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SYDNEY - Catherine Zeta-Jones says at 38 she's still to reach her sexiest point.
Stepping out in Sydney yesterday it was easy to believe her, as the Welsh screen siren set pulses racing wherever she went.
In town to promote her new film, Death Defying Acts, with co-stars Guy Pearce and Saoirse Ronan, Zeta-Jones wasn't short of admirers.
At the film's red carpet premiere at the State Theatre, the brunette beauty stopped traffic to meet hundreds of fans whistling and chanting her name.
Earlier in the day, she impressed even the most jaded members of the media.
Commenting on the stuffy atmosphere during a news conference at the Sydney Opera House she asked: "Is it hot in here or is it just me?".
"It's you!" cried some of the males in the media contingent.
"I didn't plan that," Zeta-Jones laughed.
The Oscar-winner has two children with husband Michael Douglas, and Death Defying Acts sees Zeta-Jones stepping into a motherly role on screen.
"Obviously, my career is expanding and I am a mother and so I'm not going to be rip-roaring in corsets playing a 19-year-old because I'm not, I'm 38 years old," she told reporters.
"I'm actually really lucky and glad these other roles have come along and I can play a mother."
But, she said, she wasn't about to abandon sexy roles altogether.
"In my next movie, which is an untitled movie at the moment, you'll be seeing a lot more of me, put it that way," she said.
"I'm not going to be playing old grannies anytime soon.
"You see, I haven't actually reached my sexiest point yet."
Zeta-Jones laughed off rumours that she brushed her teeth with strawberries and kept her hair in top condition by treating it with caviar.
"Anyone that thinks I'm dumb enough to put caviar in my hair ... it goes right in my stomach thanks very much," she said.
After batting off the advances of comedian Merrick Watts with a reminder - "I'm a married woman" - the Hollywood star relented when he presented her with a bouquet of daisies and a box of chocolates.
"I nicked down to the servo on the way here today," Watts told Zeta-Jones.
"Thank you very much. Do I get a kiss?," she asked, before planting one on the radio host's cheek.
Zeta-Jones is in Sydney for only a few days but said she hoped to make a movie in Australia some day.
"I did a movie here years and years ago playing a little part in The Phantom, and I really loved working here," she said.
"I really got to see a bit of Australia so I would love to come back and do a movie some time."
- AAP
