Penelope Cruz Landed February's Elle

First, Sloane Crosley did a delightful job on this profile. When you're the journalist, inserting any of your part of the interview is a dicey proposition, because it's a tightrope walk; often, it reads as self-impressed and could cleanly be clipped out of the piece. But whenever Crosley appears in her own piece, it's for a reason and it plays well -- and in one moment is self-deprecating. It's a quick, enjoyable read. As for the photos... well, Penelope Cruz isn't a model, so it's not a fair comparison, but we just looked at a Gisele Bundchen shoot that gave us an emotional spectrum and a variety of postures, and this one... does not. But that doesn't mean some of them aren't lovely.

[Photos by Zoe Grossman, story by Sloane Crosley]