Oscars: Anne Hathaway owes thanks to Penelope Cruz

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Penelope Cruz might not be accompanying Oscar-nominated husband Javier Bardem to the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 27. She just gave birth to their baby boy last month and might not be ready to leave the little guy, much less go through the daylong preparation necessary for the red-carpet wringer.

But if Cruz does attend, she should expect some kind words from Oscar co-host Anne Hathaway, who credits the Spanish actress for freeing her up mentally to do the sex scenes in her last movie, ‘Love and Other Drugs.’

‘I was watching a lot of her work while I was working on the movie,’ Hathaway said. ‘Because doing nudity is a little nerve-wracking ,and I had to remind myself that plenty of actresses have done it before me and kept their dignity intact. She has done a ton of love scenes, and no one ever talks to her about it. It’s always in the service of the work.’

Asked if she found herself replaying one of Cruz’s movies in particular, Hathaway, without hesitation, mentioned ‘Abre Los Ojos,’ Alejandro Amenabar’s 1997 thriller that Cameron Crowe remade four years later as ‘Vanilla Sky.’

‘That was an example of sensuality and trust between actors and an openness and a lack of self-consciousness that raised the stakes for the performers and got me more invested as an audience member,’ Hathaway said. ‘It’s an incredible movie, one of my favorites, and I can’t tell you how much it helped me with my movie.’

-- Glenn Whipp