Penelope, Javier welcome baby boy

Madrid - Oscar-winning Spanish film stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have become the parents of a baby boy, their first child, born in Los Angeles, Spanish media reported on Wednesday.

Cruz gave birth at the Cedars Sinai medical centre in Beverly Hills on Saturday, the Spanish celebrity magazine Hola! said on its website.

It gave no details on the name of the boy or his birth weight.

"The couple want to have as much privacy as possible," the paper said on its web site.

Cruz, 36, and Bardem, 41, met when they starred opposite each other as lusty teens in Bigas Luna's film Jamon, Jamon, back in 1992.

In 2008 they were back together on the silver screen in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, for which Cruz won an Academy Award as best supporting actress.

Oscar winners

Bardem, nominated for an Oscar in Before Night Falls (2000), won an Academy Award in 2007 for his role in No Country for Old Men.

On Tuesday, he received another Oscar nomination as best actor for his performance in the film Biutiful by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

El Pais said "friends of Bardem began to suspect (the baby was born) when the actor did not respond to any calls to congratulate him on his nomination".

The couple married in July last year at a ceremony in the Bahamas. They had kept their romance quiet for years, but Bardem got personal when he won a best actor award at Cannes in May for his role in Biutiful.

"I share the joy of this prize with my friend, my companion, my love, Penelope Cruz," Bardem said at the time.

"I owe you so much, and I love you very much," Bardem said, drawing tears from Cruz, a longtime muse of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

Hola! said Cruz's mother, Encarna, sister Monica, also an actress, and her brother Eduardo were in Los Angeles for the birth at Cedars Sinai, the hospital of choice for Hollywood stars.

It said Bardem's mother, well-known Spanish actress Pilar Bardem, travelled from Madrid on Monday to meet her grandson.