Ed Bark

10:33 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 19, 2006

By ED BARK / The Dallas Morning News

PASADENA, Calif. – Ugly Betty could be a beaut for ABC.

Its star in the making, America Ferrera, in fact is a cutie pie in both appearance and demeanor.

"In real life, it's not like I'm sucking down pie," she said Tuesday after sitting next to beauteous co-executive producer Salma Hayek at a packed interview session. "But it's not about looking like a supermodel. It's about feeling good about who I am. I'm not unhealthy, though. I don't promote obesity or over-eating."

Previously titled Betty the Ugly, the one-hour comedy is adapted from the smash Spanish-language telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea. As Betty Suarez, Ms. Ferrera, 22, wears jumbo braces, red-rimmed glasses and really bad outfits to her new job as an assistant at a high fashion magazine teeming with vultures and posers. The first episode's foolproof sight gag finds Betty reporting for her first day of work in a bright red poncho emblazoned with "Guadalajara."

"It's a very thin line we're walking," said Ms. Ferrera, who has the same first name as her Honduran mother. "And it could become ridiculous if Betty became a cartoon character. Then you lose the audience instantly and no one cares because they think it's a joke."

Eclectic TV vet Ben Silverman, whose productions range from The Biggest Loser to The Office, has a deft way of distilling the virtues of Ugly Betty.

"It is Cinderella. It is My Fair Lady. It has worked a thousand times in a thousand places in a thousand ways," he said before noting that his high school nickname was "Pizza Face."

Ms. Hayek handpicked Ms. Ferrera for the part and also contributes cameo appearances as a sexpot maid in a fake telenovela watched by the Suarez family. The provocative title "has a lot to do with the show itself," she said. "I think it's sarcastic. I don't think Betty is really ugly, but what do we call ugly now? I personally have seen a lot of really skinny tall models that maybe I think are ugly. And they need to eat a little to look healthy."

Ms. Ferrera, whose starring role in Real Women Have Curves "opened a lot of doors for me," said Hollywood can be hazardous to one's self-esteem.

"I didn't know how fat and ugly I was until I started going on auditions," she said. "I didn't feel that way inside. ... Certainly there's stereotype casting. So I get these wonderful roles that are not about the girl who wants a date to the prom. And that's OK with me. It's OK if the characters I play have a little more to say than that."

Ugly Betty, whose regular cast members include Plano High School grad Michael Urie, will lead off Friday nights for ABC opposite CBS' Ghost Whisperer and NBC's Crossing Jordan. Ms. Hayek, who got her acting start in telenovelas, expects Ugly Betty to draw a sizable Hispanic audience.

"It's causing – I already know this for a fact – a lot of excitement in the Latin community. They can't get enough of Betty. They will definitely not be able to get enough of this Betty."

Ms. Ferrera could become an overnight sensation and still be virtually unrecognizable in public. Wearing jeans, a black sweater and black high heels on a hotel ballroom stage, she bore virtually no resemblance to her TV character.

"I love it, it's wonderful," she said of her two-faced status. "I don't necessarily care if anyone knows who I am. But I don't imagine I'll have anonymity for too long. You're Betty on the show. And then on the cover of Vogue or something, you're who you are."

• Quietly efficient ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson isn't exactly a dynamic salesman of his new fall season. He is, however, the first broadcast network programming head to address critics in blue jeans.

Mr. McPherson did rouse himself to chide CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler for positioning her network's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as an "underdog" in its impending Thursday night face-off with ABC's Grey's Anatomy.

"I heard Nina was playing the rope-a-dope," he said Tuesday. "I mean, it's just kind of funny. CSI and CBS have dominated that night, so I think they are the champions without question. We're coming on with a strong contender and hope to do some business there."

He also announced that season three of Lost will premiere on Oct. 4. But the series then will leave the schedule on Nov. 15 after a planned six episodes to make way for the 13-episode Day Break, a drama series with a Groundhog Day format starring Taye Diggs.

Lost is scheduled to return in early February with a rerun-free string of its 16 remaining episodes of the season. The two-stage presentation is meant to address viewer complaints that the show's flow was regularly compromised by long periods of repeats.

Mr. McPherson also is miffed that Lost wasn't even nominated as best drama series earlier this month after winning in that Emmy category last year.

"To have that kind of oversight is remarkable," he said. "And it's sad for a show like that. It's one of the best shows on the air, maybe one of the best shows of all time."

• A gay joke at the expense of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper likely will be cut from the premiere episode of ABC's new Help Me Help You comedy series, starring Ted Danson as a brusque psychotherapist.

One of Mr. Danson's patients, named Jonathan (Jim Rash), is described in ABC press materials as a "self-avowed metro-sexual who is in serious denial that he might possibly be gay." In a "not for review" preview tape sent to critics, the character mockingly says, "I'm gay. I'm super gay. And I guess that makes Anderson Cooper gay, too."

Executive producer Jennifer Konner told TV critics Tuesday that the joke might well hit the cutting room floor, principally because "Jim's portion is much longer than the clip rhythm of that segment."

"Jim is very funny. We're trying to shorten it," added Mr. Danson.

Said Mr. Rash: "They just kept saying, 'Just keep improv-ing names that could be gay."

In a separate interview, Ms. Konner said, "That's what the joke is based on, that people think he [Mr. Cooper] is gay. We love that joke and would have no problem airing it. And no one [at ABC] ever asked us not to."

Mr. Cooper's sexuality, mainly a source of Internet debate, is nobody's business, he has told New York magazine.

"I just don't talk about my personal life," he said. "The whole thing about being a reporter is that you're supposed to be an observer and to be able to adapt with any group you're in, and I don't want to do anything that threatens that."

E-mail ebark@dallasnews.com