Alonso Wants to Get People Talking

A vision in deep blue--her lucky color--singer / actress and now talk show host Maria Conchita Alonso took center stage in a Charles Winston sequined number, blue strappy shoes and matching blue fingernail polish, and then did what came naturally.

She went loca.

She even sang her signature song, “La Loca,” backed by her new show’s band, Lava and the Hot Rocks. And, well, then the crowd went crazy, too.

“Otra! Otra! Otra!”

You’d think Alonso was here--at the Conga Room on Wilshire Boulevard--getting gig jiggy. Wrong. She was here to launch her new daily talk-variety show, “Al Dia con Maria Conchita,” on the Spanish-language network, Telemundo (at 2 p.m. on KVEA-Channel 52 in Los Angeles).

Produced by Sen~orita Anita Productions, the first of 130 shows Telemundo has committed to began broadcasting Monday--with Salma Hayek, Daisy Fuentes, Omar Fierro, Patricia Manterola, Celia Cruz, Laura Harring, Albita, Patricia Velasquez, Edward James Olmos and others on board for the kickoff month.

Alonso got more celeb support at Tuesday night’s Telemundo bash with Gregory Nava, Jennifer Lopez, Nestor Carbonell, Carlos Gomez, Bill Maher, Cris Franco and the Big T’s telenovela stars, Ana Colchero and Ruddy Rodriguez. Telemundo execs Donald Tringali and Manuel Martinez mixed and mingled with the show’s executive producers, Dan Guerrero and Rich Melcombe, and Jon Feltheimer, president of Columbia TriStar’s television group.

They and about 400 other well-wishers dined on executive chef Alfonso Ramirez’s Nuevo Latino cuisine: coconut shrimp with pineapple jalapen~o sauce, empanadas with picadillo and guava mint sauce, Cuban croquetas, swordfish and roasted chicken, beef and mashed potatoes, all smothered with the L.A. condiment du jour, garlic--mucho garlic.

“I want to bring in those viewers who are not watching Spanish-language TV because they are not proud of what they are seeing,” says Alonso, referring to bilingual Latinos. Alonso was born in Cuba, raised in Venezuela and has been in the United States for 16 years. “Like me,” she said. “I really don’t watch Spanish TV,” because of what she considers less-than-stellar quality and production of many shows.

But the chance to change Spanish-language television appealed to her. And the opportunity to do a talk show was not foreign to her; five years ago she hosted a similar program called “Picante” (Spicy) for Mexico’s TV Azteca network.

Alonso says she has experienced some resistance from Telemundo for not sticking strictly to Spanish. “I’m working on making my show bilingual,” she says of speaking both languages with guests and translating for at least one, Brook Lee, a former Miss Universe.

“Maybe we’ll lose some viewers, but we’re gonna gain much more,” says Alonso. “In a week I think they [Telemundo] will be more relieved and relaxed about my wildness and craziness and my wanting to talk in English more. Time will let us know. And it’s not who is right and who is not, because they are right and I am right also. And the audience is right.”