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Source:
Univision.com - December 6, 2005
TW Correspondent: Tonchi
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New York, USA. The moment could not be
better. While Thalia and her husband Tommy Mottola
stuffed teddy bears to give as gifts to the children of
New York, the insistent reporters asked if it was true
about a prenuptial agreement which indicated that Mottola
didn’t want to have more children. Thalia denied the
rumors with a big smile, then assured that "soon"
she would be asking the stork for a baby. Thalía and Tommy Mottola drew a smile on a hundred children from the organization Police Athletic League on Monday, when they invited them to stuff teddy bears to celebrate Christmas at the Build-A-Bear Workshop on Fifth Avenue. "The one who comes out winning is me," said the Mexican star, concerning the charity work which she realizes with her husband, the ex-president of Sony Music Entertainment. "When I lived in Mexico, during this season my mamma and I filled vans with hundreds of toys to share," related the artist. "And being here now, I had the desire to continue this tradition." she added. The couple, who each year realizes similar works to benefit children from different foundations, selected the Police Athletic League this year in gratitude for what Mottola said they had offered him when he was a child. "I grew up doing exercises and boxing in their installations when I lived in The Bronx, and I wanted to repay them for all the good," said the magnate of the music industry. Thalía added that for her it’s important "that the children know that there are good people who want them to keep studying, to give a good example for others in order to contribute their grain of sand." The singer and actress affectionately greeted the children, between six and eight years old, and set about making their own little bear with them. |
Thalía just celebrated her fifth wedding anniversary with Tommy Mottola, whom she married on December 2nd, of 2000.
(TW Note: Here are photos taken from the same event:)
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Source: AP -
December 5, 2005
Photos: Shiho Fukada
TW Correspondent: Luisa
Thalia and her husband and music executive Tommy Mottola hosted a holiday party for 100 children from the Police Athletic League neighborhood centers.
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Source: New
York Daily news - November 16, 2005
By: Rebecca Louie
Photos: Sipklin News
TW Correspondent: Melinafan
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It seems there's nothing Thalia can't do. The soap opera scene-stealer-turned-music megastar has become a hot commodity, with several products stocking the shelves. This year, her Kenmark Group eyewear line is expected to bank $25 million in sales. Glamour magazine recently included her basic jeans, available exclusively with the Thalia Sodi Collection at Kmart, alongside designer denims Citizen for Humanity and True Religion as one of the top 10 most flattering jeans. To date, her record label, EMI, claims she has moved more than 15 million units worldwide. And in case there's any doubt that Mrs. Tommy Mottola has good taste, her partnership with Hershey Co. has churned out Dulce de Leche Kisses and special Jolly Rancher flavors boasting her name."I want to reach everybody, from the little girls who are 3 years old, to the grandmother who watches my soap, to a young man in love," says the 34-year old starlet, who released her latest Spanish-language album, "El Sexto Sentido," last month. |
Born Ariadna Thalia Sodi Miranda in Mexico City, the eager entertainer began performing at age 9 as part of the all-kid group Din Din. From there, she was recruited for teen pop group Timbiriche, a break that eventually landed her a gig on the soap opera "Pobre Senorita Limentur" ("Poor Mrs. Limentur"). A string of roles ensued, bringing her into millions of homes - and hearts. Though her first solo album came out in 1990, it wasn't until she was picked up by EMI Latin in 1995 that her dreams of being a recording artist were realized. The hit album "En Extasis" made her an international star. Now she has evolved into a multi-industry mogul, joining the likes of industrious entrepreneurial stars Jennifer Lopez, 50 Cent and Sean Combs. But while most A-listers have built their brands around their larger-than-life personas, Thalia has built a career around being the (fabulous) girl next door.
| "She projects the image of being a beauty of the people," says Leila Cobo, Miami bureau chief at Billboard magazine. "All of the roles she has played in soap operas have been the poor girl who struggles to get ahead, who overcomes adversity. This has helped her become a real popular hero, and by popular I mean masses of people, in all walks of life, see her and relate." While early on, corporations understood this appeal, they weren't quite sure how to market it. When she was first courted for ventures, Thalia had to battle concepts built on stereotypes. "Before, [they wanted] the 'classic' Latino girl with the red dress, the flower in her hair, doing the cha-cha," says the businesswoman. "But the Latin woman is not like that. We are so different. Finally, they are starting to see that now." With a laugh, she adds that she is "a control freak" when it comes to quality and image control, taking part in meetings with her designers and creative teams. "Thalia has such a good eye, she can quickly home in on something if it's not working, down to a small detail like a button," says June Beckstead, vice president of design at Kmart. Beckstead describes the Thalia Sodi Collection, which includes jeans, tees and accessories, as "sexy casual without crossing the line" and says its main consumer are juniors. |  |
A combination of clotheshorse and pack rat herself, Thalia says she still has every single item she has ever worn. "Since my very first performance when I was 9 years old, through all of my videos, my soap operas to promotional trips to shows and Billboard and Grammy [award shows]. I have everything!" She hopes to one day display or sell some items in an expo for charity. Now, though, she's keeping busy as the new face of the March of Dimes, educating women on how to reduce their chances of having premature babies. Though she and Mottola, the 56-year-old president of Casablanca Records, don't have kids, Thalia hopes for a trifecta. "I wish I could have three the first time and that's it! Close the factory!" she exclaims. "I am taking care of myself. I eat like seven men together. I take vitamins and exercise a lot. And I think, in the future, I will be blessed with a family, no?" Until then, Thalia will relax in her mountain home in upstate New York, where she indulges her love of nature. She takes solace in a nondenominational relationship with God (though she wears a red kabbala bracelet - a gift from a rabbi - on her wrist). And, she will expand her empire. "I've learned that to survive, you need a positive state of mind," she says. "If you don't have that then nobody is going to help you. You are the only one who can create an incredible world around you, or destroy yourself. I take that as my anthem every day, and I transform all of the negativity in my life into new projects."
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Thalia: Woman on TopSource:
Latina Magazine - August 11, 2005 The queen of telenovelas is trying to pull off the biggest plot twist of all: transforming herself from pop star to business powerhouse. And she won't let a few stumbles--her magazine's shutting down, a once rocky relationship with her mom--get in her way. As business meetings go, this one was supposed to be quick and easy. A group of well-suited Hershey executives had flown to New York City from Pennsylvania to meet with Thalía so they could present some Latino-inspired candies that they were developing under her name. Sitting in the middle of the room, the telenovela queen tasted each morsel, laced with what were supposed to be classic Latin flavors like cajeta and mango. As the executives watched, they must have felt confident; after all, they represented a company that for more than a century had been making some of the world's most popular sweets. But when Thalía finished her taste test, she looked around the table and announced...they had gotten it wrong. "I felt like a bitch!" she says. The tamarindo-and mango-flavored paletas enchiladas didn't have enough spiciness, she explained, and they had used lemon when they should have used limón, or lime. To make sure the Hershey people understood, "We went to Mexico," says Thalía's husband, Casablanca Records head Tommy Mottola, "and went to this particular candy store that she grew up going to. She bought bags and bags of candies," and took them straight to Hershey's headquarters. "It was really funny to see their faces," Thalía says. "They finally understood the flavors que nos gustan." |
No doubt they also understood that Thalía is a woman who's serious about business. Sure, for more than a decade she has reigned as one of Latino entertainment's biggest stars, if also one of its frothiest: Among the highest-paid telenovela actresses, she's famous for playing the downtrodden girl who always manages to be discovered by a rich prince and live happily ever after. And in 2000, when life imitated art and she married Tommy, who had attained the status of music royalty as the legendary head of Sony Music Entertainment, the union may have drawn a few snickers, with some suggesting that it had less to do with love and more to do with a pop princess looking for power and crossover possibilities. But these days, Thalía is proving she has more substance than some might initially have given her credit for. Though she hasn't abandoned performing (in fact, her new album, El sexto sentido, dropped in July), she is setting out to write a second chapter to her fairy tale, attempting what an increasing number of celebrities, from Daisy Fuentes to Jennifer Lopez, have tried: to parlay fame into a multimillion-dollar licensing empire. In Thalía's case, it seems to be working, transforming her into a brand name and reaching scores of people who had never even heard of her before. Initially, her Thalia Sodi line of apparel, accessories, shoes and home products at Kmart was marketed only to Latinos and carried in some 300 stores; today the collection is carried in every one of Kmart's almost 1,500 locations and is doing so well (though the company won't give specific numbers) that there are plans to expand into menswear and teen fashion.
| Then, of course, there's La Dulcería Thalía
line of candies and her $21 million-a-year eyewear
collection, licensed to Kenmark Optical. And if Thalía
and Tommy have their way, this is only the beginning.
"We're now doing major fragrance and cosmetics
deals," says Tommy, who--having helped to engineer
the careers of Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and Shakira
when he was at Sony--certainly knows a thing or two about
the Latin market. So it's no surprise to hear Thalía
admit that her husband was instrumental in brokering both
the Kmart and Hershey deals. But she insists that her
business success has more to do with her own hard work
and appeal. "Nobody," says the 33-year-old,
sitting behind her desk at Casablanca Records, where she
keeps her office, "is going to spend millions of
dollars to put your face on their product just because
your somebody's wife." Indeed, confidence is
something Thalía has never lacked. "My mother put
the seed in me that I was worth something," she says.
"She told me, 'Don't ever let anyone step on you. It
doesn't matter if you're sitting with the owner of the
company or the president of a country.'" She has
needed that strength particularly during the last few
years: Her self-titled women's magazine folded in 2004
after just three issues, even though she says it sold
"como pan caliente." (She says she and her
partner in the venture, American Media, couldn't agree on
contract specifics.) "I told myself, Listen. Relax.
Breathe. Something better will come along," she says. Another incident that took a major toll on her came shortly after she married Tommy, when she decided to take the management of her career away from her mother, Yolanda Miranda. As anyone familiar with the often-told Thalía story knows, it was Yolanda who, from the beginning, had been the force behind her daughter. After Thalía's father died when she was only 5, Yolanda raised five daughters on her own and, in 1980, helped Thalía, the youngest, land her first gig with a band called Din Din. Years later, after Thalía's musical career had lead to one in acting, Yolanda found herself in heated negotiations with Mexico's powerful, male-run Televisa network. She stood her ground--and walked away having made her daughter the highest-paid actress in Televisa history. The problem, Thalía says, is that her relationship with Yolanda had become too businesslike. "I wanted less manager, more mom," she says. And though Thalía still clearly has trouble talking about her decision, she admits that it taught her something about having to make dificult choices. "At the end of the day, [I had to ask myself], What do you want for yourself? What everybody else wants or what you want? One of the things the singer-actress definitely wanted was to expand her résumé to include the title of businesswoman. She threw herself into retail, taking a hands-on approach to every detail. Just as she did with the chocolates, she signs off on all of her clothing line's designs, making sure that each embellishment--from the T and heart logos on her jeans to the threading of the fabric--is up to her standards. The involvement certainly has pleased her partners. "She is very interested in how the business is running and how things are selling," says June Beckstead, Kmart's vice president of design for women. "And because she also asks those questions, she's involved in driving the business ahead." And yet if Thalía has learned anything from the past few years, it's that she needs to maintain a balance between her personal and professional lives. So as driven as she is--she is already searching for a way to revive her magazine--Thalía also practices meditation and yoga and studies the form of Jewish mysticism known as kabbalah (whose most famous follower is Madonna). Then there's the new house she and Tommy are building in a New York City suburb, where she'll be able to escape the hectic pace of the city. "Life is more than just being a workaholic," she says. "I'm not kiling myself anymore." But while she may have found herself needing to move in a different direction, there is little about her past that she regrets; even the times that she has stumbled were worth it. "That's what keeps you grounded," she says, "and makes you stronger." |
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