On the 9th day, May 20th, she also helped raise $333,000 for the earthquake-stricken nation of Haiti by auctioning off her designer dresses which aide the Jenkins-Penn Haitian relief organization. The Spanish actress stepped out in a gorgeous red wrap dress and silver shoes to mark the occasion. One celeb that really came up trump for the auction was Pe’s good friend, Salma Hayek who donated the first ever Gucci Couture dress, which she wore to day one of the Cannes film festival.

Although there is a good bit of paparazzi candids of her from Cannes, I obviously will not be posting these more intrusive ones as Penélope tried very hard at not being photographed so I wish to respect her privacy. I did however add a couple of shots I felt were okay.

Pe has now left France and is back in Madrid.

Also tonight, MakingOf.com hosts a Live Red Carpet Feed from the Sex and the City 2 premiere right here on Monday May 24th, 2010 at 6:00pm Edt.

I don’t think Pe will be attended since she was spotted in Madrid early this morning, but you can check out the premiere either way :)

The 36-year-old Oscar-winner and her sister, 33, look stunning on the 100ft-high billboard above the Samantha Thavasa flagship store near Harajuku.

Another ad above the store shows Cruz with her latest handbag design for the trendy Japanese company.

Beyonce, Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton and Jennifer Lopez have all previously helped design bags for the label.

Currently, Kate Winslet and Julia Roberts are spokesmodels for the brand, I’m not sure what Penélope’s duties will be as a model or when her ads might start appearing but this is very exciting since her duties with Mango ended and I’m ready to see more regular Cruz ads, in addition to her L’Oréal stuff. Lancôme Paris is a luxury beauty brand. Owned by L’Oréal since 1964, Lancôme is part of the Luxury Products division, which offers skin care, fragrances, and makeup at higher-end price points.

Penélope Cruz guest-edited next month’s French Vogue, which has three different covers.

One cover sees modern day screen legends Penélope, Kate Winslet, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Gwyneth Paltrow and Naomi Watts. All the ladies are wearing (RED) clothing, designed to eliminate AIDS in Africa.

While on the other covers, she poses as the other half of Bono’s face, and finally, she toplessly embraces Meryl Streep.

I do not have access to this magazine but I’m hoping we will have scans soon. Please consider donating the other various Pe covers if you manage to obtain and scan them – it would be tremendously appreciated! I can’t wait to see the inside contents!

Region 1 Special Features include the following:
– Commentary with Director Rob Marshall and Producer John DeLuca
– 8 Featurettes
– 3 Music Videos
– Sophia Loren Remembers Cinecitta Studios (Blu-ray only)
– BD Exclusive: Screen Actors Guild Q&A (Blu-ray only)
– movieIQ+sync featuring the “Nine” Playlist and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie! (Blu-ray only)

Entertainment in Video has also announced the Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray release of Nine for the April 19, priced at around £19.99 and £24.99 respectively.

Region 2 Special Features include the following:
– The Incomparable Daniel Day Lewis Featurette
– The Women of Nine Featurette
– Director Rob Marshall Featurette
– Behind the Look of Nine Featurette
– The Dancers of Nine Featurette
– The Choreography of ‘Cinema Italiano’ Featurette
– The Choreography of ‘Be Italian’ Featurette
– Making of ‘Cinema Italiano’ Featurette
– ‘Take It All’ Music Video
– ‘Cinema Italiano’ Music Video
– ‘Unusual Way’ Music Video
– Sophia Loren Remembers Cinecitta Studios (BD Exclusive)
– Screen Actors Guild Q&A Session (BD Exclusive)

Last year she was photographed with Woody Allen and this year she’s with her idol Pedro Almodóvar. You can also view the photoshoot in this past update.

Update #1) Penélope Cruz was just spotted on the red carpet wearing a red dress and an up-do! She was briefly shown on E!’s Live Coverage.

Update #2) Penélope Cruz stood next to her Supporting Actress nominees for the official red carpet on ABC before the big show, where she was gracious and even said even though she’s been there multiple times, she didn’t feel like a vet, that it felt like the first time and when she didn’t speak any English. She also said she is “so happy and proud to be in company of these amazing actresses.”

Update #3) The first (tagged) photo of Pe is available on our twitter, here!

Update #4) Cruz just presented Best Actor in a Supporting Role to Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. He opened his speech with “Penélope Cruz and an Oscar equals a Bingo.”

Update #5) Penélope is wearing a ravishing red Donna Karan couture duchess satin pleated gown, Chopard jewels and soft updo.

Update #6) The first pictures of our girl are being added to the gallery as we speak. Keep checking back for lots more coverage!

Update #7) Penélope shown in the audience.

Update #8) Not surprisingly, Mo’Nique won Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Pe was shown holding hands in the auidence with Javier Bardem.

Update #9) Penélope is carrying an Haute Couture Folies Clutch with a black strass Swarovski buckle and black stripped ostrich feather work by Roger Vivier.

Update #10) Cruz shown briefly in the audience during the Best Score dance performances.

Update #11) It’s a wrap! Pe didn’t attend any after parties.

Stay tuned for more Oscar updates. Not only is Cruz nominated but she will be presenting tonight as well.

Penélope looks absolutely stunning in a ballet pink creation with lace overlay and jeweled shoulders. The dress was by L’Wren Scott Spring 2010 (seems to be one of her favorite designers of late) and it’s train was custom-made for Cruz. The back of the dress looks gorgeous! I especially love Pe’s straight hair and make-up here. She topped off her look with a silver clutch and heels.

The first photos have begun to arrive and I’ve started adding some to the gallery. Hopefully we’ll have more tomorrow.

Penélope looked exquisite in a vintage Gianni Versace ivory column gown with vertical signature Gianni Versace zippers in the back of the dress. It’s nice to see something other than black which she’s been choosing a lot here lately.

I have updated the gallery with over x128 pictures from the festivities. Watch a video of her on the red carpet after the break.

Frame, Set, and Match
The Romantics
Pedro Almodóvar with Penélope Cruz

Four films together: Live Flesh (1997), All About My Mother (1999), Volver (2006), and Broken Embraces (2009).

Broken Embraces has a valedictory feel to it, or at least it conveys a sense that the 60-year-old Almodóvar—a man for whom it was once compulsory to use the words enfant terrible—is taking stock of his life. The movie is about a filmmaker, cruelly robbed of sight, who recounts to a young man the tragic story of his greatest love: a stunning beauty he rescued from the gilded clutches of kept-womanhood. There are stylistic nods to the 1950s weepie-meister Douglas Sirk and to Michael Powell’s sick-joke movie Peeping Tom. There are glimpses of the movie that the director made with his doomed love, a Day-Glo bauble that harkens back to Almodóvar’s youthful 1980s “wacky” period. And there is Cruz. Almodóvar uses his fractured narrative to frame her in all manner of looks and ways: in a Marilyn wig, in drab secretarial gear, in the Chuck Close–like pixelation of enlarged, super-slo-mo playback … all in the cause of proving that the camera loves her as much as ol’ Pedro does.

Photographed in New York City on December 17, 2009.

Update 1) – Penélope Cruz was interviewed by E! on the red carpet. When asked if she does her own dishes and pumps her own gas in addition to holding her own umbrella, as she did at the Golden Globes. She replied “I’m not gonna tell you I do I do it three times a day, but I can do it!”

Update 2) Added the first photos of Cruz to the gallery.

Update 3) Penélope Cruz lost to Mo’Nique once more which isn’t really a surprise. However when the camera panned to Cruz and her Nine co-stars backstage (about to present) her friends embarrassed her by giving her “bunny ears”, it was a really adorable moment. I can’t wait to see it again!

Update 4) Penélope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson showcased a clip from Nine which is in contention for Best Ensemble Cast.

Update 5) The Actor for Best Ensemble Cast went to Inglourious Basterds

Some of the most famous faces in entertainment are uniting in four locations Friday evening for the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, a U.S-led, multi-network TV event to raise money for earthquake relief for the stricken Caribbean nation.

People has a little about the Haiti event that you didn’t see on TV:

Penélope Cruz approached organizer Clooney, who a source says was “very hands-on” during the telecast, and told him, “You’re a genius,” after he brought so many people together for the event, which raised money by encouraging viewers to call 1-877-99-Haiti to pledge money for the cause.

9.5 m dollar Haiti telethon money raised & Hope for Haiti telethon money raised. George Clooney organized Hope for Haiti Telethon reportedly raised around $9.5 million during and immediately after the telethon.

Reports suggests that contributions from across the world are still pouring in and that this 9$.5 million is not final.

So let’s hope the amount reaches at least ten million dollars or as much as 16 million dollars that was reported by CBS.

Clooney has asked the media to keep the issue of Haiti destruction in the aftermath of 7 point earthquake that reportedly snatched 110000 lives in seconds. He said that it was necessary to be able to help the affected people.

Reconstruction of Haiti is a long term program and it will take more than a single telethon to be able to help the Haitian people.

To donate to Hope For Haiti, visit www.hopeforhaitinow.org

Also be sure to follow us on Twitter today for instant live updates regarding the SAG awards. Penélope Cruz is nominated.

After the jump you can check out several clips and interviews of her on the red carpet.

Update 1) – Although not really a surprise, Penélope Cruz did not win Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. That honor went to Mo’nique for her outstanding work in Precious. Nicole Kidman presented the award and Pe blew her a kiss to the stage.

Update 2) Kate Hudson presented the clip for Nine‘s entry in the Best Movie Musical or Comedy category.

Update 3) Several shots of Penélope in the audience, like during Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech.

Update 4) The award for foreign language film went to The White Ribbon and not Broken Embraces. Sophia Loren presented.

Update 5) Reese Witherspoon presented the award for Best Comedy/Musical to The Hangover, unfortunately Nine lost. Lots of shots of Miss Cruz shown in the audience again!

Update 6) Celebrities signed a Chrysler 300 Eco Style car for Stars for a Cause, view images of Pe here for now. I will add them to the site shortly. This Chrysler 300 is one of seven in existence.

Update 7) Penélope Cruz is attended the Belstaff The Weinstein Co. Golden Globe After Party. View the first photos of her and Marion Cotillard here.

Misc. Updates
• Nine‘s song “Cinema Italiano” lost to “The Weary Kind” (Theme From Crazy Heart).

• Stars are wearing ribbon pins on their outfits in support of Haiti.

• Pe gave a red carpet interview with E! News and when Ryan Seacrest pointed out she was holding her own umbrella, she joked, “I knew I would be holding my own umbrella. I’m not like Puff Daddy [Diddy], I hold my own umbrella.” She of course she was referring to Diddy’s infamous personal assistant and “Umbrella Holder,” Farnsworth Bentley.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Speaking of Nine, this Sunday marks the 67th Annual Golden Globes awards. Almost all of the major Nine stars have been tapped for presenters, and since Cruz is nominated herself, its highly unlikely she wouldn’t attended. So although no reports have officially announced her as a guest, we’ll keep our fingers crossed and be sure to tune in on Sunday, January 17! The show, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will be broadcast live coast to coast on NBC (5 to 8 pm PT, 8 to 11 pm ET) from The Beverly Hilton. We will be doing live coverage on the site if Miss Cruz does grace us with her presence. :)

The celebration also brought out Beth Ditto from the indie rock band The Gossip.

Penelope and Pedro have worked together the projects — 1997’s Live Flesh, 1999’s All About My Mother, 2006’s Volver and 2009’s Broken Embraces

Shepperton Studios, London, on a bleak December day. Shrouded in a freezing fog, the lot seems faintly neglected, as though abandoned. The various buildings—prop shops, costume houses—look like little more than sheds. A car drops me off at a side door to a soundstage, where a harried but friendly publicist meets me.

Inside, it’s as though a magician has waved his wand. Suddenly I am transported half a century back in time to the Italy of La Dolce Vita. To my left is an empty set-within-a-set of a Roman piazza, and to my right is a bustling re-creation of a 1960s movie studio. An intricate scaffolding of iron balconies and stairwells has been built in front of the corrugated walls of the soundstage. Nowhere, it turns out, could be more perfect for Rob Marshall to direct the song-and-dance numbers for Nine, his latest movie, because the bones of Shepperton have an uncanny resemblance to the Cinecittà of Fellini’s 8½, the inspiration for Maury Yeston’s 1982 Broadway musical Nine, on which this film is based.

Bang ahead of me, Daniel Day-Lewis, playing the lead, Guido, is dressed in a forties-style waistcoat, a white shirt, and beige pants. Nine is Guido’s story—the tale of a legendary director who can’t find a subject for his next film or a way to control the many women in his life. Day-Lewis is seated on a crane, “directing” a scene.

I stand and watch for a while. Well, actually, I stare in a fanlike manner, rather than a professional-Vogue-journalist kind of manner. Day-Lewis’s cheekbones are as mesmerizing as his acting, and his performance is so intense he literally is his character. Suddenly an arm appears and gently repositions me about two yards to the left. “Could you please move out of Daniel’s eye line, Miss Sykes?” asks a crew member. I am politely informed that since Day-Lewis is a Method actor, he doesn’t like to see anyone besides cast and crew while he is working. Nor would I, if I were taking on a role originally played by the iconic Marcello Mastroianni. (On Broadway, Guido was played by Raúl Juliá in 1982 and Antonio Banderas in 2003.)

No matter; there is plenty else to look at—and what a show it is! Behind Day-Lewis, the scaffolding is peopled with 100 extras and 24 dancers, immaculately choreographed and dressed in glittering gradations of white: Dancers in flapper dresses preen on the stairwells; girls in corsets flirtatiously drape themselves over the balconies; buxom ladies in bustiers and hot pants twirl giant fluffy ostrich-feather fans. This is the spectacular, over-the-top ensemble number “Folies Bergeres”: Guido’s imagination come alive.

One by one, six of the seven leading ladies in Guido’s life appear through a doorway high up in the rafters and slink down the stairs, positioning themselves languorously around the set. First, to the grand orchestral music of the “Overture Delle Donne,” the singer Fergie, who plays Saraghina, a prostitute, appears in a gray, corseted frock, all cleavage and russet hair, her eyes kohled into a smudgy, sexy mess. She is followed by Kate Hudson, perky as ever, in a white fringed sixties minidress and go-go boots, her blonde tresses teased into tumbling curls. The outfit perfectly suits her character, Stephanie, a Vogue journalist. Next, Judi Dench, playing costume designer Lily, appears clad in black and smoking a cigarette. Then comes a saucy Penélope Cruz, as Guido’s mistress, Carla, in a polka-dot cocktail dress that gives her the silhouette of a fifties pinup. Nicole Kidman follows, striking a powerful pose in a nude-colored strapless, sparkling gown as movie star Claudia, Guido’s inspiration and obsession. Finally, an astoundingly well-preserved Sophia Loren, playing Guido’s mother, makes her entrance, leaning over the balcony and shooting a stern but loving look toward Guido far below. (Marion Cotillard, who plays Guido’s long-suffering wife, Luisa, is not in this scene.)

“You could call it an iconfest,” I scribble in my notes. Then, rather unimaginatively, I add “razzle-dazzle-pizzazz musical great antidote to misery-gloom-doom of credit crunch” before, thankfully for the reader, I am diverted by the whisper “Ciao! Plume!” from behind me. I turn to see a vision of toffee-colored Loro Piana cashmere before me—Mr. Valentino and his partner, Giancarlo Giammetti.

“We’re here to see Sophia,” explains Giammetti. “She said to me, ‘It’s the best movie I’ve ever done.’ ” Mr. Valentino adds, “She said, ‘It’s the most expensive movie I’ve ever done.’ ” From the rear, producer Harvey Weinstein, dressed in a white shirt and black pants, booms, “Judi Dench said to me, ‘I have to make Ten and Eleven!’ ” Just then, Pedro Almodóvar walks by, plus entourage, in search of Penélope Cruz’s dressing room. I scrawl “icon overload” on my legal pad.

A few minutes later I find myself climbing a very steep ladder up to a small stage where Rob Marshall has been perched for most of the last twelve weeks. Dressed in dark jeans and a navy sweatshirt, Marshall, 49, is good-looking—and dead serious. He has four screens to monitor and multiple cameras, and is shouting directions at the actors, who are repeating the scene over and over. The only line in the scene comes at the end, when Day-Lewis says, “Action!”

The pressure doesn’t faze Marshall, who is thoroughly enjoying himself. “I was born in the wrong time,” he says, sighing. “I wish I’d lived in the MGM era, when they churned out musical films one after another.” An ex-dancer and choreographer whose exhaustive résumé includes codirecting, with Sam Mendes, a revival of Cabaret that won four Tonys, and directing the movie Chicago, which won six Oscars, Marshall is in his element. “One of the joys of working on a musical is that you rehearse for two months. You actually get to create a company, which you never do usually in film,” he says.

Still, even a multiple-Oscar-winner cannot escape the provenance of Nine and the expectations that it brings. Fellini’s 8½—so called because it was, literally, Fellini’s eight-and-a-halfth film—which was released in 1963, is extraordinarily iconic to moviemakers because of the surreal and beautiful way it dealt with the subject of creative procrastination. To the fashion crowd, 8½ is simply a diabolically stylish movie that defines 1960s European chic. The curvaceous women of 8½ are clad in shockingly sharp shift dresses, demure gloves, and enormous, veiled hats from under which their immaculately lined eyes gaze blankly out. Shot in cool, grainy black-and-white, 8½ starred the sexiest actresses of the day, including Anouk Aimée and Claudia Cardinale. “This movie is not a remake of 8½!” exclaims Marshall nervously. “I could never remake that movie in half a million years. I could never touch Fellini and the brilliant, genius masterpiece of all time.”

A break is announced, and Weinstein escorts me back down to the set to meet the actresses, who are chatting while they wait for the next take, Penélope and Kate dwarfed by the ethereal-looking Nicole in her glittering gown. Her hair, colored a beautiful shade of palomino, is curled and immaculately pulled back from her forehead, and her clear blue eyes and pillar-box-red lips are like exclamation points against her alabaster skin, showing off the enormous Chopard diamonds around her neck to perfection. I tell her I cannot believe she had her baby, Sunday Rose, only six months ago. “My baby gives me energy. I don’t feel tired,” says Nicole. Claudia was played by Claudia Cardinale in 8½. I can’t resist asking Nicole how she feels about being a movie icon playing a movie icon who was once played by an Italian movie icon. “No!” she insists. “I’m not playing Claudia Cardinale. Even when I played Virginia Woolf I didn’t take the real woman into account.” Nevertheless, Marshall says he picked Kidman for the role because “when Claudia comes on, she has to be the iconic film star, and Nicole has really attained that in her life.”

Nicole turns to Kate, who has covered her costume with a white terry robe. Her feet are now clad in a pair of UGG boots. “Kate should be on Broadway,” says Nicole. “She should be the lead.” Kate’s eyes sparkle with excitement when she talks about her number “Cinema Italiano,” which was written especially for her by Yeston. “I spent most of my childhood singing and dancing and just never had the chance to do it professionally. So when I got the chance to work with Rob, I was so excited, I was out of my mind.”

Hudson tells me that rehearsals felt like “being at summer camp,” although she adds, “I don’t think there is any actress who looks forward to missing those days with her kids. But at the same time there is no one who wants to stop acting.” Nicole admits, “I had no desire to work after I had my daughter, but to lure me back, this movie was the only way.”

Penélope also plans to work less in the future. She says that she is so often cast in tortured-female parts that she needs to put in more and more energy and time to play them. “Luckily I don’t have to identify with my roles, because if I did I would be dead by now!” she says with a laugh. “I’ve been working since the age of seventeen, and I really haven’t stopped. I want to balance it a little more. Instead of making three or four movies a year, I will do one.”

Still, it isn’t as though the girls haven’t had fun. Penélope loved living in the same apartment building as Kate and Fergie. “I’ve had some very long dinners with Kate, because she loves eating,” she says. “I mean four-hour dinners. We are exercising so much we don’t feel guilty at all.” Fergie then walks over and adds that because she had to gain weight for her part, she stopped working out and “started eating crap. I ate everything fried.”

Later I visit the wardrobe department, which turns out to be an entire floor of another building. There are so many racks of forties frocks, sequined gowns, and beaded dresses that I literally can’t see where they end. Costume designer Colleen Atwood, who won an Oscar for Memoirs of a Geisha (directed by Marshall), had a fashion challenge on her hands with Nine: The film is set in the sixties, but the women in Guido’s life go back to the mid-twenties, so the costumes had to reflect all the different eras. Colleen used vintage clothes for the extras but created all the period looks for the principals because they had to sing and dance in them—350 costumes and 200 pairs of shoes in all. She sewed couture-like corsets for Nicole Kidman to give her the silhouette of a goddess and was inspired by a print from a sixties Pucci purse to make a blouse for Kate Hudson. “We have given you a major fashion moment,” says Marshall. Even the period lingerie for the women was handmade, whether it was frilly garter belts or satin-and-lace bras.

In the makeup studio, I meet Peter Swords King, Oscar-winning hair and makeup designer, who has a team of 28 working with him. The walls are covered in inspirational black-and-white photos of sixties stars like Monica Vitti, Brigitte Bardot, and Julie Christie. “Those girls always looked like they just got out of bed—in a good way,” says Peter, confiding that authentic bedroom hair is achieved by running your fingers through your hair instead of brushing it, after you curl it. “I was completely inspired by the Italian New Wave-film look—Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale.” As for the makeup, think false eyelashes, eyeliner, and pancake foundation. “There’s something incredibly sexy about the dark eyes and the pale lips,” says Marshall. “That era worshipped the beauty of women.”

A few minutes later Weinstein picks me up in a chauffeur-driven car. En route, he tells me, “I’ve made more than 100 movies, but I’ve never, ever made a movie like this. I’ve been working on Nine for nearly five years,” he says. “It’s been a real passion of mine since I saw the original with Raúl Juliá.” When we arrive at the office the first clip I see is Penélope performing “A Call from the Vatican,” which she sings wearing a white satin-and-black lace teddy and fishnets. It’s sexy and fun. Kate Hudson’s go-go-dancing turn is more than a little reminiscent of her mother, Goldie Hawn, in the sixties comedy-sketch show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Finally, I see Marion Cotillard singing “My Husband Makes Movies” while performing a dazzlingly chic striptease. When I talk to her by phone a few weeks later, Marion, who speaks with a delightful French accent, tells me, “It’s been my dream to do an American musical. When I was a child, Annie was my favorite. I just never thought I would get to do it.” Of playing opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, Cotillard says, “It’s easy to work with such an amazing artist.” Because he was always in character, “it gives an energy to the crew. He creates this desire in everyone to be at their best.”

At five o’clock, I go back to the set, where it’s a wrap. The soundstage is littered with the debris of moviemaking—giant wind machines, a double-decker bus, bunches of cables, a child’s bed, lampshades. Actors rush for their coats and bags. A troupe of good-looking extras dressed as priests in white cassocks say goodbye to one another, looking slightly deflated now that it’s all over. Sophia Loren walks alone to her dressing room, a fat mink coat draped over her costume against the cold. A dancing girl covers herself in a dull green mackintosh and heads home. The spell is broken—I am reminded of the bleak London day outside, and venture out into the mist.

Source: Vogue