Gloria Estefan’s Hard Rock surprise
Tags: Connie Francis, Fort Lauderdale, gloria estefan, Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Where the Boys Are
| Saturday 25 October 2008 11:06 am
Latin diva Gloria Estefan’s first concert near her South Florida home
Connie Francis
in nearly four years had a few surprises.
From the stage of the jam-packed Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood Friday, the 51-year-old Estefan introduced another local icon, 1950s superstar Connie Francis.
Francis, 69, put Fort Lauderdale and SoFla on the map with her 1960 film and song Where The Boys Are. She has lived in the Fort Lauderdale area on and off since.
“I’ve always admired her,” said Estefan, “and now I get to play her in a film.”
Indeed, Estefan and hubby Emilio are producing a biopic of Francis, Who’s Sorry Now. It’s slated for release in late 2009, if the moolah they need materializes.
Estefan is set to play Francis in a flick that’ll include a shocking post-concert sexual attack on Francis in 1974 that almost destroyed her.
Another surprise: During her costume change (neither dresses she used, by the way, was flattering to Estefan, who’s packing a few extra pounds), the five-grammy winner left the stage to her daughter, 13-year-old Emily. The teen showed her skills on electric guitar before taking over on drums.
Gloria performs in Barcelona earlier this year. (AP file photo)
The sold-out show, with the expensive seats going for $250-a-pop, actually raised cash for the educational foundations of several school districts, including those of Palm Beach and Indian River counties.
Estefan performed a plethora of crowd pleasers, including Get on Your Feet, Conga, Can’t Stay Away From You and Rhythm Is Gonna Get You.
She kicked it off – on customary Cuban time, 40 minutes late – with a salute to the Seminole officials: “We’re about to shake your booty, Chief!”
Gloria Estefan is a phony two-faced liar. As she wails on Tv against Castro and claims to want a “free” Cuba, she has fought her own employees attempts to unionize, even showing up for the “We beat the Union” party at the Bongos Restaurant in Orlando, which was located within the unionized Disney complex. In Miami, Estefan hired the notorious union-busting company, Levy Restaurants, to manage Bongos after they fought the u Hotel workers union (HERE)at AA-Arena, they fired 3 workers who tried to start a union. Emilio came to a captive -audience “No Union” meeting at the Orlando restaurant and stood next to managers as they told workers to vote “NO Union”. So “freedom” is OK, as long as it’s not affecting her wallet.
Yes a free Cuba and a free USA! What is the Juxtaposition between freedom and unions? Freedom is to be free of opperssive rule and regulations. Unionizing resturant workers is the most represive of actions. Both the back of house and front of house depend on the viability of the business. The greater sales the restaurant does the better the staff does. Given the amount of opportunities for employment and the turnover rate, it is a foolish argument to portend that unions help these workers.
Thanks alot for issuing a review of Gloria’s concert in Florida.
We Fans of Connie Francis are eagerly waiting for this biopic to happen.I hope and pray that it will be a huge success..and put Connie on the map again.As she deserves every thing the industry has to give,and more.
The cd of her featured is from Russia…would you believe.
We are sick and tired of the THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF ‘SHIT’.She doesn’t deserve to be in there!!!!!!!
anymore…She’s THE QUEEN[500 million sales][sang in 15 languages-the most by any artist]and Madonna isn’t even a Princess.
Thanks
from Greece
Oh, heck - “…now I get to play her in a film”. NOW??? This term suggest that the cameras will start rolling in the very, very near future or even that they are already rolling. But for long are we only hearing this now and nothing ever happens? For five years at least. All I can say is: “Stop cackling, hen, and finally LAY THE EGG!” But please, Gloria, just produce the movie, OK? Don’t play Connie. First of all, you’re old enough now to play Ida (Connie’s mother) in the part of the movie set in the 1970s. Leave the lead to someone younger and to someone whose look resembles Connie more than yours and who’s a trained actress, like Alyssa Milano, or Alexis Bledel. Then it could really become a good movie