Jennifer Connelly was a teenage book cover model

The teen paperbacks weren’t all that memorable, but the girl that appeared on them was: Jennifer Connelly would grow up to become an Oscar-winning actress.

Connelly was confronted with her book cover girl past on “Jimmy Kimmel Live� on Tuesday night. She was there to promote her new movie “American Pastoral� — based on the novel by Philip Roth — but Kimmel had questions for the actress about her other literary connections.

Kimmel produced a stack of paperbacks from the 1980s featuring a teenage Connelly on the covers, prompting an embarrassed smile from the actress.

Reacting to the cover of a romance novel called “Once in California,� a somewhat sheepish Connelly recalled her career as a model for young adult books.

“I remember you’d go and do these things and they’d tell you a little bit about the story,� Connelly said, “[so you could] try and get in the spirit of what’s happening in the novel.�

Other books displayed by Kimmel featured titles such as “The Two of Us,� “Rock ‘n’ Roll Romance� (tagline: “Loving Rock ‘n’ Roll doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love�) and the bizarrely titled “Annabelle Starr, E.S.P.�

Kimmel had fun with the last one, noting the text underneath the name of the author, Lila Perl: “Author of ‘Hey, Do You Remember Fat Glenda?’�

“I wanted to show you something,� Kimmel said. “I was also a teen model at one time, and I played Fat Glenda.� He then produced a paperback with that title, with his face Photoshopped onto a woman’s body.

In “American Pastoral,� Connelly stars with Ewan McGregor and Dakota Fanning. The film, directed by McGregor, is based on Philip Roth’s critically acclaimed 1997 novel.

“This is one of the great books, right?� Kimmel said. “It won a Pulitzer Prize, and now it’s a movie, so we don’t have to read it anymore.�

“You should see the movie and you should still read the book,� Connelly replied. “It’s extraordinary. It’s so beautiful.�