Who knew Penelope Cruz could be such a limber stripper?

Don’t be fooled by the ease with which Penelope Cruz is spreading/splitting her limbs and by the sexy pout she’s sporting while doing it. The ability to look like a convincing burlesque stripper (is it just us, or does anyone who has all their parts attached to their torso wants to do the Dita Von Teese routine?) took months and a lot of thigh and crotch bruises.

She says: “When something like that happens, you just have to keep going and forget about any physical pain. I was dancing in the dark with just one spotlight on me so I had to be extremely alert.”

Penelope’s splits and stretches in lace and bustier are for the benefit of her new musical “Nine”, an onscreen adaptation of Federico Fellini’s musical “8 1/2″.  She plays the raunchy mistress of a married musical director played by Daniel Day-Lewis.  The trailer also shows Fergie (who gained 10 pounds for the role and can also be seen in some pretty raunchy leg-spreading) as the prostitute Saraghina. Nicole Kidman, Judy Dench, Sophia Lauren and Marillon Cotillard also part of the movie.

Who said musicals are boring?