Source: http://www.nydailynews.com
Salma Hayek is due to molt from sex vixen into revolutionary martyr in the
upcoming Showtime movie "In The Time Of The Butterflies." But some Dominicans
may raise their eyebrows.
Hayek plays Minerva Mirabel in the movie, which is based on Julia Alvarez'
novel, which in turn was based on the lives of four sisters who fought the
bloody Dominican dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo in the 1950s. Three
of the sisters died for their cause, and were known as "the butterflies."
Some are bound to find no little irony in Showtime's partnership with MGM on
the project. Viacom's cable network is a corporate descendant of Gulf +
Western, which owned the Casa de Campo resort and other Dominican properties
during Trujillo's heyday.
Salma Hayek
As for Hayek, she wasn't exactly at the barricades growing up in Veracruz,
Mexico. Her father, Sami Hayek Dominguez, was a top exec with the state-owned
oil company. Her mother was an opera singer. Hayek has admitted she was "very
spoiled" skiing in Colorado, summering on a Greek island. She even had a
private zoo, complete with a tiger.
The actress, who is also executive producer on "Butterflies," campaigned for
her father in 1997, when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of their hometown on
behalf of Mexico's ruling party. But she said at the time she usually stayed
out of politics "unless it's a question of supporting someone very special."
A rep for Showtime points out that, whatever corporate sins its ancestors may
have committed, the network has championed a number of socially conscious
films.
Jose Tamez, director of development for Hayek's production company, said that
Hayek and Spanish director Mariano Barroso insisted on casting Latino actors
and that the story will be "told from the Latin American, rather than
American, point of view."
