Penelope Cruz in Vanity Fair: cat-eyes & another pregnancy denial

1109 VF NOUPC

Here’s Penelope on the cover of November’s Vanity Fair. While I really like almost everything about the cover shot, they should have rethought Penelope’s makeup. Those cat-eyes make her look like she had a bad facelift. Other than that, it’s very sexy.

Over the weekend, the NY Daily News ran a gossip piece about the continuing pregnancy rumors surrounding Penelope. The pregnancy rumors swirled for most of the summer, and then Penelope denied them in total while at the Toronto Film Festival two weeks ago. Anyway, the NYDN ran a story about Penelope and her hottie boyfriend Javier Bardem exiting an ob-gyn clinic last week, and how Pene was “glowing” and Javier was “tightly clutching a large, white envelope”. For the record, Penelope’s denial to the pregnancy question was “No, I’m not.” No room for question about it, really.

Now Penelope is giving a more formal denial in the November issue of Vanity Fair. The full interview is on VF’s site as well as a retrospective portfolio of Penelope’s previous appearances in VF. I’ve skimmed the article on VF’s site, and it’s a little light on actual quotes from Penelope. The writer, Ingrid Sischy, is too interested in telling her own personal stories to get anything really juicy out of Penelope. Here are some of the highlights, via Huffington Post:

Penélope Cruz, notoriously private and press-shy, tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Ingrid Sischy in a rare revealing moment that she is not pregnant with boyfriend Javier Bardem’s baby.

“My most nosy Parker question–one that I felt it was my duty as a reporter to ask–was whether the widespread rumors that there was a wee Bardem-Cruz on the way were true,” writes Sischy. “Here, unlike before, there was no telling silence from Cruz. Instead she answered no but in a rather baroque, roundabout way, detailing how [director Pedro] Almodóvar had tried, to no avail, to put that rumor to rest when a journalist asked him about it on a red carpet.”

Normally mum when it comes to her relationship with Bardem (“It’s more that she is protective of their privacy to a point that is striking even for performers who don’t like to kiss and tell,” Sischy writes), when Sischy brought up a U2 concert that she and Bardem had attended in Paris, mentioning that she’d heard Cruz was playing air guitar during some of the songs, Cruz squealed with delight, saying, “Javier is even better at air guitar!”

Sischy asks Cruz who was a better kisser: Scarlett Johansson, with whom she shared a famous make-out session in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, or Charlize Theron, whom Cruz smooched in the 2004 film Head in the Clouds. “No matter how I answer that I will be in trouble,” she says. “Both were pretty beautiful partners.”

Sophia Loren–Cruz’s co-star in the upcoming film Nine–tells Sischy that Cruz “has become a real friend. We talked a lot about life and our careers. I talked about De Sica, she talked about Almodóvar. When it was my last day she came to my dressing room. She was crying, and I was crying. This is the first time that I have left a film crying because we got so upset about leaving each other.”

Sischy writes that Cruz’s anxiety is fascinating, coming from someone who is so fearless on-screen. “I’ve always been a worrier,” says Cruz. “Since I was a little girl I’ve always felt that if I had a moment of peace I’d wonder: Are you sure you can afford to feel like this?”

Woody Allen, Cruz’s director for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is effusive in his assessment of her ability, but tells Sischy, “I never thought about her as a person, because when I work I’m not interested in the person except as a performer. When she turned out to be lovely, that was nice, but I would have been O.K. if she had been a bitch.” Regarding her beauty, he adds: “I don’t like to look at Penélope directly. It is too overwhelming.”

On the set of Nine, director Rob Marshall remembers, “She’d be the last one in that soundstage working, and I’d have to say, ‘Penélope, it’s over.’ The day we were shooting her big song, ‘A Call from the Vatican,’ she was out there working so hard. In the middle of the number she does all this work with ropes–she was swinging on them and it was scary and she had formed calluses and her hands were bleeding. Daniel [Day-Lewis] was screaming to her from the back of the soundstage that she is a warrior. We had told her she should wear gloves, but she was like, ‘No, no, no–I have to feel it.’ There’s this huge sheath of pink satin that she slides down on. When we finished the number she had disappeared behind the satin and was in tears. I said, ‘Are you unhappy with what you did?’ She said, ‘No, no. It’s that it is over, and I loved every second. I want to install ropes in my bedroom so I don’t have to let go of it.’ “

[From Vanity Fair via Huffington Post]

I can’t wait to see Nine. But not really for Penelope, I want to see it for Daniel Day-Lewis and Sophia Loren. I can’t wait to see Daniel sing, dance and romance. God knows, he’ll probably get yet another Oscar. In case anyone is unfamiliar with the project, this is how it went: in the 1963, Fredrico Fellini made a film called 8 ½, based on his own life, his own marriage and affairs and his relationships with the women he loved. The film was turned into a Broadway musical (called Nine) in the 1980s, and ended up winning a slew of Tonys. There was always talk about making the musical into a film, and now Chicago director Rob Marshall has done it. The film’s cast is kind of amazing – in addition to Day-Lewis and Cruz, there’s Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard and Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson. Cannot. Wait.

Here’s Penelope looking tired and uncomfortable while working on the set of her new film on September 8th in Los Angeles. Images thanks to Fame Pictures .

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17 Responses to “Penelope Cruz in Vanity Fair: cat-eyes & another pregnancy denial”

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  1. What evs says:

    Yeah I like the pose, the dress..but something looks a little weird with her face.. Maybe your right about the eye makeup. Or maybe it’s just too airbrushed? Sometimes, I think they just airbrush every thing and it makes things look weird not better.

  2. Diane says:

    The picture looks exaggerated and cartoonish. Too bad, she’s beautiful as is.

  3. Mel says:

    I think she looks fabulous – very Sophia Loren.

  4. Mairead says:

    I am such a fan of 81/2 and of Fellini in general, and having never seen the stage show I’m very nervous of the film. Fingers crossed though.

    On the cover-shot, I think the eye make-up was meant to be Lorenesque. Which it definitely is, I think she looks fab.

    I have to say, I love the idea of Penelope and Javier rocking out to The Edge 😀 but Penny, love- you must go to the Irish dates though; you haven’t lived under you’ve been surrounded by thousands of overly-emotional paddies howling out the words to Sunday Bloody Sunday in Croker (the location of the original Bloody Sunday) 😆

  5. barneslr says:

    She is just so very unattractive. I don’t get her appeal. And that comparison to Sophia Loren was a cruel insult to Loren, who is a true and classic beauty.

  6. Ash says:

    She’s pretty. The end.

  7. Mairead says:

    But Barnes, I was comparing their eye makeup 🙁

  8. lrm says:

    yea,i don’t see her as a classic beauty,either.but she is sexy and has great style,IMO.
    But not classically beautiful.
    I think if you saw her on the beach or out on the town,and didnt know who she was,you’d think she was attractive. But there would be plenty of other equally attractive women around her-whether in barcelona,LA,London,Berlin,NYC,etc.
    The world is full of beautiful women,who are not airbrushed!(:

  9. crash2GO2 says:

    Well I’m not afraid to say it. She certainly looks heavy around the middle in those lower three photos. What is it with all these actresses and their incredible growing and shrinking tummies?

  10. Lynn says:

    I don’t get her appeal either. Wish she’d just stay home and bake cookies instead of trying to be on every red carpet she can find.

  11. orion70 says:

    I have no idea why, but my first glance put me in mind of Rachael Leigh Cook.

    Penelope Cruz is an unusual beauty. Her face looks off somehow in this pic, i agree. It’s like they did something with her nose/upper lip.

  12. elusive says:

    They grow and shrink cause they all starve themselves to stay thin. When they gorge (or just occasionally slip) they bloat. It is fairly common with low carb (ie no white) diets.

    That being said…i dont know if she is or isn’t pregnant – but no wonder these women all have eating issues. Cant eat a burger without being told you look preggers!

  13. Ana says:

    Ooh I want to see this as well! I am pretty sure I saw a preview and it looks awesome.
    I like the eye make up. I think that they altered her jaw line.
    I am not so big on the pose. It’s like she got caught trying to pick a wedgie. I wish she would have been pretending to unzip her dress instead. But then it might have covered those lovely lady lumps.

  14. Heavenbound says:

    She looks beautiful.

  15. mags says:

    it’s her hair that’s the problem, the bangs and the big hair makes her face look too small.
    nothing that ruins the overall beauty of the photo, but in my opinion, it would have been better with her hair pulled back from her face or something.
    love her though

  16. Vermithrax says:

    What Ash said.

  17. Some interesting information on here. Slightly off topic but I am so excited !. I saw Cats The Musical for the first time and the music as well as the dancing is incredible. It is definitely an emotional journey that all the audience gets involved with !. ‘Cats’ will make you laugh and smile and touch certain areas within your heart. Everybody left the theater singing, content and uplifted. If you get a chance to go and see ‘Cats’ I really recommend it.