The FCC was inundated with comments on its proposal to set rules of the road for the Internet this week, and the Senate Judiciary Committee weighed in with a congressional hearing on Wednesday. Among the high-profile commentators on the issue were Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who labeled an attempt by the FCC to mandate an open Internet as a “nanny state regulation.” While Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken countered it is “all about preserving the Internet as it is.” Also read: FCC Deluged With More Than 1 Million Comments About Net Neutrality Hollywood writer Ruth Livier called it “a civil rights issue,...
- 17.9.2014
- von Ira Teinowitz
- The Wrap
Marlene Forte, the actress who plays Carmen Ramos, the Ewing family's longtime Mary Poppins-like superintendent and mother of Elena (Jordana Brewster) on TNT's “Dallas” and I spoke today about the “uncorking” of the second half of Season 3 on Monday, August 18 on TNT. The story line for the rest of the season clearly is going to be all about the Ramos family.
For those of you who, like me, do not really keep up with television, our conversation was not only hugely entertaining but educational as well. Marlene is a well educated, articulate woman who raised her daughter before finally stepping into the business of acting.
She was one year old when her father moved her and her mother to New York from Cuba. They lived on MacDougal Street with her uncle and her father blames that for her and her younger sister choosing to become “artists”. Her sister is one of the hosts of Hsn Today; the Home Shopping Network and lives in Tampa Fla where her parents have joined her. Only her middle sister is the steady moneymaker of the three sisters. She is the Senior VP of Risk Management for Skanska USA a world leading project development and construction group. On the other hand, her father named all three of his daughters after movie stars: Marlene as in Dietrich, Yvette as in Yvette Mimeux and Leslie as in Leslie Ann Warren. And he made sure Marlene took piano lessons and her sister took dancing…That was to keep them off the street, her father claimed later.
They soon moved to Union City NJ where she grew up. And she grew up on TV. Her family watched lots of TV. When her father got home at 6, he would turn on "Welcome Back Kotter” and "McCloud”. They were not like Cubans in Miami, always feeling exiled. When he left Cuba, he wanted to get as far away as he could and he never wanted to go back. He loved America…Frank Sinatra, TV…(though he did like those romantic slow boleros and still does), but at home, everything was American.
Marlene wanted to be an actress all her life but she married her first boyfriend from high school and had a child. She went to college and studied English; Shakespeare seemed a good route toward acting. Life however had a way of taking the lead. She opened a video store in North Bergen, NJ which she ran for six years, thinking she would be financially independent with her daughter. Her parents lived nearby to care for her daughter, and she had no time to become an actress. She did watch movies however (like Tarantino) and everything she learned about film was in that store. She saw as much as possible and learned a lot about the business.
This was during the early days when video stores were ma and pa affairs, but when Blockbuster moved down the block, she saw the writing on the wall. By that time, her daughter was ten and understood her mother’s passion, so they sold the store, took what little money they had and she moved across the river to New York determined to follow her dream…her father cried to think she would not become a doctor or lawyer.
Coincidentally at that time I also entered the video business and as an acquisitions executive we visited these ma and pa businesses, many of whom were making duplicate cassettes in the back of their stores. I was soon acquiring films for Lorimar, the producers of “Dallas” itself. When Lee Rich and Merv Adelson would call company-wide meetings, Lee would always begin asking for a show of hands of who had watched TV the past week. Very few of us had…and I never did. I might have seen “Dallas” once; certainly I knew who Jr was and around the office there was always good gossip. And the gorgeous Victoria Principal was loved by all.
When Marlene turned 30, she decided to become an actress. That's a late start for most occupations; in Hollywood it's nearly unheard of. But for this born girl named for one of Tinseltown's brightest stars (Marlene Dietrich) perhaps the journey was predestined. So Marlene got into a theater group called The Lab. It was very Latino and actress based. She worked with people like Judy Reyes,Vanessa Aspillaga, Forencia Lozano (39 episodes of "One Life To Live") Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell. Today it is called the Labyrinth Theater Company and works out of the Bank Street Theater David Zayas (Dexter) and she were newbies and “old” - they already had children. It was a good time and the timing was good. And so 20 years passed, like a blink of an eye. She was on the cusp. Latino had not yet become Ok; they told her she had to use a different name from that of her daughter’s father, Rodriguez. It was not too long after the days of Raquel Welch — remember what a surprise it was to discover she was Mexican? And how about Rita Hayworth? Her name was Ana Marlene Forte Machado. She decided to take the name of her mother and so became Marlene Forte. While today the Latino community still has no Tyler Perry or Oprah, still now is the time to be Latino and living in L.A. where she can stand on the corner of Olympic and El Camino; life is good.
So "Dallas" is back for its third season. “Dallas” without Larry Hagman, "one of the nicest people she ever worked with in the business”. He was a role model for her. He knew he was ill with cancer. In the course of the two seasons, he lost 20 pounds. But he died with his family around him, doing what he loved doing most, acting halfway through the second season.
Comparing “Dallas” back in the day (1978 – 1991) when I was working at Lorimar (1985 +) and today: Back then there was only Angela, the Ewing Maid (Carol Sanchez) There was no “Ramos family”. So how did the Ramos family come into being?
“Dallas” has fans around the world. The new version is younger. Elena (Jordana Brewster)’s mother (whom Marlene plays) is already a business woman. The family has been working with the Ewing family since her daughter was nine and she was widowed when an oil rig accident killed her husband.
It has already been revealed that Rj actually stole the land from the Ramos land grant at the end of Season 2. Jordan is now bent on revenge. Her mother Carmen (Marlene Forte) had a bit of a chip on her shoulder; she always said that no one in her family every lied, but now…they too are lying, lying all the time. Lots will be revealed about them now; their dark side is coming to light in the third season.
“Dallas”, this version has very well rounded characters and the storylines are interesting. The first season dealt with real issues, like oil vs. methane gas…Jr wants to drill, drill, drill but the Ewing children want to go with ethane gas.
The women are very strong in “Dallas” too. This is due in part to Cynthia Cidre the creator and showrunner, who is also Cuban. Michael M. Robin the director and producer is a TV Giant ("The Closer", "Nip/Tuck", "L.A. Law”) and the two have found a good balance.
Wow! I want to watch this, if I can ever figure out how to turn on which remote control to watch TV in my home! TV is changing…we all know that much. But Marlene’s description of the changes explains much more. She says, "The procedural folks are tired. Soaps are coming back. No longer is procedural — a dead body, we find out what happened — enough. Now it’s revenge, scandal, characters…in ‘ allas', Cynthia and Michael go into that vibe, it is current and it’s history too.
There are two trends in TV now. One is the procedural switch to characters. The other comes off of reality TV…there are still reality shows; there will always be housewives everywhere, but the second trend is going back to Spanish TV, with shows like “America’s Got Talent”, “Dancing with the Stars”. This is entertainment like the old Spanish TV shows, "Sábado gigante” where for four hours, seven days a week Don Francisco would show "The Chew" and "The View" and "Americas Got Talent" all rolled into one show — four hours! — with ads by Ivory between the segments.
Marlene Forte is Totally TV. She loves it; she knows its craft. She says that TV, Film, and Theater are all different media.
She tells young talent, "If you know the media, you can conquer it…you can figure out the rhythm…" Forte is one of those familiar faces to which you’d have trouble putting the name. Yet you’ve seen her everywhere simply because she’s played them all. In fact, her work reads like the ultimate directory of television - from "Crossing Jordan", “The George Lopez Show”, "The Mentalist", "Law & Order", "Bones", "Daybreak", “The West Wing”, “ER”, “Lost”, "Castle" to "House of Payne", “24”, “ Community”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”, among many others.
Now with an acting career spanning over three decades, Forte is enjoying a hell of ride carrying an acting dossier that may very well rival some of the most prominent Latinas in the industry.
On the movie side, she played the transporter chief in the 2009 Jj Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot; Mrs. Glass in "Real Women Have Curves"; and the unforgettable Pilar Brown in "Our Song" opposite Kerry Washington ("Scandal"). She appeared recently in the Marlon Wayans’ parnormal’esque parody “A Haunted House”, and Tyler Perry’s “A Single Mom’s Club” (her second time working with the award-winning director). She will next be seen in the indie movie “Assassination of a Citizen” playing a female Walter White in gang-central East La.
She continues to do shorts and live theater, to work on web projects (notably the Imagen Award winner “Ysle” with Ruth Livier), to tackle indie films and big budget movies, and pop in some of TV’s high-profiled series and sitcoms, The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (Hola) - the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors - honored her with a Hola Award for "Excellence in Television". Most recently she received a “Pioneer Award” at the 2014 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival and an “Artist Award” from her home town, Union City.
And as she is keeping that acting bug rolling and the roles coming, she most definitely provides a shinning example of how women can “make it” in Hollywood on their own terms.
“Dallas” itself has been nominated and awarded many prizes since it recommenced in 2012:
Alma Awards, 2012
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Julie Gonzalo
Imagen Foundation Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Primetime Television Program
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Julie Gonzalo
Key Art Awards
2013
•
2nd place , Key Art Award
Best Trailer - Audio/Visual
(Turner Network Television (TNT)).
• For the online "Dallas Theme Song Video MashUp".
Namic Vision Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Vision Award
Best Performance - Drama
Jordana Brewster
So tune in Monday, August 18 on TNT!!!
For those of you who, like me, do not really keep up with television, our conversation was not only hugely entertaining but educational as well. Marlene is a well educated, articulate woman who raised her daughter before finally stepping into the business of acting.
She was one year old when her father moved her and her mother to New York from Cuba. They lived on MacDougal Street with her uncle and her father blames that for her and her younger sister choosing to become “artists”. Her sister is one of the hosts of Hsn Today; the Home Shopping Network and lives in Tampa Fla where her parents have joined her. Only her middle sister is the steady moneymaker of the three sisters. She is the Senior VP of Risk Management for Skanska USA a world leading project development and construction group. On the other hand, her father named all three of his daughters after movie stars: Marlene as in Dietrich, Yvette as in Yvette Mimeux and Leslie as in Leslie Ann Warren. And he made sure Marlene took piano lessons and her sister took dancing…That was to keep them off the street, her father claimed later.
They soon moved to Union City NJ where she grew up. And she grew up on TV. Her family watched lots of TV. When her father got home at 6, he would turn on "Welcome Back Kotter” and "McCloud”. They were not like Cubans in Miami, always feeling exiled. When he left Cuba, he wanted to get as far away as he could and he never wanted to go back. He loved America…Frank Sinatra, TV…(though he did like those romantic slow boleros and still does), but at home, everything was American.
Marlene wanted to be an actress all her life but she married her first boyfriend from high school and had a child. She went to college and studied English; Shakespeare seemed a good route toward acting. Life however had a way of taking the lead. She opened a video store in North Bergen, NJ which she ran for six years, thinking she would be financially independent with her daughter. Her parents lived nearby to care for her daughter, and she had no time to become an actress. She did watch movies however (like Tarantino) and everything she learned about film was in that store. She saw as much as possible and learned a lot about the business.
This was during the early days when video stores were ma and pa affairs, but when Blockbuster moved down the block, she saw the writing on the wall. By that time, her daughter was ten and understood her mother’s passion, so they sold the store, took what little money they had and she moved across the river to New York determined to follow her dream…her father cried to think she would not become a doctor or lawyer.
Coincidentally at that time I also entered the video business and as an acquisitions executive we visited these ma and pa businesses, many of whom were making duplicate cassettes in the back of their stores. I was soon acquiring films for Lorimar, the producers of “Dallas” itself. When Lee Rich and Merv Adelson would call company-wide meetings, Lee would always begin asking for a show of hands of who had watched TV the past week. Very few of us had…and I never did. I might have seen “Dallas” once; certainly I knew who Jr was and around the office there was always good gossip. And the gorgeous Victoria Principal was loved by all.
When Marlene turned 30, she decided to become an actress. That's a late start for most occupations; in Hollywood it's nearly unheard of. But for this born girl named for one of Tinseltown's brightest stars (Marlene Dietrich) perhaps the journey was predestined. So Marlene got into a theater group called The Lab. It was very Latino and actress based. She worked with people like Judy Reyes,Vanessa Aspillaga, Forencia Lozano (39 episodes of "One Life To Live") Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Rockwell. Today it is called the Labyrinth Theater Company and works out of the Bank Street Theater David Zayas (Dexter) and she were newbies and “old” - they already had children. It was a good time and the timing was good. And so 20 years passed, like a blink of an eye. She was on the cusp. Latino had not yet become Ok; they told her she had to use a different name from that of her daughter’s father, Rodriguez. It was not too long after the days of Raquel Welch — remember what a surprise it was to discover she was Mexican? And how about Rita Hayworth? Her name was Ana Marlene Forte Machado. She decided to take the name of her mother and so became Marlene Forte. While today the Latino community still has no Tyler Perry or Oprah, still now is the time to be Latino and living in L.A. where she can stand on the corner of Olympic and El Camino; life is good.
So "Dallas" is back for its third season. “Dallas” without Larry Hagman, "one of the nicest people she ever worked with in the business”. He was a role model for her. He knew he was ill with cancer. In the course of the two seasons, he lost 20 pounds. But he died with his family around him, doing what he loved doing most, acting halfway through the second season.
Comparing “Dallas” back in the day (1978 – 1991) when I was working at Lorimar (1985 +) and today: Back then there was only Angela, the Ewing Maid (Carol Sanchez) There was no “Ramos family”. So how did the Ramos family come into being?
“Dallas” has fans around the world. The new version is younger. Elena (Jordana Brewster)’s mother (whom Marlene plays) is already a business woman. The family has been working with the Ewing family since her daughter was nine and she was widowed when an oil rig accident killed her husband.
It has already been revealed that Rj actually stole the land from the Ramos land grant at the end of Season 2. Jordan is now bent on revenge. Her mother Carmen (Marlene Forte) had a bit of a chip on her shoulder; she always said that no one in her family every lied, but now…they too are lying, lying all the time. Lots will be revealed about them now; their dark side is coming to light in the third season.
“Dallas”, this version has very well rounded characters and the storylines are interesting. The first season dealt with real issues, like oil vs. methane gas…Jr wants to drill, drill, drill but the Ewing children want to go with ethane gas.
The women are very strong in “Dallas” too. This is due in part to Cynthia Cidre the creator and showrunner, who is also Cuban. Michael M. Robin the director and producer is a TV Giant ("The Closer", "Nip/Tuck", "L.A. Law”) and the two have found a good balance.
Wow! I want to watch this, if I can ever figure out how to turn on which remote control to watch TV in my home! TV is changing…we all know that much. But Marlene’s description of the changes explains much more. She says, "The procedural folks are tired. Soaps are coming back. No longer is procedural — a dead body, we find out what happened — enough. Now it’s revenge, scandal, characters…in ‘ allas', Cynthia and Michael go into that vibe, it is current and it’s history too.
There are two trends in TV now. One is the procedural switch to characters. The other comes off of reality TV…there are still reality shows; there will always be housewives everywhere, but the second trend is going back to Spanish TV, with shows like “America’s Got Talent”, “Dancing with the Stars”. This is entertainment like the old Spanish TV shows, "Sábado gigante” where for four hours, seven days a week Don Francisco would show "The Chew" and "The View" and "Americas Got Talent" all rolled into one show — four hours! — with ads by Ivory between the segments.
Marlene Forte is Totally TV. She loves it; she knows its craft. She says that TV, Film, and Theater are all different media.
She tells young talent, "If you know the media, you can conquer it…you can figure out the rhythm…" Forte is one of those familiar faces to which you’d have trouble putting the name. Yet you’ve seen her everywhere simply because she’s played them all. In fact, her work reads like the ultimate directory of television - from "Crossing Jordan", “The George Lopez Show”, "The Mentalist", "Law & Order", "Bones", "Daybreak", “The West Wing”, “ER”, “Lost”, "Castle" to "House of Payne", “24”, “ Community”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”, among many others.
Now with an acting career spanning over three decades, Forte is enjoying a hell of ride carrying an acting dossier that may very well rival some of the most prominent Latinas in the industry.
On the movie side, she played the transporter chief in the 2009 Jj Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot; Mrs. Glass in "Real Women Have Curves"; and the unforgettable Pilar Brown in "Our Song" opposite Kerry Washington ("Scandal"). She appeared recently in the Marlon Wayans’ parnormal’esque parody “A Haunted House”, and Tyler Perry’s “A Single Mom’s Club” (her second time working with the award-winning director). She will next be seen in the indie movie “Assassination of a Citizen” playing a female Walter White in gang-central East La.
She continues to do shorts and live theater, to work on web projects (notably the Imagen Award winner “Ysle” with Ruth Livier), to tackle indie films and big budget movies, and pop in some of TV’s high-profiled series and sitcoms, The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (Hola) - the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors - honored her with a Hola Award for "Excellence in Television". Most recently she received a “Pioneer Award” at the 2014 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival and an “Artist Award” from her home town, Union City.
And as she is keeping that acting bug rolling and the roles coming, she most definitely provides a shinning example of how women can “make it” in Hollywood on their own terms.
“Dallas” itself has been nominated and awarded many prizes since it recommenced in 2012:
Alma Awards, 2012
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Alma Award
Favorite TV Actress-Drama
Julie Gonzalo
Imagen Foundation Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Primetime Television Program
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Jordana Brewster
•
Nominated , Imagen Award
Best Supporting Actress/Television
Julie Gonzalo
Key Art Awards
2013
•
2nd place , Key Art Award
Best Trailer - Audio/Visual
(Turner Network Television (TNT)).
• For the online "Dallas Theme Song Video MashUp".
Namic Vision Awards
2013
•
Nominated , Vision Award
Best Performance - Drama
Jordana Brewster
So tune in Monday, August 18 on TNT!!!
- 2.7.2014
- von Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
HollywoodNews.com: Spotlighting the creative collaboration between writers and other artists in the entertainment industry, a wide array of Hollywood talent is set to present honors at this year’s Writers Guild Awards L.A. show Saturday, February 5, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel-Grand Ballroom. The West Coast WGA ceremony will feature writers, actors, and directors who’ve worked together to create memorable films, television shows, videogames, new media, and other written programs.
“We’re excited that some of the most talented storytellers, actors, producers, and directors have agreed to spend their Saturday night telling us insider tales of how some of the best shows and movies are created,” said 2011 WGA L.A. show Executive Producer Spike Jones, Jr.
Awards presenter pairs include: author Mitch Albom and Emmy-winning actor Hank Azaria (Tuesdays with Morrie), Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mark Boal and Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), WGA-winning writer-director Morgan Spurlock...
“We’re excited that some of the most talented storytellers, actors, producers, and directors have agreed to spend their Saturday night telling us insider tales of how some of the best shows and movies are created,” said 2011 WGA L.A. show Executive Producer Spike Jones, Jr.
Awards presenter pairs include: author Mitch Albom and Emmy-winning actor Hank Azaria (Tuesdays with Morrie), Academy Award-winning screenwriter Mark Boal and Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), WGA-winning writer-director Morgan Spurlock...
- 1.2.2011
- von HollywoodNews.com
- Hollywoodnews.com
Season 2 of "bicultural dramedy" web series Ylse (pronounced Eel-Say) kicked off today starting a 12-episode return. Ruth Livier, who's also the creator and lead writer of the series, is back as Ylse, an aspiring TV host working her way up the talk show circuit hoping to one day reach the level of her espoused idol Oprah. For now, however, Ylse is stuck in the dregs of the TV world on a bizarre Spanish language talk show. We've had our eye on this series for a while now, and we're glad to see it back for another season. The series had been picking up fans over the past year which included locking up a distribution deal with LatinHeat.com last fall and scoring the "Best Webisode" award at the 2009 Reel Rasquache Festival. Livier's bilingual script effortlessly jumps from English to Spanish, making the comedy easily accessible even for us Spanish newbies.
- 16.9.2009
- von Marc Hustvedt
- Tubefilter.com
How do you pronounce Ylse? It’s like eel-say. Or, as the main character emphatically states in the series’ first episode, “Think illegal and sexy.” Sounds easy enough, but some people at the male-dominated news network just don’t know how to hit the hard Spanish vowels. They also take Ylse’s guide to pronunciation a little too seriously. Alas, the misnaming turns out be but a symptom of a larger dilemma our Latina protagonist has with her job and cultural identity. Created by and starring Resurrection Blvd. actress Ruth Livier (who originally developed the series as a TV pilot), Ylse is the story of a strong-minded aspiring journalist with a kinda catty entertainment talk show and a intense worship of Oprah. Seriously. In episode 2 we learn the character has a shrine in the corner of her room with pictures of the big O and chants her name to relieve...
- 11.2.2009
- von Kristina Lopez
- Tilzy.tv
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