Right off the heels of attending the Kardashian wedding with newish younger beau Eduardo Cruz brother of Oscar winner Penelope, Eva Longoria went right into executive producer mode and spoke to us reporters about her passion project the Alma Awards which coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month and airs Sept 16 on NBC. I would have loved to have asked Eva some more juicy stuff but we were asked to stay on topic.
Said Eva on co-hosting with good friend George Lopez, “Well, George can never say no to me. I make him do everything with me. He’s an amazing host. He obviously is the most recognized comedian in our community. And so to be able to bring him on board every year not only provides for great entertainment but our chemistry has proven successful and we wanted to continue that relationship and that tone of the show.”
What and who can we expect on this year’s show? “I just always find it such a fun night. Some of the people that we’re going to be having on the show are, we have Demi Lovato performing her hit single ‘Skyscraper’ in English and Spanish, which is so exciting because it was number one. She’s one of our own and she came up with the idea to sing partly in Spanish so we always love to honor that. We have so many great presenters –Jessica Alba, Benjamin Bratt, Eva Larue, Mario Lopez, Allison Nunez from The Office, Michael Pena, and Naya Rivera from Glee. We just have really great participation this year and hopefully we’ll be able to announce the other two performers shortly.”
Finally to Eva, what do the Alma Awards mean to you given all that you have had to overcome to be successful? “I’m so proud to be part of the Alma Awards. You know, I used to be a seat filler almost 12 years ago, 10 years ago, something like that and I just wanted to get in the building to see the stars and to see the people like me reflected on the stage. And so to come full circle with being an executive producer and co-host means a lot to me because there aren’t any other platforms that recognize positive images of Latinos in Television, music and film. And so there is no other awards show of this kind and we’re really proud to put this on with NCLR, which really you know, walks the walk and does the work for our community behind the scenes.”
From the Santa Monica Civic Center the 2011 NCLR ALMA AWARDS celebrating Latino artistic achievement across the entertainment industry airs Friday, September 16 from 8-9p ET.