5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The Only Book About The World's Most Beautiful Woman., July 29, 2000
Reviewer: H. M. Barrett "mimereader" (San Francisco, California USA) - See all my reviews
This is the only book I ever found in English about Brazil's entertainment superstar, Xuxa, one of the most attractive human beings on earth. And you can examine the nine photos in this book to determine if that's true yourself. My fascination with Xuxa began one evening when some film clips of her were shown on television. They were advance publicity shots for her first tour into the US, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Yes, Xuxa has perfect Nordic features, blonde hair, and she's young, but she also has as much charisma as Marilyn Monroe or Elvis. This is expressed in every move of her body, which never seems contrived, and she has such unguarded and pure facial expressions that a man's natural reaction is to believe "here's someone who needs protection from the world." Amelia Simpson's book about Xuxa is a weirdly obsessive diatribe which uses the image of Xuxa as a lightening rod for social criticisms about whites and the free enterprise system. And while many of her cultural criticisms are actually valid, I still haven't seen anything as nutty and obsessive as this book in a long time. It reminds me of a Marxist political book I encountered years ago which ranted on about how Donald Duck and his family were tools of the Capitalist oppressors. I am no longer surprised that there are people who devote a great deal of their time to subjects they dislike, but I also suspect that Simpson interpreted Xuxa as being someone who at least achieved personal success. This might be attributed to most of the book being written while Xuxa was rocketing upward. Xuxa started on her road to fame and notoriety by appearing in soft-core porno films when she was quite young. Somehow she got caught up in a romantic relationship with Pele, the Brazilian soccer hero, and he advised her to do a children's television show while dressed as provocatively as possible. Xuxa made quite a splash when she acted on that plan, doing more films, CDs, and connecting with the most powerful politicians in her country. Her success even spilled over to other nations in South and Central America, and more importantly to her, soon caught the attention of television people in Los Angeles. There was even a Xuxa doll manufactured to compete with Barbie. Then came an abrupt decline in this woman's fortunes. Although you can sort out the complexity of the causes yourself, using this book or talking with the many Spanish speaking people who followed the adventure closer than I could, this is roughly what happened: Her program was seen most of the time on Spanish speaking television, though she also sang in Portuguese, and her ultimate goal was to establish a stronger following on the English speaking stations of mainstream America. On the English language version of her show, where she was supported by stronger speakers, she was known to say such strange things as "It time to drop a chicken." This may actually have become an intentional joke directed to her stage assistants, but it seemed to betray a faux pas conscious environment. And sometime during this highpoint of unnatural programs, which must have been embarrassing to this superstar, her comet in the US plunged to earth. Among the reminders she had once been in fashion were the many dolls in her image, but these went unsold on the toy store shelves; for in another bad decision the product was so badly made that few American consumers saw any accurate connection to her. Yes, it's a strange and sad story, but I still think of Xuxa as the world's most beautiful woman. And the hospitals she built for children attest to something especially good within her, so I curse the corruption and ignorance that kept her from reaching her goal. Now Simpson seems to be the only writer available to those of us who don't read Spanish, and it's one more indignity for the fans who wish it had all gone better.
Comment | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)
― milton parker (milton parker), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 19:21 (seventeen years ago) link
my mother and i used to make fun of this show mercilessly. remember all of the kissing of the children? and those skirts. it was one of the weirdest things i've ever seen, except for the live taping of Bozo the Clown that i went to once.
― the table is the table (trees), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 20:00 (seventeen years ago) link