Friday, October 18, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Beautiful People

Latin sex symbols Enrique Iglesias and Paulina Rubio pair up for Saturday concert

Enrique Iglesias is a liar, but he's honest about his dishonesty.

"I lie all the time" in interviews, Iglesias says. "It's a way of protecting anything that's private in my life."

Iglesias has plenty to protect. The sex symbol son of crooner Julio Iglesias has been connected to one ingenue after another. The latest is tennis pro Anna Kournikova.

The junior Iglesias says he lies depending on "what mood you catch me in" and how personal an interview gets. Personal stuff is embarrassing, he says.

"For me, it's always embarrassing when you see celebrities or entertainers spill out all their life, or their problems, in public," he says. "If you got in a fight with your father, or your mother, or your girlfriend, or whoever it is that's close to you, wouldn't it be embarrassing to talk exactly why you're in a fight?"

Has the star ever discussed lying to the press with his famous father?

"I've never really talked to him about that," Iglesias, 27, says, then adds with a chuckle. "And I'm not lying."

Iglesias paused for a moment when asked about his father. He used to be known as the son of the celebrity. But the young singer has established a name and image for himself quite separate from his dad. He sells more albums than any other Hispanic artist.

And as Hispanics are embraced more in pop culture, so is he. The most recent evidence: Enrique's mainstream-TV ad for Doritos, in which he appears to be eyeing a guy, but it turns out he just wants the dude's bag of Doritos.

Also notable was the moment at the recent MTV Video Music Awards when host Jimmy Fallon imitated Iglesias after slapping a giant fake, Iglesias-inspired mole on his face.

Iglesias laughed at the impression during the show. He says now that he doesn't understand why friends wondered if he the parody upset him.

"I thought it was funny," Iglesias says. "What are you gonna do? Jump on stage and kick his ass? No. It's an honor."

In concert, Iglesias has garnered improved reviews. One critic actually praised Iglesias for inviting a "plain"-looking woman on stage. Iglesias is puzzled by that review. He claims he just seeks the loudest fan.

"Or," as he jokes, "the people holding the Doritos bag."

Iglesias -- who's touring to promote a new Spanish-language album, "Quizás" -- used to feel awkward onstage, but he feels more comfortable switching gears between English-language hits such as "Hero" and "Rhythm Divine" and more emotional, Spanish-language pop songs, he says.

"English is a great language to sing. You don't have to pronounce as much, at times. And that makes it flow a little better on top of the music," he says. "It's funny, because in how many songs in English do you understand the words? A lot of times, you don't. In Spanish, it doesn't work that way. You kind of have to understand every single word."

Iglesias' opening act on tour is fellow sex symbol Paulina Rubio, who appears on one July cover of Rolling Stone wearing, uh, a fig leaf.

Rubio says she grew accustomed to being photographed as the daughter of Mexican actress and soap opera star Susana Dosamantes, who took Rubio on trips around the world.

"I feel comfortable with cameras. I cannot lie to you," Rubio says. "I'm not shy. ... I just do my thing. The only important thing is to shoot fast and in motion, so you get me the way I am. I'm not a posed girl. I love motion."

Like Iglesias, Rubio, 31, made a name for herself first as a Spanish-language artist. She sang in a teen-pop group called Timbiriche. Then she moved over to English-language pop songs. Her 2002 album, "Border Girl" (the one with her butt almost showing on the cover), mixes post-Madonna pop English-language songs with Spanish-language versions of the same songs.

"Border Girl" netted Rubio four nominations from the first MTV Video Music Awards Latin America (to be held Thursday in Miami) as well as a hit single in "Don't Say Goodbye." ("Can you feel my love inside, the way that my body's sighing?") Rubio says she absorbed various cultures while growing up with her mother in different countries.

"I love to play with ranchera, hip-hop, R&B, acoustic music, DJ (music), mariachi, guitars and violins, and all that, to make a fusion of the world. It's globalization."

One of the worldly things she picked up 10 years ago was yoga. She's been into Bikram yoga lately, she says in a purr. Yoga relieves her stress.

"It's a 100-degree hot room, where you sweat and sweat and sweat. It's crazy," she says.

Yoga's deep-breathing techniques must be good for her voice, right?

"It's good for," she says (and purrs), "everything."