ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
With "Ugly Betty," actress Salma Hayek is examining beauty from the sidelines.
"I have walked through this lady (Betty) in my mind," says Hayek. "She makes me laugh and makes me cry."
Hayek isn't the star of "Betty." She's its producer.
A hit telenovela in Latin America countries for years, "Betty" is a fish out of water story. It focuses on a modest-looking woman (America Ferrara) who works at a catty high fashion magazine. Her out-of-step fashion sense and less than glamorous looks make her the butt of cruel office jokes.
Hayek, whose career started out in telenovelas, bought the U.S. rights for the show and took the idea to ABC. The network has so keen on the concept that it placed "Betty" in a plum timeslot _ 8 p.m., EDT/PDT, Thursdays.
Hayek is confident the show's universal appeal stems from its underdog story. As its producer, she says "Betty" works because it challenges the perception of beauty.
"I don't think Betty is really ugly, but what do we call 'ugly' now? I mean anybody who is not super skinny and really tall? Some people think _ some people, not everybody _ thinks (those people are) ugly," she says.
"I personally have seen a lot of really skinny tall models that, maybe, I think they're ugly, and they need to eat a little to look healthy."
As an inside joke, Hayek tweaks her own image on "Betty." She has a small recurring role as a character on the telenovela Betty watches. In her scenes she is constantly having her clothes ripped off or seen clutching the resident hunk for a romantic embrace.
"It was a lot of fun to go back and do it, making fun of myself. It's very rarely you get an opportunity like that," she says.
Hayek isn't without her own beauty-defying revelations. She laughs when admitting she owns a pair of fat pants.
You know what they are _ those loose-fitting slacks with the elastic waistline, the kind you bring out of the closet when you feel bloated. The pants you'd never wear in public.
"Oh yes, I have them," she says.
And there are times, she says, when she doesn't feel so beautiful. "Everyone feels that way sometimes," she says.
Working in television as a producer is new territory for Hayek, whose other producing credits include the big screen offerings "In the Time of the Butterflies" and "Frida," her Academy Award-nominated epic about controversial artist Frida Kahlo.
"I am not supposed to like this," Hayek says of television producing. "I am supposed to be fighting with (writers) and telling (actors) what to do. I'm not. I like going to the production meetings.
"I like going to the creative meetings. I like going to the set. That's not the way it is supposed to be, but it is. I am sorry, but I enjoy it."
As a producer, Hayek is protective of Betty. She says she is not fond of "beautifying" the character as the show progresses.
It's certainly a temptation that is there. Television has a history of doing it with frumpy characters. Back in the 1970s on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," best-friend Rhoda was overweight and earthy until she got her own series. Then CBS retooled the character with a weight loss and better clothes to appeal to wider audiences.
Betty won't go the way of Rhoda, she insists.
"We are not trying to create a supermodel," Hayek says. "She may not get the makeover you would expect. Maybe she'll get a makeover from the inside."
(Contact Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at www.knoxnews.com.)
