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Salma Hayek weds French billionaire in Paris

by Jeffrey Cottrill

It's hard to imagine a better day of the year to get married than Valentine's Day -- and a better city in which to have the wedding ceremony than Paris. Mexican actor Salma Hayek decided she wanted to have it all: she married her French billionaire beau, Francois-Henri Pinault, on February 14 in the City Hall of Paris' Sixth Arrondissement.

Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the Sixth Arrondissement, announced the marriage afterward to L'Agence France-Presse. Hayek's spokesperson, Cari Ross, later confirmed the event to the Associated Press. An anonymous official told AP that the wedding had been a small civil ceremony.

Hayek, 42, and Pinault first met in Italy in 2006. They announced plans to marry in March 2007, and their daughter, Valentina Paloma, was born the following September. (Pinault also has two children from a previous marriage.) However, the couple broke off the engagement last July.

According to friends of the couple, Pinault and Hayek put the spark back into their romance through two trips to Paris, in September and November. One source told People that the pair were "very evidently in love with each other, very affectionate in public" when they went to the Dubai Film Festival in December.

Francois-Henri Pinault, who turns 47 in May, is the CEO of PPR, a luxury and retail group that owns such designer labels as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. According to People, Pinault has previously been linked to Nicole Kidman.

Salma Hayek's film credits include Desperado, From Dusk 'til Dawn, Dogma, Traffic, and Across the Universe. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role as surrealist painter Frida Kahlo in 2002's Frida. She currently has a recurring role as Alec Baldwin's character's girlfriend on the critically acclaimed sitcom 30 Rock. Hayek has previously dated Edward Norton and Josh Lucas.

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