SALMA HAYEK - HAYEK DEFENDS SEXY SCENES

Mexican film star SALMA HAYEK has defended her full-frontal nude scene in her latest film ASK THE DUST, insisting the sexy sequence is a vital part of the story. The FRIDA beauty, 39, appears naked in a brief beach scene alongside COLIN FARRELL in the romantic drama, directed by ROBERT TOWNE. She tells the New York Daily News, "I don't want to do nudity just for the sake of doing nudity. "But this is an iconic part of the story (from) the book. It's important because it represents (my character CAMILLA's) spirit, which is very free, and yet she lives in world where she's very repressed by the circumstances. So (the nudity is) almost symbolic for who she is."