'X-Men' star joins cast of ABC's 'Betty'

"Ugly Betty," meet beautiful Rebecca.

Rebecca Romijn is joining the already large cast of ABC's "Ugly Betty" as a series regular. She'll make her first appearance on the series sometime early next year.

The network says she'll be playing the mysterious masked woman who's been plotting with Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams) to take control of Mode magazine from the Meade family. Presumably the casting of Romijn, a former model, will mean the mask is coming off.

And for the record, that hasn't been Romijn who's been swathed in giant sunglasses and a surgical mask all season. An actress named Elizabeth Penn Payne has been credited as "Masked Woman" in seven episodes thus far.

Romijn is probably best known as the shape-shifting Mystique in the three "X-Men" films. She also starred in The WB's series "Pepper Dennis" last spring. Her other screen credits include "Femme Fatale," "The Punisher" and a recurring part on "Just Shoot Me."

The addition of Romijn to "Betty" brings the show's number of regular cast members to 12. The show also has a number of recurring characters, including executive producer Salma Hayek, who plays the editor of another magazine in the Meade Publications empire.