Carlos Calderón, Univision's "El Gordo y La Flaca" and Telemundo's "Un Nuevo Día" Pick Up 2015 Daytime Emmys

The 42nd annual Daytime Emmy Awards were bestowed in Los Angeles, California in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming. Univision, CNN en Español, Telemundo and ESPN Deportes were among the networks with multiple nominations this year.

Univision received two Daytime Emmys this year– for Outstanding Entertainment Program in Spanish/Programa Sobresaliente de Entretenimiento en Español, which went to "El Gordo y La Flaca"; and for Outstanding Daytime Talent in a Spanish Language Program/Talento Sobresaliente en un Programa Diurno en Español, which went to one of "El Gordo y La Flaca" correspondents, Carlos Calderón, shown at left. Telemundo picked up a Daytime Emmy for the second consecutive year for Outstanding Morning Program in Spanish/Programa Matutino Sobresaliente en Español, for last year's inaugural winner, "Un Nuevo Día." This is the second year that the Daytime Emmys have recognized Spanish-language daytime television.

There are many Latinos behind the scenes who won Daytime Emmys this year. For more information (and to see a complete list of winners), click here and here. 

CinemaCon Executives Tell Exhibitors That Hispanics is Their Core Customer

“Start thinking about Hispanics as your core customer, not as a segment,” said Disney’s Christine Cadena as part of CinemaCon’s “Step Up Your Game With Hispanics: Enticing the Country’s Most Avid Moviegoers to Your Theater.”

“The No. 1 thing we’ve learned is Hispanics want to be included,” Cadena added. “We want to be part of the party.”

Hispanics represent 18% of the U.S. population and 53% of population growth, noted Univision’s Pete Filiaci, who moderated the panel. Citing Nielsen statistics, he added that Hispanic customers go to 8.4 movies per year, compared with 7.3 movies for the average moviegoer; and 50% of Hispanic customers attend on a film’s opening weekend, compared to 34% for the average customer.

For more information, check out Dave McNary's article in Variety by clicking here.

HOLA Member Bochinche

Bochinche refers to “gossip”. In this sense, we use it to mention HOLA members or Friends of HOLA who are getting acting, performance or similarly artistic gigs and/or recognition in the media. The names of HOLA members and Friends of HOLA are listed below in boldface. To see what other HOLA members are doing currently, click here.

A.B. Lugo, shown at right, was profiled in the Héctor Luis Sin Censura blog (written by Héctor Luis Rivera), where his recent accomplishments were highlighted. They include winning a 2015 Latin ACE Award for directing Agravios de fortuna (also see below) and receiving a proclamation from the city of Union City, New Jersey where he was named Distinguished Puerto Rican Man of the Year. Also highlighted was  his current work (his self-penned solo show Manchild Machismo, directed by Omar Pérez, is scheduled for a run in April and May at The ONE Festival, being held this year at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, located in the theater district of midtown Manhattan. HOLA members also mentioned in the blog include Lucio Fernández, Víctor Cruz, Pablo Andrade, Alexandra Manzano and Sebastian Stimman (see below). For more information, about his solo show, click here. To read the blog, which is in Spanish, click here. 

Sebastian Stimman, shown at left with his parents Edith Noeding and Lars Stimman, was featured in New York weekly newspaper Impacto Latin News, where it highlighted his recent 2015 Latin ACE Award win as Male Revelation of the Year for his work in Agravios de fortuna (adapted, directed and produced by A.B. Lugo, also see above), as well as latest role in Dario Fo's No hay ladrón que por bien no venga (The Virtuous Burglar), directed and produced by Enmanuel García Villavicencio (see below). The production will be presented in May as part of the V Festival del Teatro Hispano del Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU at the Comisionado performance space in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The production also features Maritza Vives in the cast. To read the article (which is in Spanish), click here. In addition, the film in which he stars, 1.7 Alpha (written, scored and directed by Quanah Jay Hicks), is an official selection of the Hoboken International Film Festival, scheduled to take place in May and June in Middleton, New York. For more information, click here. 

Tabula Rasa NYC is presenting El invierno de abril. Written by Ricardo Sarmiento Gaffuri and directed by Ramiro Antonio Sandoval, the play will be presented in June as part of the V Festival del Teatro Hispano del Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU at the Comisionado performance space in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The production will star Jorge Luis Berríos, Carla Blasi, Asier Kintana, Soraya Padrao and Ángela Pérez in the cast. For more information, click here or here.

J.W. Cortés booked a guest-starring role on the season finale of "The Blacklist" (NBC).

Eduardo Ramos booked a guest-starring appearance on "Inside Amy Schumer" (Comedy Central).

Ramón Hierro, shown at right, recently performed the solo show El regalo. Written by Iván García Guerra and directed by Enmanuel García Villavicencio (see also above), the monologue was presented in April as part of the V Festival Internacional de Monólogos Don Iván García Guerra at the Gran Teatro del Cibao, located in Santiago de los Caballeros, Santiago, Dominican Republic. As part of the international festival, it will also be presented in May in New York at the Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en EEUU space located in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood.

If you are an HOLA member or a Friend of HOLA and want to submit a bochinche item, send us an e-mail. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, why not join? If you live outside the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, you can find out more information on how to do so by clicking here. If you are not a Friend of HOLA, why not become one?

Comcast Calls Off Time Warner Cable Merger

Comcast has scrapped plans to merge with Time Warner Cable in a $45.2 billion deal that would have combined the country’s two largest cable and broadband providers, the companies said Friday.

The move comes two days after the Federal Communications Commission said it planned to oppose the deal, joining lawyers from the Justice Department who felt it would not help consumers. The FCC said it would issue a “hearing designation order” that would prolong the deal, making it more difficult and expensive for Comcast. On Friday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the merger posed "unacceptable risk to competition and innovation."

For more information, read Alexander C. Kaufman & Jenny Che's article in Huffington Post by clicking here, or the Bloomberg article by Alex Sherman, Gerry Smith and Todd Shields by clicking here.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON Dominates the 2014-15 Drama Desk Awards With 13 Nominations; Chita Rivera, José Joaquín Pérez and Paola Lázaro-Muñoz Also Receive Nods

Judith Light and Jessie Mueller announced the nominations for the 60th Annual Drama Desk Awards at 54 Below in Manhattan's Theater District on Thursday, April 23, 2015. The Drama Desk Awards honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway.

Eligibility and award category designations for the productions under consideration this season were determined by the Drama Desk board of directors with recommendations from the nominating committee. Because of the abundance of great work throughout the season, the Board also authorized the increase in the number of nominees allowed in select categories.

Left to right: Alex Lacamoire
and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Chita Rivera.

The Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Hamilton, which is headed to Broadway this summer, received the most Drama Desk nominations with thirteen (13), including Outstanding Musical and four nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, Outstanding Lyrics, Outstanding Music and Outstanding Book of a Musical. Alex Lacamoire also received a nod for Outstanding Orchestrations for the same work, which also received nominations for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Leslie Odom, Jr.), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Renée Elise Goldsberry), Outstanding Director of a Musical (Thomas Kail), Outstanding Set Design (David Korins), Outstanding Costume Design (Paul Tazewell), Outstanding Lighting Design (Howell Binkley), Outstanding Sound Design of a Musical (Nevin Steinberg), and a Special Award for the "inspired and heart-stopping" choreography of Andy Blankenbuehler.

José Joaquín Pérez.

Paola Lázaro-Muñoz.

Other Latinos nominated for a Drama Desk Award include Chita Rivera (Outstanding Actress in a Musical for the Kander-Ebb-McNally musical The Visit), José Joaquín Pérez (Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for Elizabeth Irwin's My Mañana Comes), Paola Lázaro-Muñoz (Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Lisa Ramírez's To The Bone) and César Álvarez (Outstanding Music in a Play for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon). Portuguese-born actress Ismenia Mendes, along with Kelly AuCoin, Jon DeVries, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Rebecca Henderson, Marc Kudisch, Jenn Lyon, Lizbeth Mackay, David McElwee, and Will Pullen, received a special award for Outstanding Ensemble for their work on A.R. Gurney's The Wayside Motor Inn.

The 60th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be hosted by Laura Benanti and be presented on Sunday, May 31, 2015 at Town Hall, located in the theater district of midtown Manhattan. For more information, click here.

HOLA Member Bochinche

Bochinche refers to “gossip”. In this sense, we use it to mention HOLA members or Friends of HOLA who are getting acting, performance or similarly artistic gigs and/or recognition in the media. The names of HOLA members and Friends of HOLA are listed below in boldface. To see what other HOLA members are doing currently, click here.

Billy Martin Mejía, shown at right, and his theater company Otro Teatro NY, were selected by El Comisionado Dominicano de Cultura en los Estados Unidos as the winning group to mount a production of Haffe Serulle's play La danza de Mingó. Based on the life of Dominican activist Florinda Muñoz Soriano (also known as Mamá Tingó), the play will premiere in the IX Feria del Libro Dominicano en Nueva York later this year and in other stages in New York (by virtue of winning, Otro Teatro NY will receive the funding to mount these productions. For more information, read the article written by Pablo García Gámez in El Blog de Pablo (note that the blog is in Spanish), by clicking here. (Also, Manuel Herrera and Yolanny Rodríguez receive mentions in the article.)

Inma Heredia and Gerardo Gudiño can be seen playing Yolanda and Servando, respectively, in the feature film Little Galicia (written and directed by Alber Ponte). The film has been released in movie theaters nationwide across its native Spain (including, yes, in Galicia). For more information, click here.

A.B. Lugo, Omar Pérez, Rhina Valentín and Víctor Cruz are participants in the tenth annual The ONE Festival of solo shows. Lugo is performing his self-penned solo show Manchild Machismo (directed by Pérez), Valentín is performing her solo show Freestyle Friday (which she penned with Andrés Chulisi Rodríguez, who is also directing) and Cruz is co-directing Rick Herrera's self-penned solo show The Naked Truth. The festival will take place in April and May in the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (located in the theater district of midtown Manhattan) and was featured on page 11 (shown at right) of the April 2015 issue of Latin Trends magazine (with Miss Universe 2015 Paulina Vega on the cover, shown at left). An ad with the names of the shows and its writers and performers can also be found on page 45 of the same issue. For more information on the festival (including show schedules and how to buy tickets), click here or here.

Also in the April 2015 issue of Latin Trends magazine (see above) is an article about Jennica Carmona's film Millie and the Lords. The two-page article (pages 16-17) also features cast members Mateo Gómez and Cedric Leiba, Jr. To read the article, click on the images above. For more information about the film, click here.

If you are an HOLA member or a Friend of HOLA and want to submit a bochinche item, send us an e-mail. If you live in the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, why not join? If you live outside the New York metropolitan area and want to be an HOLA member, you can find out more information on how to do so by clicking here. If you are not a Friend of HOLA, why not become one?

Comcast-Time Warner Merger Seems To Be Off... For Now?

The U.S.$45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger that initially seemed inevitable now seems impossible. 

Bloomberg reported on Thursday, April 23, 2015 that attorneys at the Justice Department’s antitrust division were making moves that put the merger in danger.

Bloomberg also reports that U.S. Federal Communications Commission staff and lawyers at the Justice Department opposed the planned U.S.$45.2 billion merger.

For more information about the latest news regarding the merger, click here. For more information on the ramifications of this potential merger, read the guest blog in El Blog de HOLA by Louis Perego Moreno (Tío Louie) by clicking here.