Monday, January 25, 2010

Ann Serrano Lopez – Wife, Mother, Media Mogul

Ann Serrano Lopez – Wife, Mother, Media Mogul
By Al Carlos Hernandez on January 18, 2010

HOLLYWOOD (Herald de Paris) – Ann Serrano Lopez serves as the Principal of GEORGE LOPEZ PRESENTS, a film and television production company. Previously Mrs. Lopez has been the executive producer for the 2009 Nickelodeon & Warner Premiere film Mr. Troop Mom, George Lopez’s 2009 and 2007 HBO comedy specials Tall, Dark & Chicano, and America’s Mexican, as well as the ABC Television film Naughty or Nice. She produced the television specials Ray Charles: 50 Years in Music and America’s Hope Award honoring Oprah Winfrey. Mrs. Lopez started her career as a casting director. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband George and their family. More.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Latina actor flying high under the radar

Hollywood’s Lidia Pires flying high under the radar
By Al Carlos Hernandez, Heralddeparis.com

Lidia Pires may not be a name you recognize but she has been a recognizable face on numerous international TV commercials, network TV programs and more than ten feature films. She is most recently featured as one of the stars in the cross-over heist film Ladron que Roba a Lardron. There is no doubt that she will flirt with A-List notoriety in her upcoming feature, the comedic romp, Lean Like a Cholo.

In a time of media myopia and typecasting, Lidia is a transcendent Latina, a jack of all trades, an artistic multi-talented chameleon who can reinvent herself through many genres while mastering several media platforms.

She has worked as a model, writer, script doctor, producer, PR executive, and on-air host. She is a painter as well as a successful casting and production associate. Lidia says that acting is her first love and she can say it in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. Ever active and engaged with the world around her, she takes time to give back to the community...MORE

Mass. first Hispanic U.S. Attorney is female

State’s first female, Hispanic U.S. attorney
Lawyer takes historic step
By Laurel J. Sweet, Boston Herald, January 12, 2010

All guts, grit and glamor, Carmen Milagros Ortiz of Milton was sworn in yesterday with the double-barreled distinction of being the state’s first female and first Hispanic U.S. attorney.

And safe to say - with a star-studded welcoming that was the legal community’s equal of Academy Awards night - this successful woman had more than a few good men happy to stand behind her.

Extolling the “characteristic charm and energy” of the widowed mother of two daughters U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who has known Ortiz, 53, since he was a trial lawyer and she a law student interning for the public integrity section of the Department of Justice, said, “Carmen is a natural leader.”

A beaming Ortiz told Holder, “Boy, have we come a long way, huh?”

Holder’s presence at the federal courthouse in South Boston brought with it disconcerting scores of homeland security officials armed with machine guns.

Ortiz, who was a federal prosecutor for 12 years until she was nominated last fall by President Obama, was sworn in by the always mischievous Mark L. Wolf, chief judge of U.S. District Court in Boston.

Wolf playfully warned Holder of Ortiz’ appointment, “To prevail in front of me, the evidence has to be persuasive,” then let the overflow crowd vote on whether he should accept it. They obliged with a cheering, standing ovation.

Wolf said he hopes Ortiz will serve as an inspiration to youth who “desperately need” role models.

Ortiz, a product of hardscrabble Spanish Harlem, said Obama “has given me the opportunity of a lifetime,” and she hopes to have shown her children that “with hard work and perseverance, you can have a happy and fulfilling life, and you can have it all.”

Ortiz said her office’s “top priority” will be to thwart acts of terrorism.

Attorney Sharon Hanson, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis’ chief of staff and Ortiz’ friend of 25 years, told the audience that with Ortiz in office, “You are about to embark on a high quality, innovative and energetic ride.”