Annette Bening. American Beauty. It's that simple. Just say the name and it evokes regal bearing, perfect enunciation. Class. Refinement.

Her looks are so classic that her face was the model used by the artist who created the new robe-draped female icon seen in the Columbia Pictures logo, a rumor she recently confirmed to Roger Ebert. "Oh sure, the artist told me it was me. But just the face," she said. The consensus, it seems, was that she had a look of "stern nobility" synonymous with artistic integrity.

And then, to add further mystique to her image, there's her husband.

Infamous Hollywood heartthrob/notorious bachelor Warren Beatty had been captivated by Bening's 1990 performance as the sexy, smart con artist in The Grifters (earning her an Academy Award nomination) and wanted her to appear in his 1991 film, Bugsy. He got her. Then, during the filming of her role as his tart gangster moll, she did the impossible. At age 33, she not only captured the romantic interest of Beatty, 21 years her senior and for years linked in headline-grabbing romances with leading ladies Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, Isabelle Adjani, Madonna… but caught him in holy matrimony, a state she appears to have occupied blissfully for 12 years, producing 4 children.

Beatty has said that he fell hopelessly in love with Bening in about 30 seconds, when he auditioned her for Bugsy. "To this day, I don't know why Annette over the other women I've known," he mused, "but I knew instantly she was special."

Says Jeremy Irons, Bening's co-star in her current film, Being Julia, "Thirteen years ago, Warren was in the mood to be caught. But I think he couldn't have been caught by a more intelligent, attractive, savvy lady."

Why didn't Bening and Beatty just go the route of "long-term significant other" à la Kurt and Goldie, or Susan and Tim? Perhaps it stems from the values formed during Bening's child-hood. Born in Topeka, Kansas, she was raised in Wichita until age seven, then moved with her insurance salesman father and homemaker/church singer mother, sister and two brothers to San Diego. Bening earned her B.A. in theater arts from San Francisco State University, then studied at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where she met actor/theater director Steven White, whom she wed in 1984. With roots in dancing and regional theater, she moved to NYC (without White) to appear in the 1986 Broadway stage production Coastal Disturbances (which earned her a Tony nomination). It was five years until her film debut in the Dan Aykroyd film, The Great Outdoors, followed by her role as a scheming courtesan in the French court drama Valmont and her breakthrough casting in The Grifters.

In 1991, Bening appeared as wife to Harrison Ford in Regarding Henry and to Robert De Niro in Guilty by Suspicion. As her film career was taking off, she and White divorced (they remain good friends), and she began dating actor Ed Begley Jr.

Then along came Beatty.

Bening's involvement in Bugsy culminated in a Golden Globe nomination, an on-set affair, and her first pregnancy; she and Beatty wed two months after the birth of daughter Kathlyn. Timing is everything. Literally at the peak of her career, she had to give up her next role as Catwoman in Batman Returns (which went to Michelle Pfeiffer), and pass on the Demi Moore role in Disclosure. Bening did get eventual screen time in 1995 with Michael Douglas as First Girlfriend to his Chief in The American President (which earned her another Golden Globe nomination).

She says that early on, she and Beatty discussed wanting children, and more than two. Starting at age 34, she gave birth to four within eight years. "The whole kid thing, for me, it was just a necessity," said Bening, "and I can't explain it, from when I was little. That came before I really wanted to be an actress." (She, herself, is the youngest of four children, all born within five years.)

"Each time I became pregnant," she added, "I was so happy that I couldn't have cared less about being an actress. I think my time away from films has been very healthy."

Before the birth of her second child, son Ben, in 1994, Bening filmed the tear-jerker Love Affair with Beatty, to which critics and movie-goers had an unenthusiastic Gigli-like reaction. "There are so few adult romances," she says. "It's hard when you don't get a happy ending."

Balance, says Bening, is a non-operative word. "I don't think about work being over here, and my kids and my personal life over there. It's all sort of one big, chaotic mess."

Over the past few years, she has been able to pick and choose quality roles that won't take her away from her family for too long.

Bening almost passed on the role of the obsessed, over-organized, real-estate-agent wife in American Beauty, but intuition ultimately told her "it was something I should do." Good move. The film grossed $100 mil and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including her own, and earned her another Golden Globe nomination.

That year (2000), Bening and Beatty attended the Academy Awards as the royal couple; she was eight months pregnant with their fourth child, up for Best Actress, and Beatty, already nominated 14 times, would be honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, recognizing his contributions as a producer. She wanted to be there for him, but was con.-dent that if she were to go into labor, her hubby would forsake the honor to be by her side. "A man who would make that decision [to stay at the Oscars] would not be the kind of man I would have married," she quietly said.

Anyone seeing Being Julia will, of course, note the similarities in plot and characters that could just as easily make the film's title, "Being Annette"-aging stage actress, powerful and handsome impresario/lothario actor/husband, a May-December romance. Comparisons like this have come up before, to which she resignedly sighs and always says, "It doesn't matter what I say or what movie I do, it all relates to my life with him [Beatty]."

The meaty role has already generated Oscar buzz. She says she loved playing an actress "her age" who has roots on the stage. "I like moving around and I miss the athleticism of the theater."

In 2005, Bening will appear in three films: Diva, Mrs. Harris, and Under My Skin.

"I love the fact that I have so many opportunities, but I know this privileged position cannot last," said the actress. "That doesn't mean I'll stop working. I picture myself as an old actress doing cameos in films with people saying, 'Isn't that that Bening woman?' "

This American Beauty's natural star power is fixed… and forever bright.