LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

Penelope Cruz has become the latest star to lash out at the paparazzi.

“I think it’s disgusting,” she told W magazine’s August issue of the pap culture. “It’s dangerous and nasty, and bad for our society in so many ways. And it’s getting worse every day.”

As a woman who has dated a host of famous men – Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and most recently, fellow Spaniard Javier Bardem — Cruz has been in the spotlight for more than just her Oscar-nominated acting chops. Regularly refusing to talk about her personal life in public has only increased her paparazzi attention, but it’s the culture’s effect on others, she told W, that she worries about.

“It affects me directly, but I really believe that this culture of gossip affects our society on a much deeper level, on an ethical level,” she said. “It’s what kids see and hear every day, and it will affect future generations in ways that we cannot even imagine.”

And while the paparazzi culture has become notorious in places like Los Angeles and New York, Cruz said the problem is particularly bad in her home country.

“In Spain these TV show are on for maybe 17 hours a day,” she said. “They are very cheap to make because they just have somebody running after people in the street with the camera, provoking them, insulting them. They’re just waiting for more and more drama, you know? Unless they have a dead body in front of them, it’s not enough. I mean, it is just beyond crazy and completely unacceptable.”

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