Sizzle or Fizzle?

This is the kind of story you're doomed to have to pull together if you write for a celeb-related publication and Valentine's Day in approaching. I got about half the Sizzles correct and both Fizzles-one of the latter just got hitched one more time to someone else.

The Ten Sexiest Latino Couples of 2006: Why they sizzle — Why they fizzle
by Linda F. Cauthen

Sizzle

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker
Desperate Housewives sexpot Eva Longoria had just divorced soap star Christopher Tyler in January 2005, when her dad Enrique introduced her to San Antonio Spurs player Tony Parker after a game. Tony was too shy to ask Eva out on a real date so he asked dad and daughter to dinner. Things clicked and soon the couple was dating a deux. The obviously smitten Eva gushed “Tony was one of the most charming men I had ever met, and I fell in love with his whole manner, the sexy French accent he has when he speaks English, and how he behaves like a gentleman.” It has to be love —she even had his initials tattooed on a very private part of her body. “He is my everything,” Longoria has said. “He is never far from my heart. I’ve made a lot of bad choices in my life. I think the only thing I can say is you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get to your prince.”

Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova
Are they or aren’t they? Married, that is. People en Espanol’s #1 Sexiest Bachelor Enrique Iglesias and Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova have been dating since she played his girlfriend in the 2002 music video “Escape” and they’ve been playing hide-and-seek with the press ever since. The couple has become notorious for smoldering public displays of affection but have kept mum on the exact status of their relationship. Tabloids were reporting the couple had wed on a Puerto Vallarta beach in November 2004 and Kournikova was observed wearing a wedding band on her ring finger at a charity tennis event in Florida. Neither has come clean on whether they’ve actually made it legal. Or not.

Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake
Two years ago, if Hollywood’s gossip mavens were to choose the new couple least likely to still be together today, model-turned-actress Cameron Diaz and decade younger popstar Justin Timberlake would be their likeliest choice. What’s their secret? Probably that they seem to be having a blast together. They love to go out dancing and take romantic vacations to Hawaii. As we went to press, the happy couple was rumored to have invited more than 150 guests at a party in Hawaii, to “celebrate their romance.” Will they celebrate it by tying the knot? Nobody’s saying. Cameron has commented “It’s funny. We get these things every few days where one magazine is saying we’re breaking up and the other magazine is saying that we’re moving in together. Then another magazine says we’re getting married next weekend. But we know what the truth is. It doesn’t hurt us.”

Benjamin Bratt and Talisa Soto
Benjamin Bratt wed stunning former Bond girl Talisa Soto in April 2002, less than a year after ending his tabloid-frenzied affair with A-list actress Julia Roberts. Since then, the beautiful couple, who met while filming Pinero in 2001, have added two little Bratts to their home, Sophia Rosalinda Bratt born in December 2002 and Mateo Bravery Bratt born in October 2005. How do these two keep the home fires burning? Bratt says “I’ve rented a house on a little bay in Kauai a couple of times and I want to make that a tradition. Having the beach right outside your window would be great. Building a little bonfire at night on the beach and lying on a blanket with my wife under the stars is not only sexy, it’s romantic.”

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony
Will the third time be the charm for Jennifer Lopez? She wed waiter Ojani Noa in 1997 and it was over a year later. Number two to to choreographer Cris Judd fell victim to a setside romance with Ben Affleck after a few months. Her marriage to singer Marc Anthony has made it past the first anniversary and the two have recently bought a sprawling new mansion. There have been rumors that the couple plans to add a little addition to their family but they’ll have to fit that in between Marc’s music, Jennifer’s demanding role in the film drama Bordertown and their collaboration on a biopic of salsa singer Hector Lavoe. But when do they find time to relax? “We relax just like anybody else,” Lopez told People magazine. “We kind of want to make everybody go away for a little while and just lock ourselves at home.”

Thalia and Tommy Mottola
Henry Kissinger said power was the greatest aphrodisiac and there’s no better proof of this than the number of moguls who marry exquisitely beautiful women. On December 2, 2000, Latin music megastar Thalía tied the knot with music mogul Tommy Mottola, in a lavish $3 million dollar wedding ceremony at NYC’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Already a superstar for both her acting and her music in her native Mexico and other countries at the time of the nuptials, Thalía has since expanded her fame into a multimedia empire that includes her own clothing line and numerous endorsement deals. Watch out Tommy, there may not be room for two moguls in the family.

Penelope Cruz and Matthew McConaughey
The couple met on the set of the film Sahara in summer 2004 and have been carrying on a jet-set romance ever since, with Matthew hopping on a plane to Spain to visit his lady as she was shooting Pedro Almodovar’s new movie, Volver and taking a romantic side trip to Cuenca. Matthew’s secret to maintaining a long-distance relationship? “You just have to try and communicate as best as possible.” It seems to be working as Matthew has succeeded in turning Penelope into a fan of his fave team the Houston Astros. Both have been reticent about revealing too much to the public and the press. “Matthew is lovely, a wonderful man,” Penelope has stated. “But I feel more protective about my personal life every day. It always seems to go wrong when you share too much.”

Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro
MTV’s cameras captured the days leading up to their November 2003 wedding with the reality series Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave. More than two years later, the former Baywatch babe and her guitar slinger are still rockin’ together. Carmen credits her burlesque experience with the Pussycat Dolls and the Bombshell Babes with helping to keep the sizzle in their relationship. “I kind of feel like, in my profession, I’m sexiest when I’m on stage performing and dancing. I put on lingerie, fishnet stockings, garter belts, bras. So much time and effort goes into pulling an outfit together,” she told The Sun. She added that when things heat up, I dig into my bag of costumes. After all, I’ve got a lot to choose from.” And she looks smokin’ hot in anything. Or nothing.

Fizzle

Gisele Bundchen and Leonardo DiCaprio
Over a five-year relationship, these two beautiful people have had more ups and downs than a rollercoaster. Last fall, gossip columns had Leo purchasing a posh New York apartment with his Brazilian supermodel squeeze, prompting rumours they were engaged. Within days, the same columns were reporting the couple had split for good, Gisele hitting the beach with surfer Kelly Slater while Leo was commiserating with the equally unlucky-in-love Sienna Miller. Of course, this is not the first break-up for this longtime off-and-on couple, so they could be back together and engaged by the time you read this. Or married to someone else.

Charlie and Denise
It looked like former bad boy Charlie Sheen had finally settled down when he wed gorgeous actress Denise Richards in June, 2002. A baby soon followed, then another was on the way when the news broke that the six-months-pregnant Richards had filed for divorce. Rumors swirled about the reason for the split, and the actor told David Letterman that he had spent too much time on sports and not enough time helping to raise his kids. “It’s the first time I got dumped in my life. I think the one thing I would point to as a primary reason, basically, is that I was a gigantic ass.” The couple has been seen together but so far there’s no formal reconciliation. Denise has stated “It does seem like we’re together, but right now we’re focusing on the kids.”