The Envelope, a part of the L.A. Times website has compiled together some of the hottest Oscar nominees and their reactions. To view more click here.

Also, I have received your inquiries for affiliation with Penélope Fan, and I absolutely plan on getting back to you in the near future but I’m incredibly sick right now – so once I’m feeling back to my old self… you will hear back from me. I’m Qua, not Sarah (but that’s not your fault you didn’t know); I believe she had the site way back in Nov. of 2008 but the site as since been adopted out and my wonderful host Ms. Gertie granted me permission to maintain, Penélope Fan. I haven’t had the chance to do A LOT of behind the scenes work and sidebar work, so that is all my fault.

Penelope reflects and looks back on Oscar nominated role, Maria Elena, in Woody Allen’s, Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a comedy.

But when newly minted Oscar nominee Penélope Cruz was working on the film, she didn’t find anything all that funny about her character. She plays Maria Elena, a gun-wielding, whack job who gets mixed up in a relationship with her ex-husband (Javier Bardem) and American tourist Cristina (Scarlett Johansson).

“When we were in the middle of shooting, I felt like I was doing the most intense and disturbing drama I ever did in my career,” Cruz told me earlier today. “I never laughed until months later, when I saw the movie with an audience. At the beginning, I remember feeling like, ‘Why are they laughing?’ ”

Cruz watched the Oscar nomination announcements this morning with best friend Salma Hayek. “I did work on myself not to expect it because everyone has been screaming, ‘Yes, you will get the nomination,’ ” Cruz said. “There’s thousands of people voting, so then it’s more of a surprise if you get it.”

Cruz is up for Best Supporting Actress with Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler), Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button) and Doubt’s Amy Adams and Viola Davis.

Cruz, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for Volver, recently wrapped her work on Rob Marshall’s upcoming movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Nine opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Marion Cotillard, Fergie, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren. (It hits theaters Nov. 27.)

“It was very scary because I had not danced in, like, 14 years, and I’ve never sang before in my life,” Cruz said. “I had to train for many, many months, but it was incredible.”

As Carla Albanese, Cruz sings and dances while hanging from a rope in the sexually charged number “Call From the Vatican.” The routine may have caused painful blisters on her hands, but it was worth it.

“I had so much fun doing it,” Cruz said. “I cried when it was all over because I had been doing it for months every day, and I don’t get to do it anymore. I think I have to have some ropes in my house for everybody that comes by.” [Source]

Although Penelope didn’t win, her film “Vicky Christina Barcelona” did!

Penelope was on hand to accept the award with one of the film’s producers (possibly… I have to check this out and find out her name).

A new trailer has been released for Vicky Cristina Barcelona and I have made captures plus added the first poster for the movie. It looks really beautiful! An official site has been added as well and you can view the new trailer at Yahoo!

GALLERY LINKS:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona:
- Posters & Covers
- Captures – Trailer #02

Woody Allen has dismissed reports that there are “steamy” sex scenes in his new movie.

Rumours have been rife that Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson have filmed a lesbian clinch, as well as a threesome with co-star Javier Bardem.

Allen admitted that characters in Vicky Christina Barcelona do get intimate, but insisted that it is “not in the sense [the press] are suggesting”.

He told Empire: “There’s no truth comparable to anything you’ve read. There’s the barest smidgeon of sex in it.

“There are sex scenes between all the characters in the movie: between the men and the women, and the women and the women. That is accurate, but I’d say there’s probably not even 20 seconds of sex in the whole picture.”

The 72-year-old also revealed in the interview that several A-list actors have turned down the chance to work with him.

Some quotes I collected from articles about the Cannes Film Festival and when Pen?
? ??lope, Rebecca Hall and Woody Allen promoted Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Penelope Cruz was happy to be back in Cannes where she has come many times with Pedro Almodovar films. She was taken aback by all the sudden praise and Oscar talk for her hilarious comic performance as the Spanish spitfire ex of Bardem and said Allen encouraged them to ditch the script and make up all their many Spanish language lines since Woody doesn???  ??  ?t exactly write in that language..

???  ??  We improvised so much. I thought he???  ??  ?s gonna get so mad at me for saying so many bad words!???  ???

Cruz says she was shocked at how “peculiar” it was to meet Allen for casting. “I went in there for two minutes and he was very, very sweet. After I came out, in three minutes, I called my agents and they said: ‘Oh my God, you were there for such a long time!’

“And they were not joking. When I did my investigations with other actors, it is true, the meetings are very short. He just wants to see. He says he needs 10 seconds. He had already seen Volver and he knew what he was looking for. He just wants to see … I don’t know … an energy thing.”

Penelope told me that although she occasionally loses her temper she’s nothing like Marie Elena, the woman she plays in Woody’s movie.

‘I’ve had some fights at work and rows with producers, but not often. And when I do lose my temper I’d rather do it in my language, but it’s whatever comes out of my mouth first.

‘I don’t get very far because then the people I’m angry with start laughing and I get angrier, and then I start laughing as well,’ Penelope explained.

Quotes found here, here and here.

Finally we have moved to the new domain penelope-cruz.com so be sure to update your boomarks at once! Some pages might not work still but I’m currently working on that. To celebrate the new domain and the move I added 2 new stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona and a behind the scene photos of Pe, Javier, Scarlett and Woody Allen.

GALLERY LINKS:
Vicky Cristina Barcelona:
- Movie Stills & Other Images
- On the Set