HIStory

Long before Robert Thomas Pattinson began driving women wild as dreamy vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movie franchise, he was just a shy boy, nicknamed Patty, from London. "Rob's gobsmacked [British for astounded] by all the attention he's getting," an aunt of his, Diana Nutley, says in a revealing interview. "He's very cool about it all, but he can't believe it either."

But when he was growing up in a cozy Victorian home in London's Barnes neighborhood, the only females chasing the future actor were his sisters, Victoria, 28, and Lizzy, 25. "They used to dress me up as a girl and introduce me as Claudia," recalls Rob, the only son of Richard Pattinson, a vintage-car dealer, and mom Clare,
a modeling-agency booker.

Although Rob sometimes took cover from his siblings, he was known for hamming it up at family gatherings. "I remember we had a party in the garden one July," Diana recalls. "We had a wonderful game to see how many dough-nuts we could eat without licking our lips. It's impossible -- Rob was covered in jam."

But Rob had cleaned up his act by the time he transferred from the all-boys Tower House prep school to the coed Harrodian School at age 12. "It was a real turning point for me," admits the actor, who earned pocket change then by delivering newspapers and walking dogs. "I became cool and discovered hair gel."