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Hispanic group attracts big names

By wire services
Published June 22, 2005

Former President Clinton, Gloria Estefan and members of President Bush's cabinet are among those confirmed for events during the national convention of the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights organization.

The League of United Latin American Citizens is expecting about 10,000 members to descend on Little Rock, Ark., from June 27 to July 2, said Brent Wilkes, LULAC's national executive director. Clinton will headline a presidential banquet at the Statehouse Convention Center on July 1, said Skip Rutherford, head of the Little Rock-based Clinton Presidential Foundation.

"They told us to expect 10,000," Rutherford said Saturday after taking Wilkes, LULAC president Hector Flores and others on a tour of the Clinton Presidential Library. "To have LULAC in Arkansas is huge for us."

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson and Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral will speak at some of the week's events. Estefan and Cabral are slated to speak at a women's luncheon July 1.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean and his Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, are also confirmed participants.

A large gala dinner in the Clinton Library's Great Hall is scheduled for June 29, following a debate among the three declared candidates for Arkansas governor in 2006: Republicans Asa Hutchinson and Win Rockefeller, and Democrat Mike Beebe.

Wilkes said Saturday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and comedian George Lopez had been invited to speak, but declined.

Arkansas' Hispanic population is still relatively small, with just over 100,000, or about 3 percent of the total population, recorded in official census counts. But that represents a 437-percent increase since 1990, second only to North Carolina over that span, and in response, the Mexican government has announced plans to establish a consular office in Little Rock.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Finding the perfect man is nothing but a fantasy and Heather Locklear wouldn't have it any other way.

Even though she stars in The Perfect Man, Locklear told reporters recently, according to AP Radio: "Perfect doesn't really exist. There's no perfect man. There's no perfect woman or person."

Locklear, married to Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, doesn't mind, though. "Imperfections" are what make people more exciting anyway, she said.

"There are people that can be perfect for each other," added Hilary Duff.

In the film, Locklear plays a single mom working in a bakery who has some desperate emotional bent for hooking up with losers. Duff tries to salve her mom's romantic pangs by creating an ideal - but fictional - beau.

Though this isn't the first time Locklear, 43, has played a mother, it took a while to get used to having a teenager for a daughter.

"Maybe a year before I was Dakota Fanning's mother," she said about her movie Uptown Girls with the then 9-year-old Fanning. "And then when I was in Dynasty, I had a little baby; no one ever saw this baby. Well, now, 17. Well, OK. It's not impossible. I had to swallow my pride just a bit. But look at my daughter! How great!"

The Perfect Man, also starring Chris Noth, finished seventh at the box office this past weekend, taking in $5.5 million.

Steve Earle's appearance at the Southeast Alaska State Fair in Haines is drawing protest.

Earle has been the subject of angry letters and paid newspaper commentary in the Chilkat Valley News since early May.

Letter writers have complained that Earle's music has un-American or Marxist undertones. Some have said he's not right for the nonprofit family fair in Haines, and have called for a boycott.

Earle, a 50-year-old, Grammy-nominated country rocker, has frequently drawn critical acclaim over his career, spanning three decades. His more recent albums, including Jerusalem and The Revolution Starts ... Now, have been critical of George W. Bush and the war on terror.

But the controversy hasn't translated into troubles at the box office. More than 300 people have reserved spots for the July 30 show.

"We've never pre-sold that many tickets to anything before," fair director Herb VanCleve said. The fair has an outdoor capacity of 1,200.

VanCleve said the negative attention seems to have generated a rush of radio play for Earle in Haines.

"The general reaction I've gotten from virtually everyone has been 100 percent in support of what the fair is doing," VanCleve said.

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 01:08:17]