Elizabeth Hurley and Shane Warne, 2011
Elizabeth Hurley and Shane Warne, 2011 Zimbio

Elizabeth Hurley is on top once again. The actress is engaged to Shane Warne and premiered in a multi-episode cameo on Gossip Girl this week.

When Elizabeth Hurley first began dating Aussie and former cricket bowler Shane Warne 10 months ago, some commentators believed it might have been a PR ploy. Their flirtations occured almost entirely on Twitter, and both were attempting to make comebacks after a rocky patch in their careers.

Yesterday, however, the couple- who are both divorced and have children from previous relationships- officially announced their engagement. Warne got down one knee in the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews, Scotland.

As London rag The Express notes, Hurley, 46, is once again with a serial womanizer, a pairing that ended in disaster for her in 1995 when then-boyfriend Hugh Grant was caught with prostitute Divine Brown.

Despite appearances, however, Hurley's life and career is not pulling a repeat performance. After years as a C-lsit actress and professional arm candy, Hurley is now as the face of Estée Lauder. Her label Elizabeth Hurley Beach produces bikinis, shirts, and sarongs, and she's even managed to turn her well-known figure into a marketing brand for diet snack bars.

Even her relationship with Warne is not a redux of her past luck with straying spouses. Since dating Hurley, Warne has become noticeably thinner, better groomed, and better behaved.

This week on Gossip Girl, meanwhile, Hurley proved she's here to stay with a sizzling cameo as Diana Payne. She plays a millionaire who seduces Chase Crawford's Nate, a man 20 years her junior, minutes into their first meeting.

Hurley's storyline, which will span multiple episodes,willalso cross oceans as Nate returns to New York to pine for Diana. To his surprise, as the London Mail reports in its spoiler edition, he ends up running into her back in the States, and Diana is so impressed by his looks and business skills that she rewards him with a public sex session, hooking up in a basement stairwell.

TVline.com reported back in July that executive producers Stephanei Savage and Joshua Safran were thrilled to have Hurley on set. Diana's entrance on the Upper East Side will change the lives of all our characters, they wrote in a statement, adding: Elizabeth's sense of humor, intelligence and beauty fit the GG world perfectly. We feel fortunate to have her.