Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem Are No. 23 on Zimbio's 100 Hottest Celebrity Couples

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz made the top 25 on Zimbio's 100 Hottest Celebrity Couples list this year. The busy parents dropped a few spots from last year, but still landed at a commendable place. So what did it take for these two to come in at 23rd?

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz (FameFlynet Pictures)

Well, these stars waste no time on small, unsuccessful projects. Instead, they go for broke once a year, if that. For instance, Ms. Cruz blew up the box office in 2011 with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which grossed $1 billion worldwide. Before that, she'd been busy with motherhood and hadn't made a movie in two years. Bardem's only had three roles since nabbing an Oscar in 2007, but he just signed on to be the villain in the next James Bond flick, Skyfall.

These two aren't the only successful, attractive stars on our list. Jennifer Lopez and her new man made their debut this year -- in the world and on the Hottest Couples list. The singer and husband Marc Anthony split in July 2011 and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around both stars had found hot 24-year-old rebounds. Lopez's new man, Casper Smart, was one of her backup dancers. Now, he's traveling the world with her (not in a bus) and she even bought him a tricked-out truck for his birthday. The tattooed dancer also starred in Lopez's music video for "Dance Again." That said, the odds of this blazing hot romance keeping the heat aren't exactly! high.

A couple that does have staying potential is Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, stars who made it to 28th. These two are still making sappy, incredibly catchy country music after 16 years of marriage. They went on their first joint Australian tour in 2012 and, naturally, brought their three daughters along for the shows. Before hitting the road, McGraw focused on his music and put out his 11th studio album, Emotional Traffic. His lovely wife is currently working on her seventh. Though their attractiveness and popularity aren't what they used to be a decade ago, their stable careers and relationship put them at No. 28 on our list. Their picture perfect life also gives us hope for a similar fairytale between Beyonce and Jay-Z down the line.
What makes a couple hot? Well in the case of our list, we look at four criteria: Popularity, Success, Attractiveness, and Staying Power. Through a complicated system best described as "science," we come up with a score for each category and add the whole lot together to come up with a total score for each couple, which ultimately decides their rankings. Check out the infographic below for a more detailed explanation, and see our full feature here.

100 Hottest Celebrity Couples of 2012

Find out which of Hollywood's most famous pairs have it all: success, attractiveness, popularity and staying power.

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