There are few women alive who can work a smoky eye better than Penélope Cruz. It's part of her, you can almost imagine Baby Penélope coming out of her mother's womb already smoldering.

Today, it's not just Penélope's eyes that are smoking. She arrives for breakfast at the Beverly Hills Hotel's Polo Lounge wearing silky black L'Wren Scott trousers with a matching sleeveless bow-necked blouse, topped with a black leather Bottega Veneta jacket. Her mane of brown hair is up in a jaunty pony. "I love L'Wren," she says with the comely spanish inflection that could quite conceivably sell death and taxes.