palabras José María Alvarez Ortego

María Conchita Alonso hosts ¡Viva Hollywood!, VH1's reality show which brings us the real taste of the telenovelas. As an experienced actress and singer, with a long-storied backgound in show business (movies, TV, etc.), Nochelatina wanted to analyze with her the present situation of this kind of shows in the U.S., how the program is going to get developed, and what this show means for Latinos in this country.

First of all, tell us about ¡Viva Hollywood!. What is it based on, what kind of situations are we going to find?
¡Viva Hollywood! has put together a groups of guys and girls into the "Casa de Locos" and each episode they get a challenge that they must complete. All of these tests are based on what are known as the "7 Deadly Sins of Telenovelas", which are Passion, Lust, Charisma, Drama, Fire, Seduction and Scandal. This means that they have to show how good their performance skills are in every episode. The best of the week receives an award, whereas the worst has to fight in "el duelo" against another participant who is chosen by the rest of the competitors to leave the house.

What kind of requirements are you looking for from these actors? What sort of qualities do you think that can be the most important to success in acting nowadays?
It is very difficult to find a star in the beginning. What it is really essential is to find potential, talent. We are here to help these guys to develop their capacities. Nobody is supposed to suffer, this is pure entertainment. ¡Viva Hollywood! is a show made to have fun, to enjoy. If the competitors enjoy themselves, the public will feel it and everything will be a great success.

Lately these types of shows have gotten popular: A group of young and talented people are put into an "Academy" and they are taught about a specific kind of craft. Can you find a reason why this phenomenon is growing on U.S. TV?
I don't really have a reason, actually. In my opinion, right now competiveness is huge in all the aspects of society and initiatives like "¡Viva Hollywood!", which is made to help the new talents, are making things get easier for them and find opportunities where there was probably nothing before. I want to add that life is difficult enough to make these guys suffer. So, the difference between us, and the rest of the shows we've mentioned is, as I've said before, that this is a comedy and we are here to make everyone smile.

What is, in your opinion, the situation of telenovelas nowadays, specially in the North America?
I think it is great and it will always be like this. The telenovelas are part of the Latin culture. We all have mothers, sisters, aunts, etc. who watch them. They are impossible to be erased from our way of living. I believe that it is something which will survive forever, nobody can stop it.