Alicia Machado is getting into madame mode…

The 36-year-old Venezuelan actress/singer and former Miss Universe is heading back to television as the beautiful, manipulative madame at a Colombian brothel frequented by politicians, a true story that inspired the book Las Prepago.

In La Madame, which will premiere on August 26 in the United States on UniMas, Machado portrays a strong, passionate woman who risks her life in a forbidden romance with her kidnapper.

“Unlike all the other roles I’ve played before, Madame Rochy is a real-life person,” said Machado, adding that this is jthe kind of challenge she loves as an actress.

“She is a Colombian woman from the coast, very different from me in many ways. She’s colder and more calculating than I could ever be. In every scene, when she speaks she always has a double meaning; every one of her words could signify something else, and you’re never sure exactly what she means by what she says. As an actress, projecting that duality can be a tremendous challenge,” she said.

During the course of the 50-episode series, viewers will be able to witness the sexual indiscretions at the top levels of Colombian politics during the 1990s.

But for Machado, the most interesting element of the story is how certain persistent rumors about the woman are dispelled.

“Though there’s a lot of sex and sensuality, for me this is a very feminist work that refutes the belief some people have, including some women, that a beautiful woman can’t be intelligent,” said Machado.

Machado was crowned Miss Universe in 1996 and a year later starred in her first telenovela, Samantha, in her native country.