PENELOPE CRUZ - CRUZ KEEPS HER DISTANCE FROM HOLLYWOOD

Spanish beauty PENELOPE CRUZ refuses to leave Europe to live in Los Angeles, because she fears Hollywood could transform her personality. The BLOW actress spent a lot of time in the United States during her two-and-half-year romance with TOM CRUISE, but is now enjoying a trans-Atlantic relationship with her SAHARA co-star MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY. Despite starring in Hollywood movies VANILLA SKY and CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN, Cruz insists she remains a Hollywood "outsider" because she continues to work on European films. She says, "I feel very grateful for the opportunities they are giving me there (Hollywood) also, but I always work there as a European actress that is also working in America, because that's the way to protect myself from the negative things from that industry. "There are a lot of positive things (but) there are always things that are dangerous, maybe even more for a woman. "I always go away to shoot there or to spend time there, knowing when I am coming back (to Europe). And that's a way to protect myself and to really be where I am instead of being there pretending to be something else."