The blogosphere is buzzing about a new Eva Longoria-produced show with “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry that feature four Latina leads (Ana Ortiz, Roselyn Sanchez, Dania Ramirez, and Judy Reyes)… as maids. And rumor has it that Susan Lucci will be one of the women who hires the Latina Help.
This is exactly the type of publicity a new show like “Devious Maids” needs: force the issue of diversifying Hollywood, but make it controversial enough so people are talking about it. The jury, of course, will be out until the reviews and the show will be out, but as one blogger puts it, the point is not about “progress,” it is about using your star power to demand better:
Of all the storylines to greenlight in Hollywood, now, Devious Maids is the worst of the worst shows to greenlight.
Finally, a Latina/Tejana from Corpus is in a position to influence mainstream entertainment and you go with this.THE WORST OFFENDER stereotype for female Latinas in Hollywood, the maid? the domestic?We do not dishonor our working class ancestors when we protest, we honor them because you could have easily done better.
Longoria did defend her decision in a recent PR interview with The Huff Post. The questions were so fluffy, Longoria could have just filmed herself on YouTube. And her excuse that she can’t please everyone because when Longoria was on “Desperate Housewives” she played an affluent Latina and now she is trying to tell the stories of the other class, her comments come out as classist as anyone else.
[…] television. "Devious Maids," by creator Marc Cherry and executive producer Eva Longoria, who suggested last month that the show would be a symbol of pride for the Latino community, will never make it to ABC, according to Latina magazine. Starring four Latina leads, the […]