What's Next? Salma Hayek and George Clooney?! Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling Ponder Connubial Bliss

Not that we are pathological surveyors of celebrity hookups, but it was with some interest that we stumbled upon tidings of Eva Mendes' and Ryan Gosling's impending blissful (permanent) hookup. Set to steal the stage from the Brangelinas of the planet, this A-list marriage is sure to take Hollywood by storm.

The Always Continuing Story of the Latina Bombshell: Eva Mendes Edition

The entire gallery appears here.

For more on the consequences of cinematic/sinematic transmogrification, see my elegy for Lupe Velez, the Mexican Spitfire in Tex[t]-Mex or in From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture.

Latina Hegemony, Eva Mendes Edition 2008

Though I had hinted at it on my amazon.com Tex[t]-Mex image page, I am just getting around here to chronicling sordid semiotic tales of Latina sexual hegemony in 20th and 21st century mass culture--Sacher von Masoch is smiling somewhere--especially about the 3rd image of Mendes below; first the images... discussion to come:

compare this last one to the infamous 

eva longoria chains/puppet

shoot linked here.

Eva Mendes: 21st Century Latina Bombshell

original posting 5/26/2008 | update below: 1/13/2011

Were the shade of our dear departed guru of deconstruction Jacques Derrida be asked to comment on the dynamics of the Latina femme fatale, he might well answer with one of his "always already" lines as in "the liminal space of the Latina feminine is always already a return, a resurrection, a renaissance."

Hitting the image above will take you to Steven Meisel's Italian VOGUE site; hit Archivio and then Maggio 2008 for the Mendes/Meisel collaboration.

This came to mind as I stumbled upon Vogue Italy's recent photoshoot with the Los Angeles-raised, Cuban-American actor Eva Mendes; click either of the two larger images above to be transported to an eyegienically sublime portfolio of Mendes lensed by Steven Meisel. Meisel's work here is striking, Mendes' almost sinematically profound--collaborating, the two have concocted next-gen "motion pictures," black and white and color still photography that pans and darts across your computer screen (the tossed shoe in the initial photograph is worthy of Orson Welles). Think the Ken Burns effect but with Helmut Newton's eye, or Humbert Humbert's or Man Ray's or Diane Arbus'... your call.

Meisel's work is glossed here in the NYTimes and here, another striking shoot, of post-operative models in rehab. Several Meisel collections are archived here at Art and Commerce.

source

Update, January 13, 2011

Mendes toys around with her celebrity in an utterly postmodern video from Funny or Die...

postscript.... I just ran across a nice piece from the Nordicom Review that includes lucid insights on elements of Meisel's work.

Breaking News: Latina Starlet Coupled with Sexual Metaphorics.... #1,793,242 in a Series | Eva Mendes

original posting 8/8/08 | updated (video fix), 12/04/10



The fusion of Tex[t]-Mextian and eyegienic forces at work in Mendes's latest career move are noteworthy. Pushing the envelope of U.S. prudery, Mendes's natural assets coupled with designer Fabian Bond's camera nets viewers a next-generation meditation on the nature and consumption of desire.

Here's the banned ad; click the image above for one of the many postings on the story!

Eva Mendez as Gloria Trevi in a BioPic--Holy Hissip!

Carmen Miranda, Lupe Velez, Eva Mendes: Walking the Latina Bombshell Beat

Eva Mendes, Ethnic Studies Critic, on Rita Hayworth and More...

It's bad news when Latina starlets horn in on an Ethnic Studies turf--profe's gonna lose! In any event, as a fair amount of Tex[t]-Mex dwells on the figuration of Latinas/os in Hollywood, an excerpt from Eva Mendes's conversation, forthcoming from Interview magazine but available in part now from the Huffington Post, seems in order:

DC: I have a question for you that's a little more complicated. Do you find it a challenge being Latin in Hollywood?

EM: I would never call it a challenge. I think being a woman in Hollywood is a big enough challenge. It really is, man. I don't want to be one of those people who complain. But the lack of roles out there--it's unbelievable. I read a lot of scripts. I believe you've got to read one that you know you're not going to do, because you've got to educate yourself on what's out there to make the best decision for you. So it's challenging being a woman. Then there are other kinds of obstacles that come your way, but there are many times that being Latin has actually helped me, being a Cuban-American has helped me.


DC: I think it makes you seem very modern and real.


EM: Absolutely. Because whether you like this next statement or not, we are the future. I mean, we're all just mixing together that much more. We are the future in that sense. I don't mean Latinos, I just mean ethnic diversity. I speak English without an accent, and I speak Spanish without an accent. I really do have the best of both worlds. What makes it frustrating is when a director or a studio head doesn't see me for the same part that they'll see, let's say, Drew Barrymore for. Drew's a great friend of mine. But it's like, "No, we want more of an American type of girl." And it's like, American has opened up. I'm an American girl, born and raised. I mean, I was into New Kids on the Block, just like Drew! Actually, I shouldn't say that. I don't know if she was. I'm going to text her on that one.



DC: I was reading recently about Rita Hayworth.


EM: Oh! Love her film Gilda [1946].


DC: She was half-Latin, and she changed her name to her mother's maiden name. Her mother actually was Irish-American, and her last name was Hayworth. She also plucked her hairline so she would look more aristocratic. A lot has changed in 60 years. Back then, I don't think anybody was really ready for somebody with a Latin last name. Obviously, so much has changed. I was wondering if you feel, like, "Yeah, it's changed, but it hasn't."


EM: No, I feel it's definitely changed. Thank God. We are moving forward. Every time there's another successful Latin actress, that's just better for everyone involved. Now, I want to see more Asian girls. People ask me if it's difficult being Cuban-American in this industry. I say, "You know what? Not as difficult as it is being an Asian girl." We have so many Asian girls in this country, and they're so not represented up on the screen.

The Huffington Post, source.