Grecia Dolores Colmenares Mieussens (born December 7, 1962 in Valencia, Venezuela), better known plainly as Grecia Colmenares, is a Venezuelan-Argentine actress who gained fame across Latin America, specially during the 1980s.

Colmenares became a sensation as a young actress in her native Venezuela during the 1970s, becoming a favorite of the general public in that country. She made her debut, as an eleven year old, in the Angelica Spanish soap opera. She continued participating in other soap operas through her teenage years, including the major hits Estefanía in 1979 and Elizabeth in 1980.

Those major hits were followed by a number of lesser known soap operas, as well as other hits, such as 1981's Marielena and, in 1984, Azucena and Topacio.

In 1985, she moved permanently to Argentina, where she debuted on Argentine television with a soap opera named "Maria de Nadie". There she married Marcelo Pelegri who became her manager, and had her son Gianfranco.

In 1991 she starred in the famous soap opera Manuela, which obtained a huge success worldwide, and Grecia won several prizes for her outstanding job as Isabel and Manuela.

Although her jobs in Venezuela gave her considerable international fame, it was after she moved to Argentina that Colmenares became paparazzi fodder. Colmenares then became a household name across Latin America. She appeared frequently on the covers of gossip and fashion magazines, and rumors of a rivalry with Andrea Del Boca surfaced, although these rumors lasted for a short period only. In 1999, Colmenares acted in a telenovela that Del Boca had previously participated in: Chiquititas, which had by then become a major international hit.

Colmenares has obtained Argentine citizenship.

In 2001, she was seen in Miami, Florida, trying to get a contract with Univision. Nevertheless, she was not able to get contracted by that network.

In Venezuela, Colmenares and Victor Camara formed a popular on-camera couple, starring together in a number of soap operas.

In 2006 Grecia Colmenares is evaluating the offers many studios made her, and deciding the contract she will sign to return to the soap operas.

Soap operas[link]

• "Angelica" (1973, alongside José Luis Rodríguez)
• "Ileana" (1977)
• "Zoraida" (1977)
• "Carolina" (1977)
• "Tormento" (1979)
• "Sangre Azul" (1979)
• "Estefanía" (1979)
• "Elizabeth" (1980)
• "Rosalinda (1981)
• "Dias de Infamia" (1981)
• "Marielena" (1981)
• "Azucena" (1984)
• "Topacio" (1984)
• "Maria de Nadie" (1985–1986)
• "Grecia" (1987)
• "Pasiones" (1988)
• "Rebelde" (1989)
• "El Desprecio" (1989)
• "Manuela" (1991)
• "Primer Amor" (1993)
• "Milagros" (1993)
• "Amor Sagrado" (1996)
• "Chiquititas" (1999)
• "Vidas Prestadas" (2000)

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Grecia Colmenares Blog
• Grecia Colmenares Channel
• Grecia Colmenares "Myspace"
• Grecia Colmenares Facebook
• Grecia Colmenares Turkısh Blog Page
• Grecia International Forum
• Simplemente Grecia Colmenares Website
• Fotolog sobre Grecia Colmenares
• Grecia Colmenares Blog
• Grecia Colmenares La Reina Blog
• Grecia Colmenares Blog – English
• Grecia Colmenares Channel in Youtube

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The metal church in Grecia.

Grecia (Spanish: meaning "Greece") is the capital city of the canton of Grecia in the province of Alajuela in Costa Rica. It is also the name of the distrito (Spanish: meaning "district") that includes the city. The district of Grecia covers an area of 6.86 km²,^[1] and has a population of 15,457.^[2][3]

The city lies at an elevation of 999 meters above sea level^[1] in the foothills of the Cordillera Central on the eastern edge of the Central Valley. The city, which was once named "the cleanest city in Latin America,"^{[citation needed]} is 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital city of Alajuela, 27 kilometers from Juan Santamaria International Airport, and 45 kilometers from the national capital city of San José.

Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Grecia is noted for its unique church, Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, made entirely of pre-fabricated steel plates painted red. There are several urban legends about this church. One recounts how the church was donated by some foreign country, and sent to Greece as a gift, but was wrongly shipped to Grecia, Costa Rica. Another legend states that the final destination of the church was the city of Punta Arenas in Chile but was disembarked, by mistake, in the port of Puntarenas, Costa Rica and later sent to the city of Grecia where it was assembled.

However, records clearly show that the instruction, shipment, and construction of the church were a coordinated effort of Grecia's population, the Catholic Church, the Costa Rican government, and Alejo E. Jiménez Bonnefil (1858-1922), a Costa Rican coffee producer and exporter who was in charge of commanding and importing the church from the manufacturer Ateliers de la Société de Couvillet in Belgium, in the late 19th Century.

References[link]

Coordinates: 10°04′20″N 84°18′40″W / 10.07222°N 84.31111°W / 10.07222; -84.31111

Julio Iglesias
Julio Iglesias in November 2007.
Background information
Birth name	Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva
Born	(1943-09-23) September 23, 1943 (age 68) Madrid, Spain
Genres	Latin American music, Latin, Latin pop, Dance and Classical
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1968–present
Labels	Columbia Records and Sony Music Entertainment
Website	www.julioiglesias.com

Julio Iglesias (born Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva; September 23, 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter whose romantic image, magnetic stage presence, and expressive music made him one of the best-selling artists of all time. By the early 21st century he had sold hundreds of millions of albums in more than a dozen languages.^[1] He has sold over 300 million records worldwide in 14 languages and released 77 albums.^[2] According to Sony Music Entertainment, he is one of the top 15 best-selling music artists in history.^[3] While Iglesias rose to international prominence in the 1970s and 1980s as a performer of romantic ballads, his success has continued on as he entered new musical endeavors.^[4] He is the father of singer Enrique Iglesias.

Early life[link]

Iglesias was born in Madrid, the eldest son of Dr. Julio Iglesias Puga and María del Rosario de la Cueva y Perignat. Iglesias' father's family was from Galicia, and Iglesias' mother an Andalusian.

In the 1960s, he studied law in Madrid and was a goalkeeper for one of Real Madrid's^[5] football teams. On September 22, 1963, he was involved in a car crash, resulting in an injury to his spinal cord.^[6] He said, "I had a car accident; [a] very, very strange car accident...I lost control of the car and rolled it, resulting in what they call 'paraparexia,' which is not paraplegia. It's a compression in the [spinal] cord, in the sense of the neck...my spinal cord; and I was very, very ill for three years."  His doctors thought he would never walk again; indeed, his legs were left permanently weakened, and they continued to require therapy as of late October 2010. However, slowly, he began recovering his health. To develop and increase the dexterity of his hands, he began playing guitar.^[6] When he recovered from his accident, he resumed academic studies and traveled to the United Kingdom to study the English language, first in Ramsgate, then at Bell Educational Trust's Language School in Cambridge.

In 1971, he married Spanish Filipino^[7] journalist Isabel Preysler and had three children, Chabeli Iglesias, Julio Iglesias, Jr. and Enrique Iglesias. Their marriage was annulled in 1979. In 1981 his father, Julio Iglesias Puga, Sr, was kidnapped by Basque terrorists but found alive two weeks later, prompting Julio Iglesias to move his children to Miami, Florida.^[8]

On August 24, 2010, Julio Iglesias and Miranda Rijnsburger got married after a 20-year relationship. The religious ceremony was celebrated in the Parish of the Virgen del Carmen of Marbella, and was followed by a Mass of thanksgiving in the chapel on the property the couple owns in the same city.^[9] The couple has three sons and twin daughters: Miguel (born September 7, 1997), Rodrigo (born April 3, 1999), Victoria and Cristina (born May 1, 2001) and Guillermo (born May 5, 2007).^[10] After Iglesias was 60 years old, his 89 year old father produced more children: half-brother Jaime born May 18, 2004; and half sister Ruth born July 26, 2006. Julio's half siblings were a product of Dr. Iglesias Puga's second marriage, to Ronna Keitt.^[11]

Career[link]

In 1968, he won the Benidorm International Song Festival, a songwriter's event in Spain, with the song "La vida sigue igual" (meaning "Life Continues Just The Same") which was used in the film La vida sigue igual, about his own life. After his events he signed a deal with Discos Columbia, the Spanish branch of the Columbia Records company. He represented Spain in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, earning fourth place, after Northern Irish singer Dana and the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin. His entry was the song "Gwendolyne." Shortly after he had a number one hit in many European countries with "Un Canto A Galicia." That single sold 1 million copies in Germany. In 1975 he found success in the Italian market by recording a song exclusively in Italian called "Se mi lasci non vale" ("If You Leave Me, It Can't Be"). Notable albums from this decade are A Flor de Piel (1974, with the European hit "Manuela"), "El Amor" (1975), and "Soy" (1978). He also sang in French. One of his popular songs is "Je n'ai pas changé".

Following the annulment of his marriage to Preysler in 1979, he moved to Miami, Florida, in the United States and signed a deal with CBS International, and started singing in different languages such as English, French, Portuguese, German and other languages to his music. Iglesias released the album De Niña a Mujer (1981), dedicated to his daughter (that divided the cover photo with him), from it came the first English-language hit, a Spanish cover of "Begin the Beguine" which became number 1 in the United Kingdom, he also released a collection, Julio (1983). In 1984, he released 1100 Bel Air Place, the hit album which gave him publicity in the English-speaking entertainment industry. It sold four million albums in the United States, with the first single "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", a duet with Willie Nelson, earning a fifth place spot in the Billboard Hot 100; it also featured "All of You", with Diana Ross.

Julio Iglesias made a cameo appearance as himself on The Golden Girls as Sophia Petrillo's date on St. Valentine's Day. In 1984 he recorded the duets with Diana Ross and Willie Nelson previously mentioned. Iglesias won a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album in the 1988 Grammy Awards for the album Un Hombre Solo (A Man Alone). He recorded a duet with Stevie Wonder on "My Love", in his Non Stop album, a crossover success in 1988. In the 1990s, Iglesias returned to his original Spanish melody in Tango (1996), nominated for Best Latin Pop Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards, losing to the Romances album by Mexican singer, Luis Miguel.^[12] Also that year, his youngest son from his first marriage, Enrique Iglesias, also was nominated for the Vivir album.

Julio Iglesias went on to win the World Music Award for Tango in Monaco later that year where he was up against singer Luis Miguel and son Enrique for the second time. Julio performed two "Tangos" to the delight of the audience. In 1995, he appeared as a guest star in the videoclip of Thalía's song "Amandote"; she had starred in the video clip of Iglesias's hit "Baila Morena". Iglesias returned to the headlines in October 2003, when he went to Argentina and kissed show host Susana Giménez three times during a live telecast of her show.

In 2003, he released his album Divorcio (Divorce). In its first day of sales, Divorcio sold a record 350,000 albums in Spain, and reached the number 1 spot on the charts in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Russia. In 2003 and 2004, he was featured on a ten month world tour; which took Iglesias, aided by the success his album Divorcio and toured from Europe and Asia to North America, South America and Africa. More than half the shows on the tour sold out within days of going on sale. In December 2004, his Dutch girlfriend Miranda Rijnsburger and Iglesias himself recorded a duet of the Christmas song "Silent Night". The song, which was not officially released, also included a voice message from Iglesias, Rijnsburger and their 4 young children. The song was released online through the singer's official website and a CD was included on their Christmas card as a holiday gift from the Iglesias family to their friends and fans around the world.

In 2008, Iglesias recorded another song as a gift to his fans. The family recorded "The Little Drummer Boy" in Spanish and English and included it in the family's Christmas card. Iglesias also made investments in the Dominican Republic's eastern town of Punta Cana, a major tourist destination, where he spends most of the year when he is not on tour. Iglesias's south Florida mansion on the exclusive private Indian Creek Island property was placed on the market in 2006 for a quoted $28 million, making it one of "Ten Most Expensive Homes in the South" in 2006 according to Forbes Magazine.^[13]

In September 2006, a new English album titled Romantic Classics was released. "I've chosen songs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s that I believe will come to be regarded as the new standards", Iglesias stated in the album's sleeve notes. The album features the hits "I Want to Know What Love Is", "Careless Whisper", and "Right Here Waiting". Romantic Classics was Iglesias's highest debut on the Billboard charts, entering at number 31 in the United States, 21 in Canada, 10 in Australia, and top spots across Europe and Asia. He returned to the studio to record songs in Filipino and Indonesian for his Asian releases of Romantic Classics which helped propel record sales in the Asian entertainment industry. Iglesias promoted Romantic Classics in 2006 and was seen all over the world on television shows. For example, in the United States, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars (where he sang his hit "I Want To Know What Love Is"), Good Morning America, The View, Fox and Friends, and Martha Stewart.

In 2008, Iglesias promoted his Romantic Classics album worldwide and in 2009-2010, he planned a world tour as a celebration of forty years in the music industry.^{[citation needed]} After his house in Indian Creek did not sell he razed his house to the ground in 2008 and said he planned to build another.^[14]

In 2010, Iglesias continued to travel around the world with his "Starry Night World Tour" to promote his 42 years of career. Julio Iglesias is currently learning Tunisian Sephardic cuisine for which he has developed an incredible passion, the Mloukhia being his best recipe. According to his close friend, Emilio Lopez, Julio is also learning Orthodox Judaism to become a rabbi in Los Angeles and teach French-speaking kids how to pray with a Latino twist.

Julio is frequently seen at the Tunisian restaurant in Paris called Douieb where he orders the Tunisian sandwich.

According to his official site, he has sold over 300 million albums worldwide as of 1 November 2010 (2010 -11-01)^[update].

In March 2011, the artist launched a new studio album called Numero 1.

Iglesias' performance of the song La Mer ("The Sea") is featured in the soundtrack of the 2011 film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The performance comes from a live album, currently out-of-print, recorded live at the Olympia theater in Paris in 1976. At the beginning and the end of the recording, Iglesias introduces the song, and his backing musicians, in fluent French.

Discography[link]

Studio, live, remastered and compilation main albums

• 2011: Numero 1
• 2010: The Essential: Julio Iglesias
• 2010: Original album classic
• 2010: Nathalie-The best of Julio Iglesias
• 2007: Quelque Chose De France
• 2006: Romantic Classics (US:#41)
• 2006: Remastered+Bonus Track
• 2006: Remastered (US:#81)
• 2005: L'homme Que Je Suis
• 2003: Divorcio
• 2001: Ao meu Brasil
• 2000: Noche De Cuatro Lunas
• 1996: Tango
• 1995: La Carretera
• 1994: Crazy (US:#30)
• 1992: Calor (US:#186)
• 1990: Starry Night (US:#37)
• 1989: Raíces
• 1988: Non Stop (US:#52)
• 1987: Un Hombre Solo
• 1987: Tutto l'amore che ti manca
• 1985: Libra (US.#92), (US Latin:#1)
• 1984: 1100 Bel Air Place (US:#6) [Singles: "All Of You" US:#19, US R&B:#38, "Moonlight Lady" Adult Contemporary #17, "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" US:#5, US Country:#1]
• 1983: En Concierto
• 1982: Momentos
• 1982: Momenti
• 1982: Et l'amour crea la femme
• 1981: De niña a mujer
• 1981: Fidèle
• 1981: Minhas canções preferidas
• 1981: Zartlichkeiten
• 1980: Hey!
• 1980: Amanti
• 1980: Sentimental
• 1979: A vous les femmes
• 1979: Innamorarsi alla mia eta
• 1979: Emociones
• 1978: Aimer La Vie
• 1978: As Vezes Tu, As Vezes Eu
• 1978: Da "Manuela" A "Pensami"
• 1978: "Quiero" Album (El Amor)
• 1977: A mis 33 años
• 1976: America
• 1976: Ein Weihnachtsabend Mit Julio Iglesias
• 1976: En El Olympia
• 1975: A Mexico
• 1975: El Amor
• 1974: A Flor de Piel
• 1974: Viens M'embrasser
• 1973: Soy
• 1972: Un Canto a Galicia
• 1972: Por una mujer
• 1969: Yo Canto

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview with Julio Iglesias
• Julio Iglesias at the Internet Movie Database

Jorge Rial (born on October, 1961 in Munro, Gran Buenos Aires) is an Argentine pink press and gossip journalist.

Rial started working in newspaper media in the early 1980s and he eventually starred in the comic domestic movie Los Extermineitors. He then got involved in TV media as a reporter of TV programme Indiscreciones hosted by Lucho Avilés in 1990s, but a later acrimony between the latter and Rial made him to abandon the staff.

Jorge Rial hosted gossip-related TV programmes El Periscopio (with Graciela Alfano, and then Andrea Frigerio), Paparazzi, Paf!. His programme Intrusos en el espectáculo is now broadcast on Argentina's América 2. He was the director of contents of América 2 during 2002, but later replaced, and he seems to be focused on TV media and his gossip-related "Paparazzi" magazine. Since January 2007 he is also the host of the Local version of Big Brother "Gran Hermano" On Argentina's largest Broadcaster Telefe.

He wrote the book Polvo de estrellas featuring the lives of celebrities and politicians involved in farándula, and another book called "El intruso" regarding the same subject.

During the late 2009 early 2010 season he was also the main character of Angel y Demonio a theatre play, awarded with the Estrellas de Mar award in its category. It became a national theatrical success after a nationwide tour.

Currently he is the host of Intrusos en el espectáculo, a weekday entertainment show; the most successful program of Argentina in the afternoon time (15:00-18:00) as well as the most successful program of América 2. The program is co-hosted by journalist Luis Ventura, Marcela Tauro, Daniel Gómez Rinaldi, Luis Piñeyro and Lola Cordero. Since March 1, 2010, he is the host of a 9 to 12 daily radio program, Ciudad Gótika, in Radio La Red (AM 910). The program includes interviews to politicians, celebrities as well as a radio theater. It is co-hosted by journalist Luis Ventura, Marcelo Palacios, Claudio Rico and Connie Ansaldi.

Jorge Rial has two adopted daughters: Morena and Rocío.

References[link]

• El Angel y demonio del Espectáculo se alzó con el Premio Estrella de Mar al Mejor Varieté
• Jorge Rial debutó en La Red con su Ciudad Gótika

External links[link]

• Jorge Rial at cinenacional.com
• Primicias Ya
• Biography of Jorge Rial at Youbioit.com (Spanish)

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