By Stacy Jenel Smith Just a year ago, he was an aging action star whose $30 million price tag for his latest movie seemed as outsized as his biceps. Last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his $99.1 billion budget plan for the financially ailing state of California. Schwarzenegger is, without a doubt, the largest celebrity transformation of the past year.

However, he wasn't alone in having a major change in his lot in life. As it happens, these have been fertile times for many well-known entertainment figures in terms of growing new images, new lifestyles, new careers. With Arnold as the undisputed Number 1, following are the rest of our Top 10 Transforming Stars. See if you can guess their names:

2. A barroom brawler and womanizer, this brilliant film actor has had a reputation for temperamental behavior everywhere but on the set -- and a history of scowling and grumbling through interviews. His fabled romantic encounters ran the gamut from then-married Meg Ryan to Courtney Love. But since his April wedding to actress Danielle Spencer, he's been coming off as a changed bloke. With the imminent arrival of a baby son, he recently told reporters, "I'm really enjoying watching my wife flower at the thought of being a mother." Aww. (Russell Crowe)

3. He admits it himself -- this past year has hurt his image, and it certainly has. How do you go from being an Oscar-winning, dashing boxoffice hottie to a cheesy tabloid name? Give the moviegoing public a couple of major turkeys. Regularly make statements that cause colleagues and/or fans to flinch. And of course, make and break gigantic wedding plans with a conspicuous-spender publicity hound Hollywood diva and allow lots of private details of your life into the spotlight. Everyone thought you had class, but how J.Lo can you go? (Ben Affleck)

4. This blond beauty went from being a cute member of the Disney junior star stable to a formidable force in the pop music and movie worlds -- with an unfriendly split from her former bosses and a tiff with a fellow young actress spelling her ascent to Baby Diva status. Hey now, hey now, she and her career are growing up fast -- her album nabbed No. 1 on the charts, she was in three successful films in a row (one of which was a star vehicle for her), and she and her tour are all over the Nickelodeon channel. Watch out, Britney. (Hilary Duff)

5. With a sexy, husky voice that's been likened to that of Lauren Bacall, this 19-year-old actress has made the leap from little-known to star in recent months. She is the Hollywood Golden Girl of the season. With Best Actress in a Drama AND Best Actress in a Comedy Golden Globe nominations for each of her acclaimed 2003 films, she seriously shows she can do it all. Many critics expect her to nab at least one Oscar nod if not two. She plans to become a director, and people who know her say she's smart, talented and strong enough to do it. (Scarlett Johansson)

6. A year ago, he seemed merely pathetic -- one of the greatest entertainers of the latter 20th century reduced to the status of fading odd ball with a checkered past and money problems. Now, sadly, he's in deep trouble and all the world is watching. (Michael Jackson, though Phil Spector is also in this category)

7. She was among the great talents that Hollywood -- and the public -- seemed to have forgotten, except when she occasionally showed up on fashion faux pas pages with her eccentric wardrobe choices. Now, this Oscar winner gets the comeback transformation designation, deservedly back in the center spotlight with her daring, laugh-through-tears performance opposite old buddy Jack Nicholson in "Something's Gotta Give." (Diane Keaton)

8. This ultra-talented Texas-by-way-of-Nashville trio makes the transformation list for trading in their good ol' gal country music images for that of politically-charged, ever-more pop music-oriented performers. (The Dixie Chicks)

9. This former talk show host has perhaps the most stunning image change in recent show business history. Or as she put it, "The bitch ain't so nice any more." Over the past year, the tranformation she started earlier was completed as the public got to see just how nasty this once-loveable actress-comedian-Broadway producer could be, thanks to the ugly lawsuit over her failed magazine. (Rosie O'Donnell)

10. Her life hadn't changed, and her personality hadn't changed, and it's hard to imagine her having a political view. Still, this personality must make the transformation list by virtue of her 87 pound weight loss. (Who else but Anna Nicole Smith?)