Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek voted UGLY celebrity of the year and Unilever named ...

Salma Hayek is the U.G.L.Y. celebrity of the Year 2006. This most prestigious honor was bestowed upon her by the board of Hey U.G.L.Y., the teen self-esteem building nonprofit organization. Salma's show, Ugly Betty cinched the vote. Through this successful television series on ABC, Salma is helping teens see that it is okay to be themselves and that they don't have to be, as she says, "....so beautiful, so skinny, so rich, so famous." At the same time Unilever was awarded the U.G.L.Y. company of the year award for their Real Beauty Campaign for Dove. (PRWeb) January 2, 2007 -- Salma Hayek was named the U.G.L.Y. celebrity of the Year 2006. This most prestigious honor was bestowed upon her by the board of Hey U.G.L.Y., the teen self-esteem building nonprofit organization.

Salma's show, Ugly Betty, cinched the vote. Through this successful television series on ABC, Salma is helping teens see that it is okay to be themselves and that they don't have to be, as she says, "....so beautiful, so skinny, so rich, so famous."

Salma Hayek was selected from hundreds of celebrities whose self-esteem building statements are displayed on the Celebrity Quotes page of Hey U.G.L.Y.'s website, http://www.heyugly.org. "The Celebrity Quotes page is everyone's favorite," said Betty Hoeffner, President of Hey U.G.L.Y. "Teens report feeling better knowing that celebrities like Salma, Ashton Kutcher, Vince Vaughn, Halle Berry, Ryan Cabrera and so many more, struggle with some of the same self-esteem issues they do."

While Salma is doing great things with Ugly Betty, Unilever's "Real Beauty Campaign" for Dove was named the U.G.L.Y. company of the year.

"Both Salma Hayek and Unilever have done much this year to help drive home the point that we are 'enough' just the way we are," explained Betty Hoeffner, president of Hey U.G.L.Y. "Low self-esteem is a critical issue facing teens today. It has been proven that low self-esteem affects learning and can lead to such problems as delinquency, unhealthy relationships, eating disorders, drugs and suicide." According to most estimates, about 30 percent of today's teenagers are dropping out of high school and every school day 160,000 students miss school because of bullying.

"By using the word Ugly, Salma is helping to turn that negative word into a positive," said Hoeffner. "That is the impetus behind Hey U.G.L.Y. too. We choose the name "ugly" because it is a word that teens use to describe others, and most significantly, themselves. When they label themselves ugly or call a fellow student ugly they are unleashing a powerful force of negative energy. When teens see how we converted ugly to Unique Gifted Lovable You, they start calling each other, and themselves, U.G.L.Y. with a whole new perspective. The negativity is gone and in its stead is empowerment." Recognizing the value of teaching the concept of turning negatives into positives, Hey U.G.L.Y. developed acronym contests, asking teens to take words like Geek, Dork, Stupid, Loser and Fat and turn them into positives. One of their contest winners converted "Geek" into Gifted Enchanted Educated Kid. A teen in Texas converted "Loser" into Love Others Show Everyone Respect.

Hey U.G.L.Y. Inc., NFP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower teens with self-esteem building tools, to help them counter challenges such as eating disorders, bullying, violence, substance abuse and suicide. U.G.L.Y is an acronym that stands for: Unique Gifted Lovable You. The organization's website, www.heyugly.org, lists celebrity quotes about self-esteem and body image and features self-esteem building articles, contests and exercises. Hey U.G.L.Y. is the creator of the in-school curriculum called "eM-POWER" which is available to junior high and high-schools across the country.

Salma Hayek and Unilever voted U.G.L.Y. icons of the year

(PRLEAP.COM) Salma Hayek was named the U.G.L.Y. celebrity of the Year 2006. This most prestigious honor was bestowed upon her by the board of Hey U.G.L.Y., the teen self-esteem building nonprofit organization.

Salma’s show, Ugly Betty, cinched the vote. Through this successful television series on ABC, Salma is helping teens see that it is okay to be themselves and that they don’t have to be, as she says, "….so beautiful, so skinny, so rich, so famous."

Salma Hayek was selected from hundreds of celebrities whose self-esteem building statements are displayed on the Celebrity Quotes page of Hey U.G.L.Y.’s website, http://www.heyugly.org. "The Celebrity Quotes page is everyone’s favorite," said Betty Hoeffner, President of Hey U.G.L.Y. "Teens report feeling better knowing that celebrities like Salma, Ashton Kutcher, Vince Vaughn, Halle Berry, Ryan Cabrera and so many more, struggle with some of the same self-esteem issues they do."

While Salma is doing great things with Ugly Betty, Unilever’s "Real Beauty Campaign" for Dove was named the U.G.L.Y. company of the year.

"Both Salma Hayek and Unilever have done much this year to help drive home the point that we are ‘enough’ just the way we are," explained Betty Hoeffner, president of Hey U.G.L.Y. "Low self-esteem is a critical issue facing teens today. It has been proven that low self-esteem affects learning and can lead to such problems as delinquency, unhealthy relationships, eating disorders, drugs and suicide." According to most estimates, about 30 percent of today’s teenagers are dropping out of high school and every school day 160,000 students miss school because of bullying.

"By using the word Ugly, Salma is helping to turn that negative word into a positive," said Hoeffner. "That is the impetus behind Hey U.G.L.Y. too. We choose the name "ugly" because it is a word that teens use to describe others, and most significantly, themselves. When they label themselves ugly or call a fellow student ugly they are unleashing a powerful force of negative energy. When teens see how we converted ugly to Unique Gifted Lovable You, they start calling each other, and themselves, U.G.L.Y. with a whole new perspective. The negativity is gone and in its stead is empowerment." Recognizing the value of teaching the concept of turning negatives into positives, Hey U.G.L.Y. developed acronym contests, asking teens to take words like Geek, Dork, Stupid, Loser and Fat and turn them into positives. One of their contest winners converted "Geek" into Gifted Enchanted Educated Kid. A teen in Texas converted "Loser" into Love Others Show Everyone Respect.

Hey U.G.L.Y. Inc., NFP is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower teens with self-esteem building tools, to help them counter challenges such as eating disorders, bullying, violence, substance abuse and suicide. U.G.L.Y is an acronym that stands for: Unique Gifted Lovable You. Hey U.

G.L.Y. is the creator of the in-school curriculum called "eM-POWER" which is available to junior high and high-schools across the country.

Luc Besson writes, Salma Hayek & Penélope Cruz star in Bandidas.

By now you all know that I’ll watch anything featuring Salma Hayek. (Sorry, I have this thing . . .) When I asked to review Bandidas based exclusively on her participation, it was for a film that I had never heard of before. A little research revealed that Bandidas is a European multinational production that cost $35 million, was released overseas, and earned about half of its production costs before being shown exclusively in Cinema Latino Theatres on this side of the Atlantic. So for most of us in the States, the film is essentially a direct-to-DVD release. It was co-written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen; you should know the former very well. Besson also produced, which may explain the choice of the score’s composer, Eric Serra, a long time Besson collaborator. Bandidas was directed with enthusiasm and reasonable creativity by not one but two relatively inexperienced directors, Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg. I can’t help wonder if the very experienced Besson did more than he received credit for. Did the film deserve a wider release before relegated to disc? I think so.

Bandidas is a tongue-in-cheek western adventure set a little more than a hundred years ago in Mexico. When Besson is in a playful mood, he writes a tasty blend of the brutal and the comical; people die, but the adventure is suffused with humor. Witness The Fifth Element; I’d call that a sci-fi dramady. Wouldn’t you? Selfish and amoral Americans are plotting a land grab along the path of a railroad planned to link Northern and Southern Mexico. An American Bank buys a prominent Mexican Bank chain that’s holding mortgages on farmers’ lands that just happen to be along the rail route. Bank owner Don Diego Sandoval (Ismael Carlo) gladly signs the sales contract for the American representative, Tyler Jackson (Dwight Yoakam). Don Diego will not live to enjoy the fruits of the sale. Jackson is a merciless killer. He poisons Don Diego as he toasts the contract signing and the banker is dead before the ink is even dry. Jackson and his thuggish hired guns will terrorize the land owners, foreclosing on farm after farm and killing those that resist.

To suggest that Don Diego’s death upsets his daughter, Sara (Salma Hayek), would be an understatement. She escapes Jackson’s clumsy, unwanted attentions and vows revenge. No less furious is Maria Alvarez (Penélope Cruz), whose farm was seized and whose father Jackson shot. She too vows to fight back.

These two women couldn’t be more different. Sara comes from an affluent family; Maria is the daughter of a poor dirt farmer. Sara was sent to Europe for her education; Maria is uneducated. Sara is spoiled and refined; Maria is used to hard work and lacks any sophistication. Sara is ripe and voluptuous and experienced; Maria is thin and wiry and virginal. The women could not be a more unlikely pair to form a partnership and battle a common enemy, but that’s exactly what they do. They decide that the best way to fight back is to rob the banks that are foreclosing on their people and distribute the cash to the poor to help them retain their land. But how are two attractive young women going to learn the subtleties of the bank robbed well.

They seek the advice of Bill Buck (Sam Shepard in an extended cameo), reputed to be a very successful bank robber who has retired to Mexico. He reluctantly takes them on, and before you can say drop and give me twenty, he has them in bank heist boot camp. The ladies don’t know it, but his putting them through hell is less of a training exercise than it is a bonding process. He has four rules of bank robbing, and the most important is trust your partner with your life. The two women will come to trust one another.

Their first bank robbery motivates Jackson to send for a new type of investigator, one who seems to have been inspired by no less than Sherlock Holmes. Quentin Cooke (Steve Zahn) uses the latest and greatest scientific tools and logic - fingerprint detection, microscopic analysis, deductive reasoning - to solve crimes. Cooke parts from his fiancé, Clarissa (Audra Blaser), the daughter of the American bank president who hired Jackson, and travels to Mexico to investigate the heist. His role will evolve in unexpected ways after the lovely ladies kidnap him.

What follows are some elaborate bank jobs that would make Ethan Hunt proud. And ultimately, as the bandidas become more and more notorious, Jackson is compelled to force a confrontation.

In the hands of lesser performers, this film could have been an unmitigated disaster. But Cruz and Hayek are charming; their bickering is playful and fun. As a buddy film, they have great chemistry, something that becomes so very clear in their commentary. Yoakam is suitably sinister and arguably a little over the top. And Zahn manages to maintain a fine line between the silly and the dramatic. The directors use very clever tricks to cut between stunt people and Cruz and Hayek to create the illusion of their performing some of their own gags. This send-up of the western genre may be a bit silly, but it’s an entertaining send-up.

Salma Hayek | Salma Hayek 1 | Salma Hayek 2 | Salma Hayek 3 | Salma Hayek 4 | Salma Hayek 5 | Salma Hayek 6

Celebrity News Archive