Va-va-voom! Penélope Cruz takes the cover of the November issue of Vanity Fair, and wowzas, she looks incredible in a ravishing new photoshoot.

Some years ago, when Penélope Cruz was still on her way up the movie-star ladder, I had a behind-the-scenes adventure with her that gave me a chance to see what the Spanish actress is made of. I had arranged for her to do a cover shoot for Interview, the magazine I then edited, and on the day of the shoot I got a call from the photographer, who was freaking out. She had planned a bunch of fun setups, but the day hadn’t even begun yet and now Cruz’s minders were demanding that the photographer make it snappy: there wasn’t time to do anything but a few basic shots. The huffs and snits were about to spoil the shoot, so I headed over to the location, a nightclub on 14th Street, to see if I could fix things. I quickly sussed out the real reason Cruz’s people were trying to cut the shoot short: she had been summoned for a meeting later that same day with the other Cruise, as in Tom, who back then, in 2000, was still considered Mr. It. I got nowhere with her Spanish rep—apparently our rinky-dink photo shoot was chopped liver in comparison with a meeting with Hollywood’s top gun—so I marched into hair and makeup, where the actress was getting spiffed up for the first picture, and pleaded our case directly. She looked horrified that we’d been made to feel rushed and small, and asked me to tell our photographer that she was honored to be working with her and was committed to posing for all the images she wanted.

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Spanish beauties Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek are amongst the big winners at this year’s American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) award.

After winning an Oscar, Cruz has now won the Best actress award at ALMA for her performance as Maria Elena in’ Vicky Cristina Barcelona, reported Aceshowbiz.’Frida’ star Hayek was given the Anthony Quinn Award for Industry Excellence at the gala ceremony held at the Royce Hall Auditorium at UCLA on Thursday night. It was co-hosted by actress Eva Longoria alongside comedian George Lopez.

Yesterday in Toronto Pe attended the Sony Pictures Classics Dinner. At the event she bumped into An Education stars Carrey Mullgan and Peter Sarsgarrd.

Broken Embraces had a screening at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival on Thursday and glowed wearing an aqua RM by Roland Mouret Daphne one shoulder dress.

We’ve been hearing the rumors all summer long and I have not wanted to post on the subject until we heard something official since we do not follow gossipy news on this site.

At TIFF Penelope was asked about it, but her publicist moved her along to the next question. While a bit later Miss Cruz opened up to USA Today’s Donna Freydkin on the red carpet and said “I start getting some presents from friends saying, ‘Congratulations, you’re pregnant.’ And I say, ‘No, I’m not, so return the presents,’” she told Donna. “It’s amazing.”