Those were among our first questions in August when we checked out the first official photo of Anne Hathaway in character. Newly published paparazzi pics from the Los Angeles set of "The Dark Knight Rises," however, might deliver answers to both of those geeky queries. The new shots appear to suggest Catwoman's glasses flip up to create ear-like points above her head. Function and form!

In a sense, then (and if this hypothesis is correct), Hathaway's full costume was on display back in August, just not in a recognizable or complete form. The glasses-into-ears theory appears to be a more logical one than another bit of superhero speculation out there: that Catwoman's mask, based on those hollow-looking ears and some similar design lines, is actually Batman's mask, artfully mangled. While Hathaway's character clearly does a bit of borrowing (or, more likely, stealing) from Bruce Wayne, as in the photo where she rides his Batpod, we're not sold on the similarity between each mask.

The rest of the costume, as revealed in the new photos, is largely what we've already seen: lots of tight leather and a pair of dangerously high-heel boots; we can understand why Hathaway has previously cracked that she is living on kale and dust, just so she can slip into the ensemble. According to Hathaway, the collective reaction to the first look at her Catwoman costume — including in some corners within the MTV Newsroom — was a resounding, "Meh." But the actress also promised us that we've only seen "about a tenth of what that suit can do."

Perhaps her transforming ears — if that's what they really are — represent a few more percentage points. With the rapid pace of photos coming from the "Dark Knight" set, we'll undoubtedly get even more soon.

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