idyllic romantic life.

Megan Fox, who carries that title with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek, celebrated her 23rd birthday on May 16. She was in Hawaii. By herself.

"Alone," she says, as if to underscore the detachment she felt. "I am not in a committed relationship right now."

Not that the straight-talking young woman, who co-stars in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and has two other movies in the can, is crying out for help, mind you.

Since the break-up of her long-term relationship with former Beverly Hills 90210 and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actor Brian Austin Green, 35, Fox has embraced solitude.

"I really don't know anything about being single yet, really," she says. "I've sort of isolated myself and forced myself to sit and be quiet. I've been reading a lot and listening to music and trying just to work on myself.

"I was with someone from the time I was 18, so I've never been my own, independent adult. I've never been forced to take care of myself. I've always had someone doing that for me.

"Right now there's no space in my head for who's going to be next or how I need to fill my time. I'm just trying to be comfortable with who I am before I get into another relationship where I'll just repeat the cycle and I will have 10 failed relationships.

"I will be Elizabeth Taylor by the time I'm 60 and I don't want to do that."

Fox, who has the tragic Marilyn Monroe's face tattooed on her right arm -- one of nine tattoos on various parts of her anatomy -- is nothing if not a realist about her image and the films she is making and she is acutely aware of her place in Hollywood's general scheme of things.

Transformers director Michael Bay asked her to stack on more than 4kg when she returned to her role as Mikaela Banes in the sequel, but she has her more svelte figure back.

"People will tell you I spent all day, every day, inhaling chips and candy and you never saw me with a banana or, like, celery," she says.

"But just recently I went on a raw food diet. I'm eating a lot of sushi and I started doing Pilates. That's really the answer."

She pauses and adds happily: "That and being 23."

Asked about her Hollywood image, Fox replies bluntly that she is "in the pin-up category".

"I haven't given people a reason to take my work seriously yet, which is my responsibility to do," she says. "I think the expectation of me, as far as my ability as an actress goes, is very low, which I don't have a problem with.

"I feel like that means I can only ever be an overachiever when people expect so little of me. I think that's an opportunity.

"I don't have a specific image I want to achieve. I just really want at some point for it to be OK for women, young girls, to be sexy because I think that's a power, a gift that we were given by God or the universe or whatever and you should embrace it.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with being sexy or being in your underwear or whatever. I do think you need to have thoughts in your mind to go behind that image. You need to be able to speak. You need to be able to carry yourself in a way that's not ridiculous. You need to have some substance."

Fox, who from time to time has been quoted as saying that she is bisexual, that Scarlett Johansson is pretentious and that young Hollywood leading men Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson are "too pretty", agrees that when she offers a public opinion on just about anything, it usually comes back to haunt her. But she is not about to demur.

"Every time I open my mouth I get burned by something, mainly because people refuse to understand the intent behind what I say," Fox says.

"I try to communicate things in what I find to be a humourous way but people, at least here in the United States, don't want to accept that I have a sense of humour and I don't take myself seriously.

"So that's hard for me, but I made a decision not to be a bulls--- person, because this is a bulls--- industry. I need to hold on to my soul and my integrity and not compromise and become part of the bulls---.

"And if that means that I get burned for the first few years of my career, then that's what it means."

For the most part, however, she prefers to mind her own business.

"I think I'm kind of a recluse," she says. "I'm a hermit. Like, I'm not really out that much and that's because I do have a great fear of Hollywood, just watching what it does to people and what it will always continue to do.

"You have to be a really strong human being to survive it, especially as a young woman. So I try to avoid the Hollywood scene as much as possible and when people enjoy the Hollywood scene, that's usually a red flag to me and I don't want those people around.

"Some people might think my life is boring, but I haven't been to rehab yet so I think I'm doing something right."

And that "sexiest woman" thing that's following her around, courtesy of a men's magazine?

"Oh, there's a new No.1 every year so I take that with a grain of salt."