by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Placido Domingo as Pablo Neruda.
OSCAR HISTORY: For the first time, two Spanish-language films from South America are competing for an Academy Award in the foreign language film category. Perú’s La teta asustada and Argentina’s El secreto de sus ojos are among five Oscar nominees in the category announced last week in Los Angeles. The Peruvian film — its first-ever Oscar nominee — is from director Claudia Llosa. The Argentinean film is from Juan José Campanella, whose El hijo de la novia was a nominee in 2002, the latest of five times his country has been nominated. Only once before had two South American films competed for the Oscar, but the 1998 nominees were Tango, a film from Argentina spoken in Spanish and Central do Brasil, a Portuguese-language entry from Brazil. Coincidentally, there was a second Spanishlanguage film nominated that year: Spain’s El abuelo. Only on three other occasions have there been two Spanishlanguage nominees for an Oscar. The Academy Awards will be handed out March 7 in Los Angeles.
NO FIFTH SEASON: ABC will air its last episode of Ugly Betty on April 16 amid speculation writers will give the namesake character a beauty transformation for the finale. Head writer Silvio Horta has told Entertainment Weekly that Betty Suárez will have her characteristic braces removed in one of the remaining episodes, but declined to say whether the U.S. Betty will transform into a beauty who marries her wealthy boss, as she did in the original story. Inspired by the blockbuster Colombian telenovela Yo soy, Betty la fea, starring America Ferrera, has had several versions around the globe. It’s the only current network show with a lead Latino character. It will end its four-year run on ABC with fewer that the 100 episodes that would make it a likely candidate for syndication.
America Ferrera y Silvio Horta
ONE LINERS: Il Postino, a new opera by Mexican composer Daniel Catán based on the 1994 movie which itself was based on the novel El cartero de Neruda by Chilean writer Antonio Skármeta, will now open the Los Angeles Opera’s 2010 season in September with Plácido Domingo singing the role of Pablo Neruda; the world premiere had originally been announced for the current season with Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón in the title role. It will now be sung by Charles Castronovo … Jennifer López will play a self-help author who tries to tame the womanizing Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother in an episode of the hit CBS series that will air in March.
