Tag Archives: Alicia Machado

Machado to Pen Book About Her Negative Experiences with Donald Trump

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Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado is ready to write the world’s wrongs…

The 38-year-old former-beauty-queen-turned-actress/singer is planning to write a book about the “abuses of power” and “racism” she suffered at the hands of Donald Trump in the mid-‘90s during her reign.

Alicia Machado

Machado was crowned Miss Universe in 1996, the fourth woman from Venezuela to win title, and soon after made headlines for concerns about her increasing weight.

When Machado was crowned she weighed 118 pounds, and eventually the 5-foot-9 beauty queen reached 160 pounds. Pageant officials apparently found the weight unacceptable and threatened to revoke her crown if she didn’t trim down.

Months before the 1997 Miss Universe pageant, in which Machado was due to hand the crown over to her successor, Donald Trump — who partly owns the Miss Universe Organization — called in fitness expert Edward Jackowski to help Machado lose weight through a rigorous diet and exercise program, all of which was documented by photographers and camera crews.

Trump told People magazine back in 1997, “We want her to stay as Miss Universe and she is working on her problem. When you win a beauty pageant, people don’t think you’re going to go from 118 to 160 in less than a year, and you really have an obligation to stay in a perfect physical state.” The real estate mogul also reportedly called Machado “an eating machine” during an interview on the Howard Stern show.

Machado, then 20 years old, told People at the time, “Before Miss Universe I was a normal girl, but my life has had big changes. I travel to many countries, eat different foods.”

The beauty queen has since been very vocal about her experience with Trump, calling him “a detestable being” as recently as June to Mexican newspaper La Reforma.

In a formal statement issued earlier this week, Machado’s reps declare that she “will share all the details, abuses of power, arrogance, and racism on Donald Trump’s part that she suffered in the flesh, issues that Alicia will share for the first time and at the appropriate time so that the whole world can see who this person really is, someone who has gained even more notoriety recently for his attacks on the Mexican people.”

Machado currently stars in Televisa’s new Spanish telenovela Lo Imperdonable. The statement mentioned that after her contractual duties with the soap opera are over, Machado will announce more details about the book. Until then, “she won’t be saying anything else on the matter.”

Machado to Coach Beauty Contestants on Univision’s “Nuestra Belleza Latina” Reality Competition

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Alicia Machado is ready to coach the next Latina beauty queen…

The 37-year-old Venezuelan actress/singer and former Miss Universe has signed on to appear on Univision’s Nuestra Belleza Latina reality competition series.

Alicia Machado

Machado and fellow Miss Universe winner Denise Quiñones will mentor the 12 finalists, all talented Latinas from the United States and Puerto Rico, competing to be named Nuestra Belleza Latina.

Unlike previous years, this time around the 12 finalists are already known, said  Univision.

The competitors will move to a luxury mansion where they will live together and compete in different challenges every week, until one finalist is left standing.

The winner will receive an exclusive contract with Univision, $200,000 in cash, a variety of other prizes and a new car.

The weekly series will have all the challenges of a traditional beauty contest, but with the added intrigue of the reality element – what goes on backstage.

This season hidden cameras will follow the drama being woven among the 12 contestants day by day in the mansion.

Along with Machado and Quiñones, Alejandra Espinoza, the first winner of Nuestra Belleza Latina and a host of Sabado Gigante, is joining the show as a presenter.

The Nuestra Belleza Latina reality competition series will begin its broadcast run on Sunday, February 12.

Machado Starring in the Telenovela “La Madame”

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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.

Alicia Machado

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.

Lopez Among the Actresses in the Running to Portray Jenni Rivera

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It looks like it’s a three-way race to find the actress to portray the late Jenni Rivera in a film about her life, with Jennifer Lopez in the hunt.

The 43-year-old Puerto Rican actress is reportedly being considered to play la Diva de la Banda, as well as Angélica Vale and Alicia Machado.

Jennifer Lopez

Rosie Rivera, sister of the banda/ranchera singer who died in an plane crash in Mexico last December, told Univision that plans to shoot the film about the I Love Jenni star are going forward as part of the family’s wish to make all her dreams come true.

Even though Rivera’s family hasn’t confirmed who’ll play her on screen, the press these days has tossed around a number of names, including Vale. The 37-year-old Mexican actress is best known for her starring role in the telenovela La Fea Mas Bella.

Also mentioned repeatedly is Machado, the singer and actress who was the fourth Venezuelan woman in history to win Miss Universe.

Both she and Vale have publicly expressed their admiration for Rivera, but have also said that neither has been formally offered a role in the film.

It’s also been speculated that Lopez’s company, Nuyorican Productions, could produce the film, although no news has been forthcoming about whether J.Lo intends to portray Rivera.

Lopez previously starred in the 1997 biopic about another Latina legend, the late Selena Quintanilla, who was murdered by the former president of her fan club.

For his part, film director Francisco Joel Mendoza also told Univision that he already has the permits to begin production on the film, saying shooting could begin in April.