People Pets

Salma Hayek Rescued from a Snake – By a Hairdresser!

06/22/2010 at 06:50 PM EDT

A few weeks ago, Extra released footage of an interview with the female stars of the new movie Grown Ups, and the Internet briefly blacked out.

To recap: Salma Hayek, the strong, powerful actress who has had a decades-long international career, completely fell apart at the sight of a snake. Climbing all over her co-stars and screaming louder than the wails of her infant daughter Valentina, Hayek briefly showed us her fear of snakes, totally uncensored.

So what happened? During an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman last night, Hayek acknowledged the humor in the video ("Of course you see the video and laugh at us"), and explained that the snake, which had light-colored skin, quickly slithered toward the frightened stars.

"It kept coming," Hayek told Letterman. "When it got to the chair where the three of us were, the macho man who saved us was Maria's hairdresser, that came shaking with his bag with brushes. Shoo! Shoo!"

Earlier in the interview, Hayek talked about Valentina, now 2. "She's amazing. She's training the dog right now!" Hayek said. Hayek's brood of nine rescue dogs include the latest, a little Jack Russell terrier puppy named Elvis that lives with the family in Paris.

"You know, Jack Russells are very energetic and they're hard to train when they're babies," she said. "He actually listens to Valentina. She's very bossy. I listen, too."

The actress also rescues horses – one that was bound for the slaughterhouse and others that were abandoned by owners who couldn't care for the animals anymore. "You'd be surprised, a lot of people get the horses, and then they're expensive," Hayek said. "I have five. I actually don't ride, so it's a lot if you don't ride."

"Almost more than you need, really," Letterman remarked.

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