2008 ALMA AWARDS

Thanks to Andrea Bazan—who rightly scolded Los Angeles’ mayor for not showing up for this spectacular event—I and my designated Latina Ivonne Leonel de Cervantes attended the taping at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Comedian Joey Medina kept the crowd working hard on applause, with one liners like “Since the gas crisis I only date girls who live downhill,” and “Have you noticed the huge drop in drivebys?”

Eva Longoria Parker was the dazzling hostess, with at least six gown changes. She singlehandedly worked to keep these worthwhile awards alive, also thanks to the National Council for La Raza. Go to the polls—with your whole family—was a major theme of the evening and political sentiments weren’t the least bit mixed. At the flash of Obama’s photo huge applause filled the auditorium, and nearly as huge boos greeted McCain’s. “Someday,” Longoria said, “they say we’ll have a President in the White House whose first language isn’t English. Wait, I thought we had that already for the last 8 years!” We’ll see what survives the editing!

Meanwhile we got to bump elbows with Placido Domingo, Paula Abdul, Cheech & Chong (yes, they’re back and decided to go on tour instead of run for president and vice president), Narciso Rodriguez (there was a runway show of his latest fashions!), Carlos Estevez (aka Charlie Sheen), Edward J. Olmos, Shakira (won the Humanitarian Award), Cheryl Burke and Kim Johnson and Mario from my favorite “Dancing with Stars” (I met Mario months ago at another party, but this time got to hear him sing), and Linda Ronstadt.

Very entertaining evening. Ivonne approved. Thank you, Andrea—and her father Nick—for the invite.


No comments: