Penelope Still Not Pregnant; Tim Burton’s Sparse Cast List

How weird things must have been last night at the after party for Pedro Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces,” which finally gets released on Friday.

Star Penelope Cruz went to the screening to take pictures on the red carpet, but skipped the party. She’s gearing up for a possible Oscar nomination for “Nine,” anyway. Pedro himself was nowhere to be seen.

Has anyone noticed that Penelope was never pregnant, isn’t pregnant, didn’t have a baby, and isn’t engaged to be married? All of that was breathlessly and definitively “reported” earlier this spring and summer by tbe celeb mags. None of it was true. But wow ‘ it filled airwaves, pages and websites for a while.

Indeed, the pictures on the WireImage photo website are pretty funny. The turn out was so threadbare that the posted pictures include those of gossip queens Liz Smith and Cindy Adams, gossip princes George Rush and Sean Evans, and “Cinema Society” publicist Andrew Saffir with his boyfriend. I’m surprised that the paparazzi didn’t start taking pictures of themselves!

Also pictured from the “Embraces” party: a couple of actors who’d already been on the red carpet uptown at the Museum of Modern Art tribute to director Tim Burton. With a couple of costume changes, celeb guests like “Precious” star Gabby Sidibe and Rose Byrne from the TV show “Damages” managed to get two photo ops in one night!

Those MoMA parties usually feature a director’s various casts over the years. But Burton tends to work with just two actors over and over: his wife, Helena Bonham Carter, and Johnny Depp. They’re the stars of all his movies! That narrowed the guest list considerably. And with Depp there, that eliminated an appearance by Winona Ryder, his Burtonesque “Edward Scissorhands” co-star and ex girlfriend. Too bad: Winona was also the star of Burton’s really wonderful “Beetlejuice.”

There are, however, a lot of “atmosphere” pictures from the party: floral arrangments, desserts, etc.

The night’s producers did offer the Olsen Twins, who are so troll-like and scary that Burton should make a movie about them right away! And Billy Crudup did attend: he’s the star of one of Burton’s best movies (and most underappreciated), “Big Fish.”

There was a better showing on Monday night at Feinstein’s, where Gregory Generet’s jazz cabaret show sold out the room. Among his guests: legendary actress Cicely Tyson, and country superstar Larry Gatlin. It was absolutely the only time those two had ever been in the same place!