Penelope Cruz Shares Oscars Excitement With Salma Hayek  1/24/07

Penelope Cruz celebrated her Oscar nomination last night (23JAN07) by hitting Hollywood with best pal Salma Hayek, who was upset she wasn't allowed to read the Spaniard's name out.

Hayek joined Sid Ganis, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, at the nominations announcement yesterday morning (23JAN07), and when she spotted her friend's name on the card, she begged to be able to read it out.

After yelping, "Yes," when Ganis read out her friend's name, the Frida star told reporters, "I wanted to say her name. I fought for it, but they wouldn't let me."

As soon as an emotional Cruz saw the video footage of her friend at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where the nominations were read out, she excused herself in the middle of an interview with US TV show Extra to call Hayek.

As cameras rolled yesterday, Cruz could be heard saying, "You're coming out with me tonight. To dinner. To celebrate."