April 25, 2013 - NEW YORK - Children's Day can make a difference for children with cancer, diabetes and other serious illnesses who receive medical care in 170 U.S. hospitals.

That's how artists like David Bisbal, Jon Secada, Jencarlos Canela and Osvaldo Rios see it; all of whom, have joined the campaign to raise funds for the cause this April 30th through text messages.

The campaign for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals will last only 24 hours and the goal is to raise a million dollars in that period.

The donations will be made with contributions of $10 and will benefit children in the United States and Puerto Rico. The funds will be distributed according to the donors phone codes, to ensure that the money is going to their own communities.

Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds for 170 children's hospitals in the United States and Canada, and uses the money where it is most needed. When a gift is received, it stays in the community, helping local kids.

Since 1983, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $ 4.7 million to save and improve the lives of children.

Original Source (Spanish) : El Nuevo Herald

Osvaldo Rios

DOCTOR OF LOVE by Jeronimo Rodriguez

The Puerto Rican actor Osvaldo Rios enters Hollywood on the right foot; as executive producer of "Elsa & Fred" (Plus Four Films), the English version of the Argentinean movie of the same title about a man and a woman who fall in love in the autumn of their lives.

Rios, 52, also acts in this film.

How is it that you went from executive producer to getting a role in the movie?  

At the end of the auditions they were looking for an actor to play the role of Maclaine's physician and not one appeared. One of my partners told the director Michael Radford, why not ask Osvaldo? I auditioned and the next day I had the part.

Had you ever thought about what love, in later life, is?

Yes, it happened to my 83 year old mom. I have always thought that it's never too late to be young through love.

The original version seduced Hispanic audiences. How do you think this new version can attract a global audience?

It doesn't matter what culture you belong to, or what race, love will always be a feeling, a very powerful archetype. Elsa & Fred touches on a subject that is very powerful, it is the power of love.

Source: People en Español , March 2013

Osvaldo Rios and Shirley MacLaine

He is both an actor and a producer of the English version of the film Elsa and Fred


Like a dream come true is how actor Osvaldo Rios describes his entry into Hollywood with the English version of the film Elsa & Fred. In addition to playing the role of the doctor of the protagonist, Shirley MacLaine, he also serves as executive producer.

In his first film in English, the Puerto Rican heartthrob will be working with actors the likes of Christopher Plummer, who plays "Fred", and a cast of stars such as Stanley Tucci, Chris Noth, James Brolin, George Segal, Marcia Gay Harden, Reg Rogers and Jaime Camil.

"I play a doctor in dialysis attending 'Elsa' in her medical treatment. It's a short role in the plot, but important in the life of the protagonist. For the process of preparation I have been consulting and investigating with a doctor friend in Miami, Dr. Lázaro Miguel Garcia, who has extensive experience in the management and treatment of the elderly, "said Osvaldo, also a psychologist.

Osvaldo, who had worked in the English musicals Guys & Dolls and The King and I, takes on the character after the project director, Michael Radford, at not finding the actor he wanted, auditioned him.

"At first I joined the project as executive producer. In March Ricardo Kleinbaum, a producer friend, asked me to collaborate in the area of production, and in May we were signing the contract with the investors. Once auditions began, we found it difficult to find the actor to play the doctor, I was asked to audition and the director liked my interpretation. The entire process was very exciting and, at the same time satisfying. It's another level of professionalism and histrionic performance that has given me the opportunity to make a childhood dream an adult reality.

We have made minor changes to the original story of Elsa & Fred to suit the American reality of a city as unique and folkloric, as is New Orleans, where the film is shot.

In essence, it's the same story: the love between two elderly people who choose to live life to the fullest in the autumn of their lives, because it's never too late to be full of life and be young again."

The actor has not met the original "Elsa", Uruguayan actress China Zorrilla, who has been in delicate health in recent weeks, but has met and spent time with the film's director, Carlos Carnavale, and the group of writers who diagrammed it.

In addition to New Orleans, where filming started on December 3, they will also be filming in Rome, particularly the scene at the Trevi Fountain.

"In February we go to the International Film Festival of Berlin, where we will work the pre-sales for this movie. The goal is to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, where our director is much loved, as he was in charge of the opening of the festival on two occasions, first with Il Postino and the other with The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino. We will go further to Tokyo and Hong Kong for the same purpose. Then we hope to release it in theaters in the United States in October. "

Osvaldo is already in pre-production on two more films, "Tres mujeres en llamas", to be filmed in Mexico, in which he will star, and the other to be shot in London in late 2013.

The Warriors Rios

Talking about his three sons is the actor's favorite subject. Giuliano, 23, is a sound engineer and graduate of Full Sail University. The son of reporter Carmen Dominicci, Giuliano also works with his father.

"He already put music to his first short film and will work on the second film we are already producing and that will shoot in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. Just recently, Giuliano was with me in the International Film Festival in Havana and travels with me to all my activities as a producer. He's part of our team and will soon travel to Rome to participate in the creative process of the music of the film with Luis Bacalov, who will be responsible for the original score of "Elsa & Fred ".

About Osvaldo Gabriel, aged 11 and a product of his marriage to the presenter Geraldine Fernandez, Osvaldo said he is a very intelligent and mature child.

"He has very good grades in school and his thirst for learning is limitless. He is fascinated by sports, especially soccer. Last summer he was at the Real Madrid youth soccer camp where he was selected as one of the 3 best players in the tournament and won the right to return to the team this summer."

Of Alessandro, his three year old son from his relationship with Brazilian Kassiana Rosso, Osvaldo tells us he already goes to school and is a very intense and mentally agile child.

"He's athletic and creative; I think of the three, he is the future actor of the family. He's always doing stories and characters, and his brothers and I have so much fun with him. Giuliano lives with me full time, for a year and a half now. While Alessandro, I have with me almost every day, as he is living and studying very near my home in Miami. When I'm there I pick him up at the school and I have him until the evening and on weekends. We have formed the family of 'The Warriors Rios". The four of us contribute in the housework and I love being the super dad".

Single and unattached

Osvaldo Rios said he's single and unattached, but he does have female friends he goes out with to have fun, because he is currently focused on his incursion into Hollywood.

"After four consecutive novelas without taking a vacation I decided I should make a stop in my life and reevaluate where I wanted to go. I felt the need to do different and innovative things. The movies have filled that restlessness and creative artistic need, the professional and business, and I feel like I'm on the right track. "

Original Source (Spanish) : El Nuevo Dia