Celebridade

For those who enjoy a soap opera, Brazil is fertile ground, as the overwhelming majority of general TV channels in the country transmit, on average, four soap operas daily. Invariably, much of this material eventually goes around the world, being bought and broadcast in other countries. One of the most permeable markets for Brazilian teledramaturgy is, of course, my country, due to its cultural and linguistic proximity. I watched "Celebridade" twice: the first was around 2004, and the second was about six years ago, when it was reprized.

The story is very good and revolves around Maria Clara, who works in the world of fame and music as organizer of shows and musical events. She has the world at her feet when Laura appears, a young woman who becomes her assistant and friend but who is secretly determined to destroy her and take revenge on her. I confess that I followed the soap opera with great attention and I loved the plot. Without boring dead moments in the majority, it counts on the participation, truly remarkable, of Cláudia Abreu, that offered us with one of the best villains of soap opera that I have already seen. Malu Mader also satisfied me in the role of the young lady, but was really the excellent villain that made the story all the more appealing. We wanted to see it destroyed and pay for its mistakes, and that's very nice.

"Celebridade" has the basics soap opera plot: good vs. evil. It's from "Vale Tudo" (a masterpiece!) author Gilberto Braga, who's very talented. It's not his best work ("Vale Tudo", hello!), but it's pretty good.

Here he tells the story of the celebrity Maria Clara Diniz (gorgeous Malu Mader) who just wants to be happy and find a great love (she's so f***ing boring!). Then she and Fernando Amorim (Marcos Palmeira) soon fall in love. But not everything is peace... there's the diabolical Laura (wonderfull played by Claudia Abreu), who pretends to be a good girl who just wants do help Maria Clara, but in fact is plannin' a revenge against her. Laura's beautiful and very charming... she sleeps with everybody to get what see wants: Maria Clara poor! She's helped by boy toy Marcos (Márcio Garcia). There's a lot of clichés, but it's Laura and the other villains who really shine. Besides Laura and Marcos, there's the megalomaniac Renato (Fábio Assunção) who doesn't like Maria Clara either and will fall in love with Laura... but when he finds out that she was playin' him, he will plot against her. There's also Ana Paula (the great Ana Beatriz Nogueira), Maria Clara's sister, who helps everyone who wants to destroy her sister. To finish, there's the crazy Beatriz (Deborah Evelyn), Fernando's ex wife.

With good dialogs, it's on his villains that "Celebrity" has power.... the good guys are boring and boring... and boring!

Mention to the funny performances given by Deborah Secco (Darlene), Juliana Paes (Jaqueline) and Adriana Alves (Palmira).