Hepburn's Cruz-ing all over again

She is Spain's hottest export since the flamenco, but Penelope Cruz - soon to hit our screens in the film version of Captain Corelli's Mandolin - is being hailed as the natural heir to that quintessential English rose type, Audrey Hepburn.

A host of directors, casting agents and critics are tipping her as the new Hepburn and she certainly looks the part with her hair swept up, wearing thick, feline eyeliner and a Hepburn-style sophisticated black dress, the essential fashion item for spring 2001.

One source on the Captain Corelli set said: "Penelope is an intoxicating mixture of Hepburn and a young Liz Taylor. She reeks of sex and has every man falling at her feet - but she acts as if she doesn't know the effect she has. Every man on the set is in love with her. And by the time the film comes out, every man in the world will be, too."

Madrid-born Miss Cruz, 26, plays Pelagia, the female lead, opposite Nicolas Cage as Corelli. But while she may look like the late actress, the serenity and innocence Hepburn brought to her roles have not been her film style so far. She is the archetypal Spanish seductress.

She made her debut in the Spanish film El Laberinto Griego (The Greek Labyrinth) in 1991. The Oscar-winning Belle Epoque followed, and, making up to four films a year, she soon became a leading lady of Spanish cinema. Live Flesh in 1997 offered her the chance to work with renowned Spanish director Pedro Almod - var. Her first big international hit was Almod - var's All About My Mother (1999), in which she played a pregnant nun.

Miss Cruz told the Standard: "I'm extremely flattered to be compared to Audrey Hepburn. I really don't feel that at this point in my career I deserve to be compared to such an icon. It's great to even have my name mentioned in the same sentence. I'm a great fan of her work."