Cinema: Woman Nearly on Top

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Viewers who can't wait for Cruz-Cage or Cruz-Cruise can catch her in full radiance in Fina Torres' trifle Woman on Top, a romance with a passion-fruity color scheme about a Brazilian who comes to San Francisco and rises to stardom as a TV chef. The movie is both too long and this big, but it is smartly unrelenting in its adoration of its star, enveloping Penelope in slo-mo and soft focus while it bestows magical powers on her character--when a drop of her sweat falls on a rosebud, it instantly blooms. And when Cruz is onscreen, so does the film. It also captures an element of this bombshell's star quality: a disarming sweetness.

Cruz turn-ons: walks on lonely beaches ("I like the Bahamas, where you can walk in the sea for kilometers and the fish play with you; there are no people around, it's completely empty") and charity work. After interviewing Mother Teresa for a Spanish newspaper, Cruz was so moved she reportedly donated her salary from The Hi-Lo Country to the Albanian nun's mission. She has also interviewed the Dalai Lama. "It was like a present spending time with people like them. I don't vote, and I haven't yet found something or someone I really believe in. But these are two of the people I admire the most."

Turn-offs: gossipmongers. In April, when shown a PEOPLE story that linked her romantically to Damon, she showed a little Iberian fire. "We say it's not true, and they keep writing it. Because we go bowling? Don't you think this is crazy?" The stories, and the denials, continue. But those are the taxes to pay when you are gorgeous, gifted and in love with acting. "I feel privileged to be able to do this with my time," she says. "I couldn't go to work that I didn't like. I think I'd prefer to go to India or live in a tree."

Chances are, if Penelope Cruz goes to live in a tree, all Hollywood will be standing below, hoping she'll fall into their arms.

--Reported by Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles