Penélope Cruz: Will She Say I Do, or I Don't
By Hilary De Vries
Making the Most Out of Life
Cruz is something of an expert when it comes to making the most out of life. An aspiring ballet dancer before she made the move into acting, Cruz was already a rising young star in her native Spain when she electrified Hollywood with her performance as a pregnant, fatally ill nun in the 1999 Oscar-winning drama All About My Mother, directed by Pedro Almodovar, Spain's most famous filmmaker. With her smoldering Latin looks and riveting screen presence, the then-25-year-old starlet was hailed as the new Sophia Loren. Ralph Lauren snapped her up to be the face for his advertising campaign, and in Hollywood, Cruz became the most in-demand ingenue working. During 2000 and 2001, she had plum parts in four high-profile films that paired her with some of Hollywood's top leading men ‑- Matt Damon in All the Pretty Horses, Johnny Depp in Blow, Nicolas Cage in Captain Corelli's Mandolin and Cruise in Vanilla Sky. She was also rumored to be romantically involved with almost all her costars.
