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Actress Eva Longoria opens up on her life, including her friendship with the BeckhamsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n
Eva at David Beckham\u2019s 50th birthdayCredit: Instagram<\/p>\n
Stunner Eva starred on Desperate HousewivesCredit: Disney General Entertainment Con<\/p>\n
No, she was not in town for a Halloween party. She was shooting her latest movie \u2014 a musical remake of Charles Dickens tale A Christmas Carol, in which she plays one of the three ghosts.<\/p>\n
The movie, Christmas Karma, is out here on November 14 and directed by Kenyan-born female director Gurin-der Chadha, whose other hits include 1993 comedy Bhaji On The Beach and 2019 coming-of-age drama Blinded By The Light.<\/p>\n
When Mexican-American Eva heard about the film, she wanted in \u2014 and when cast as the Ghost of Christmas Past, in a nod to her Mexican heritage, she suggested her apparition be themed on the country\u2019s Day Of The Dead festival in celebration of her ancestors.<\/p>\n
\nI love tea. Every time I am in England I love to drink tea<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tEva\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But what excited Eva most was working with Culture Club singer Boy George<\/a> \u2014 who plays the Ghost of Christmas Future alongside American Kinky Boots star Billy Porter as the Ghost of Christmas Present.<\/p>\n
Taking a break from filming to chat to me about her love of all things British, from Boy George and the Beckhams<\/a> to tea and football, she says of the 64-year-old hitmaker: \u201cOh my God, icon! I am such a fan. He is huge in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds of filming with the I\u2019m A Celebrity Star, real name George O\u2019Dowd: \u201cHe\u2019s amazing, he was so kind. He was kind of nervous, I think.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I wanted to do was get stories out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ladies\u2019 football<\/p>\n
Indeed, Boy George is far from the only Eighties British music act Eva is mad for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere The Police English?\u201d she asks. Er, yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere The Police English?\u201d she asks. Er, yes. Then she adds, \u201cOther favourite band \u2014 Duran Duran\u201d, and \u201cOoh, Dexys Midnight Runners\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n
But Eva was also attracted by Christmas Karma\u2019s play on Britain\u2019s multi-cultural make-up. <\/p>\n
In the movie, Scrooge is an Asian-Ugandan immigrant called Sood, played by The Big Bang Theory\u2019s Brit star Kunal Nayyar<\/a> \u2014 and Eva, whose husband is Mexican and parents are of Mex-ican descent, says: \u201cI like that Gurinder has done the film from an immigrant perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also stars Cockney cheeky chappie Danny Dyer<\/a> as a singing cabbie and Bad Education star Leo Suter as generous-hearted Bob Cratchit.<\/p>\n
The star says she loved her childhoodCredit: Eva Longoria Baston<\/p>\n
Gurinder, joining Eva and I for part of our chat over cheese and crackers, says: \u201cI have kids and wanted to make a film about the Britain that I know and love and I want for my kids \u2014 and not just for my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Eva, embellishing on her enthusiasm for Blighty, adds: \u201cI love tea. Every time I am in England I love to drink tea.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there is her friendship with the Beckhams.<\/p>\n
She has been close pals with David<\/a> and Victoria<\/a> since 2007, when he began his footballing swansong with US soccer side LA Galaxy<\/a> \u2014 and latterly sees him when he is in the States as co-owner of another US soccer club, Inter Miami CF<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Eva, 50, who is godmother to the Beckhams\u2019 daughter Harper, 14, says of the former England captain: \u201cI am a fan of David Beckham, I watch David. He\u2019s very smart. I see David and Victoria in Miami.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also attended David\u2019s 50th birthday party<\/a> at the Core restaurant in Notting Hill, West London, in May.<\/p>\n
\nI don\u2019t want to correct my mistakes. I love the path I was on, holes and all<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tEva\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Like David, she turned 50 this year \u2014 but says: \u201cI don\u2019t mind ageing. I think I am going to age well.\u201d<\/p>\n
And like fashion designer Victoria, who she calls her \u201csister\u201d, Eva is an entrepreneur whose forays into business have included fashion, spirits and football clubs \u2014 and the latter is a passion she shares with David.<\/p>\n
She bought Los Angeles ladies\u2019 team Angel City with Black Swan actress Natalie Portman<\/a> in 2020 and, a year later, invested in one of Mexico\u2019s top clubs, Necaxa.<\/p>\n
Eva\u2019s fellow Hollywood<\/a> star Ryan Reynolds<\/a>, now owner of Welsh footie club Wrexham FC, has a share in Necaxa and Eva is fronting a fly-on-the-wall documentary series about the 102-year-old club.<\/p>\n
She says: \u201cFemale soccer is huge in the US. Natalie Portman dared to dream, \u2018What if we built a team with majority female investors?\u2019 \u2014 and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her big break with US TV comedy drama Desperate Housewives, which ran from 2004 to 2012, made Eva a global star and a stack of film roles followed \u2014 this year she is in SIX.<\/p>\n
Eva going full Mexican \u2013 dressed as a Day of the Dead ghost<\/p>\n
Eva with her hubby and sonCredit: Instagram<\/p>\n
But finding fame and fortune, and hobnobbing with Boy George and the Beckhams, has not come easy \u2014 the road to success has been one of heartbreak, money worries and tears.<\/p>\n
Eva has been through two divorces, from actor Tyler Christopher in 2004 and former basketball star Tony Parker in 2011, but reckons this has made her stronger.<\/p>\n
The actress, who married Mexican businessman Jose Baston in 2016 and has son Santiago, seven, with him, says: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t give my younger self advice. I wouldn\u2019t say, \u2018Don\u2019t marry that guy\u2019 or, \u2018Watch that left turn\u2019.<\/p>\n
Student loan<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to correct my mistakes. I love the path I was on, holes and all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas-born Eva grew up in an environment where excess was frowned upon \u2014 her family lived off the land on a ranch near the coastal city of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
But her teacher mum Ella did secretly allow her four daughters to enjoy some treats.<\/p>\n
Eva recalls: \u201cI loved my childhood \u2014 I grew up on a ranch, with chickens, pigs and cows. My dad made us eat off the land \u2014 we could only eat what we grew.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mum would get paid once a month, she was a teacher, and on her pay day she would get Domino\u2019s pizza and we would eat it and hide the pizza box in the neighbour\u2019s trash so my dad wouldn\u2019t know we ate out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s how I grew up. My dad was like, \u2018The land will give us what we need\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
During holidays from high school, though, Eva worked at a branch of the Wendy\u2019s burger chain for three years \u2014 and when she did not have enough money to finish college at the age of 21, she won a beauty pageant to help pay the fees.<\/p>\n
The prize for another beauty pageant was a trip to LA and it was only there that she first thought about being an actress.<\/p>\n
\nTV is just a machine, movies are art<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tEva\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Eva explains how she struggled to make ends meet in Hollywood, working as an extra and a headhunter, before getting roles in the American TV soap operas Beverly Hills 90210, General Hospital and The Young And The Restless.<\/p>\n
She recalls: \u201cI loved my struggle, I loved when I moved to Hollywood and had six dollars in my bank account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my failures, that\u2019s where you grow and learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the rat race and I was in auditions, and I was in corporate America and I was in many jobs at one time, and I struggled to pay my rent and I had a student loan and I went through that \u2014 and I would never change my experience of hardship or touching every rung of the ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like that because it makes me appreciate this position I am in more now.\u201d<\/p>\n
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CUTTING COSTS<\/p>\n
I saved $15,600 in 12 months with one lifestyle change axing biggest splurge<\/p>\n
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