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USA WEEKEND

issue Date: December 20, 2009

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By Carol Clurman

Penelope Cruz is helping herself to a small buffet of sodas and snacks. Her long, slightly disheveled hair tumbles at least 6 inches past her shoulders. Even before the world's most sensuous movie star turns around, she is striking -- mainly because of what's on her feet: mid-thigh black suede boots with stiletto heels, jeans tucked inside. "Hello," she purrs, munching on a brownie and politely extending a hand.

Killer boots, but how can she walk in those things?

"I'm either in heels or I'm barefoot or with sandals and jeans. I don't have something in the middle," she says.

Indeed, it's impossible to find anything middling about the 35-year-old Spanish actress -- either onscreen or in her private life.

Let's start with the celluloid Cruz, who stars in two Oscar contenders opening within weeks of each other. Last month, she was a rich man's kept woman in "Broken Embraces," her fourth collaboration with director Pedro Almodovar. Now, she hits the big screen again in director Rob Marshall's steamy musical "Nine," based on the 1982 Broadway play, itself inspired by the Federico Fellini film "8 1/2." Cruz plays the mistress of an emotionally blocked filmmaker (Daniel Day-Lewis) who juggles a group of ladies that includes Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren.

Cruz says it wasn't her co-stars that made her nervous; it was pulling off the big production numbers. Her sexy solo number, "A Call From the Vatican," has her sliding down a swath of satin in fishnets.

"The day I had to record, I was crying. I was terrified to have to go to the studio and record," Cruz says. And then, "to have to get to a place where you can sing and dance the number at the same time -- I thought it was impossible."

Cruz had to audition for the role of Carla. "I think I saw every woman in Hollywood," says director Marshall, whose 2002 film, "Chicago," nabbed six Oscars. "Carla was such a difficult character to cast because the role demands that you sing and dance, that you're incredibly sexy and sensual, but you also have to be funny and vulnerable and tragic." Now, he says: "What was I thinking? There's only one person in the world who could play this part."

Cruz has been a star in her homeland of Spain since she was a teen. But it wasn't until earlier this year, when she won an Oscar for her role in Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," that she convinced American audiences she's more than just a spicy side dish. "I feel like I'm in a good place," she says with unconvincing modesty.

After years of studying English with tutors, Cruz still speaks with a thick accent, somewhere between Shakira and Zsa Zsa Gabor. She only occasionally asks for help with a word. "How do you say, uh, con-what?" she inquires, searching for "context," as in "taken out of context" in recent stories about her. Earlier this year, the Internet exploded with reports that she's engaged to Spanish heartthrob Javier Bardem, 40, and is pregnant with his child. She's mum, of course, but it's impossible to miss the oval sapphire and diamond dazzler she gamely sports on her left hand.

Adding fuel to the current obsession with the notoriously private Cruz is her endlessly enthralling personal life. She has been romantically linked to many of her leading men, most famously her "Vanilla Sky" co-star Tom Cruise (reportedly while he was still married to Kidman).

Kidman says she and her current "Nine" co-star are friends. "Penelope is so warm and authentic," Kidman relays via e-mail. "I loved working with Penelope and getting to know her."

Co-star and friend Kate Hudson, who's dating Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, says of rumors about both her and Cruz being alternately pregnant and/or engaged: "We just laugh at it. It's just crazy."

It seems the more attention Cruz gets, the more she's misunderstood. She insists she never signed a petition to free director Roman Polanski, who was jailed in September on 30-year-old sex charges involving a minor. And when asked about a 2006 London article in which she was quoted as saying she doesn't believe in marriage and wouldn't feel complete until she adopts a child, she retorts, "That interview was completely fabricated."

Since her movie debut at 18, a racy Spanish sex farce with Bardem called "Jamón, Jamón," Cruz has made roughly 40 films -- not that you'd know it by looking at her. Even up close, with very little makeup, Cruz is radiant. But ask for her beauty tips and she just laughs. "I'm the wrong person, because every day when I'm not working, I don't wear makeup," she exclaims. "I like messy hair, and I wear jeans and a big T-shirt. If I could, I'd be barefoot in the street."

Cruz confesses that the work, not to mention the media-dodging, is wearing her out: "It's a job that I love, but it's very demanding. I'm not interested in going from set to set. I did that for a long time. Now, one movie a year sounds good."

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