Elisabetta Canalis ( born 12 September 1978) is an Italian actress and showgirl. Canalis was born in Sassari, Sardinia in Italy. Her father, Cesare, is a radiologist in University of Sassari's clinic, while her mother, Bruna, was an Italian teacher. She has a brother named Luigi, who is also a radiologist and was involved in a Switzerland debt scandal. Canalis was educated in Sassari, where she attended the "classical" high school (Liceo classico), and then moved to Milan to study foreign languages at Università degli Studi di Milano, though she never graduated because she started to work as a dancer for Silvio Berlusconi's TV channel Canale 5 at the age of 21.
