I was like any new bride, who said, 'I'm going to cook for my man.' In fact, once I started a small kitchen fire in a pan. Smoke was pouring from the pan, and I got really scared. Right next to our stove is a small fire extinguisher. You know, easy access.

Her breakthrough role was in the 2000 film Traffic for which Catherine Zeta-Jones earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. In August 2011 it was reported that Zeta Jones was trying to quit smoking by using electronic cigarettes. In the media
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders parodied Zeta-Jones as a vacuous über-celebrity named "Catherine Spartacus-Zeta-Douglas-Jones" (variously described as a princess of the Spartacus dynasty or the Queen of Wales) in 2007 on their British sketch comedy television show French & Saunders (1987–2010) in the series Back with a Vengeance.

In 2010 Zeta-Jones won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Desiree in A Little Night Music. Later Catherine Zeta-Jones appeared in the 2003 romantic comedy film Intolerable Cruelty and 2004 crime comedy film Ocean's Twelve. Zeta-Jones starred in the 2005 sequel of the 1998 film The Legend of Zorro.