Caliente Streak

Salma Hayek is Hollywood's new dealmaker. The 'Wild Wild West' actress talks about the sizzle of her production company

by Daniel Fierman

With two films in the can, one in the works, and a deal to produce shows for Columbia TriStar TV (in English) and Telemundo (in Spanish), Salma Hayek's two-year-old Ventanarosa Productions seems to be on a roll. The ''Wild Wild West'' actress' first foray behind the scenes of a feature, ''The Velocity of Gary,'' a romantic drama in which she costars with Vincent D'Onofrio, will open early this summer, while Ventanarosa's film version of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel ''No One Writes to the Colonel'' just got accepted in competition at next month's Cannes film festival.

''At the beginning it was hard,'' Hayek says of her fledgling company. ''People were like, 'Who is this Mexican jumping bean?' Now no one messes with me -- it's MY show.'' No arguments here; after beating Madonna out for the rights, Hayek will next produce and star in a biopic based on the life of monobrowed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.