Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz has earned a reputation for enslaving the emotions of her leading men, on screen and off.

Her latest conquest is Tom Cruise, her co-star in the romantic drama Vanilla Sky, scheduled for a December release.

As early as last December, when she was doing interviews for her Christmas 2000 movie All the Pretty Horses, Cruz was having to deny rumours she had bewitched Hollywood's most powerful actor.

When Cruise announced in February he was seeking a divorce from Nicole Kidman, both he and Cruz insisted their growing friendship was not an issue.

She continued to protest well into March when production ended on Vanilla Sky in New York that she and Cruise were nothing more than friends and co-stars.

The protests ended on July 6 when Penelope attended Tom's 39th birthday party in Santa Monica.

They did not arrive or leave the party together but they did dance three times and the following week were seen dining at L.A.'s popular celebrity eatery Spagos in Beverly Hills.

Later that same week, Cruise's publicist Pat Kingsley finally confirmed "Tom and Penelope have been out together a couple of times."

A week later, Kingsley also confirmed that Penelope was among Tom's guests at the exclusive $1,500-a-night Wakaya Club resort in Fiji.

"It is true that Penelope Cruz is one of Tom's guests at the Wakaya Club," offered Kingsley in a formal press release refusing to comment further on the status of the relationship.

The news was particularly distressing to Kidman, who had reportedly questioned Tom back in November and December about the rumours of his flirtations with Cruz on the New York set of Vanilla Sky.

Kidman felt she had good reason to be worried.

Cruz's seductive reputation preceded her and it didn't help that Vanilla Sky's director Cameron Crowe had said of Cruz that "she has the ability to create fire with any object or moving thing."

That seems to have been the pattern with most of her leading men.

In 1998 when Cruz was filming the western The Hi-Lo Country there was a buzz she and Woody Harrelson were having an affair.

For the press it was basically a non-issue.

Harrelson and his longtime girlfriend Laura Louie have always had an open relationship and Cruz was a virtual unknown in America outside the art house cinema circuit.

The supposed affair made no headlines.

It was a much different scenario a year later when Cruz was reportedly having an affair with Matt Damon, her leading man in All the Pretty Horses.

Damon was Hollywood's newest golden boy.

Cruz fended off the rumours in her best coy, flirtatious manner.

When asked about Damon, she insisted "he's an absolute angel. We became very close friends almost immediately.

"I felt very comfortable with him. He is one of my best friends.

"As actors we have this job that makes us interesting to people but that does not mean we have to say to everybody what we do or who we sleep with.

"It's so absurd. That is why everybody (in this business) lies so much."

Her flippancy worked for the press but failed to convince Damon's then-girlfriend Winona Ryder.

The couple split soon after filming wrapped on All the Pretty Horses.

By this time, Cruz was in Greece filming Captain Corelli's Mandolin with Nicolas Cage and having to deal with stories he too had become her lover.

When asked how she felt about being linked with so many of her American leading men, Cruz was far more cautious than she had been dealing with the earlier Damon question.

"It doesn't bother me because I know the truth. I just wish the press wasn't so interested in my private life because I have always refused to talk about my private life.

"This is not something only the American press do. It's all the press that do this. It's what they think they have to do."

It was during the filming of Captain Corelli's Mandolin that Cage's then wife Patricia Arquette announced the couple was separating.

They later tried for a reconciliation but that failed and they have since divorced.

Cage is currently dating Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of the late Elvis Presley.

When asked if she'd heard the rumours that she was responsible for destroying Cage's marriage, Cruz was indignant.

"Please, come on. I don't think people should be so stupid to write something like that.

"I just don't get angry anymore with those things but I also don't reply or answer such accusations.

"Am I supposed to say I'm sorry I did such a thing when I haven't done it. There are some things that would be ridiculous to even talk about and this is one of them."

Before coming to America, Cruz dated Spanish pop singer Nacho Cano the lead singer for Mecano and Czech filmmaker Thomas Obermaier.

Upon arriving in America, she was pleased to trumpet her status as a single woman.

"I spent most of my early life being someone's girlfriend, so it feels good that I am single.

"I think being single is good for me," said Cruz in March when she was promoting the dark drug thriller Blow.

"I think it will be better when I get involved with someone the next time because I took this time for myself. I just hope I don't get too used to being on my own."

Little chance of that now that she is dating Tom Cruise at the height of his headline-grabbing divorce from Nicole Kidman.


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