Cristina Saralegui
The
Queen of The Airwaves
 MIAMI
(By Jeanne Dequine, Time) August 18, 2007 — When fans encounter Cristina
Saralegui, the vivacious, sometimes ribald talk-show host of the weekly
prime-time El Show de Cristina, they tend to ask for hugs, not
autographs. Her mix of glamour, humor and kitschiness, developed over 16 years
of doing the program on the Univision Network, endears her to viewers, though
her penchant for the provocative has shocked them at times. On the air, she has
revealed her cosmetic surgery, given condom demonstrations, bemoaned her
menopause symptoms, even "married" gay couples. The latter event drew bomb
threats and 1,500 protesters to her Miami studio. "I have gotten into a lot of
trouble in my life for being brutally honest," she says. "Sometimes I put both
my feet in my mouth. But like Elton John, I'm still standing."
She's doing better than that. Saralegui, who
came to the U.S. from Cuba at age 12, now sits at the center of a Hispanic
empire. Like Oprah Winfrey, to whom she is often compared, Saralegui, 57, has
become a brand, which includes Cristina La Revista, the magazine she
started in 1991; a talk show, which has won 11 Emmys and an estimated 100
million viewers worldwide; a Miami television studio; Casa Cristina, a
furniture line; an upcoming clothing line; and a burgeoning acting career that
has included an appearance on ABC's
George
Lopez. Her bilingual website receives an average of 50,000 hits a day. Her
book Cristina! My Life as a Blonde is out in Spanish and English. And she
runs a foundation, Arriba la Vida/Up with Life, which aims to
educate Hispanics about HIV. "Kids can diet, stop smoking, but they will never
stop making love," she says.
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