Part of the price of fame is having rumors spread about your love life.
Recently, a Web site had international star Kate del Castillo linked romantically to a fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championships.
"Engaged?" she said with a laugh. "No, I've never even heard of this guy."
Then comes the real ques-tion: "Is he cute?" And she laughs again.
Del Castillo was calling from Houston where she recently stopped to promote her new movie, "Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)."
"Under the Same Moon" tells the story of 9-year-old Carlitos (Adrian Alonso) and his mother, Rosario, played by Del Castillo. In hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in Los Angeles while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Juarez, Mexico.
Unexpected circumstances force Carlitos to sneak across the border in an attempt to reunite with his mother. Meanwhile, Del Castillo's character is trying to decide what is best for her child. Does she return to Mexico to be with him or work in the United States where she is able to send much more money home.
Carlitos gets some reluctant help from a fellow traveler named Enrique, played by Eugenio Derbez.
The film was directed by Patricia Riggen and written by Ligiah Villalobos.
Before opening nation-wide this week, "Under the Same Moon" went out on the festival circuit last year debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007. It drew standing ovations at the Rome and Toronto film festivals, and mostly positive nods from critics.
Del Castillo is already a huge star to international audiences thanks to a string of nine telenovelas that are repeatedly broadcast in more than 100 countries around the globe. The daughter of Mexican actor Eric del Castillo, she made her debut as a child actress in the movie "The Last Escape." But it was the soaper "Muchachitas" that made her a star.
Then a curious thing happened: in Mexico, you're either a TV star or a movie star and the two shall never meet. This is despite the fact that the last telenovela she starred in was "El Derecho de Nacer" in 2001.
"People have a lot of prejudice and you can't make it stop," she said.
In order to get past this wall, Del Castillo had to cross the border and come to the United States. Unlike her character in "Under the Same Moon," Del Castillo made the crossing legally and doesn't have any children to leave behind.
"I can relate to all of these immigrants because I am one of them," she said. "I'm seeking the same thing: I am trying to have a better life and work on my craft. They even opened more doors for me than in my own country."
Del Castillo said she had the most difficult role in the film.
"The kid? Everybody's always going to like the kid. Enrique redeems himself in the end," she said. "But this woman abandoned her child ... that's the bottom line. She never smiles and keeps making the wrong decisions. How was I going to get audiences to like her?"
The answer became simple but the process wasn't easy.
"It's the love she has for her kid and nobody can take that away from her," she said. "But it wasn't easy for me because I don't have any children. So it was a risk, and I love risks."
Del Castillo said the story is a common one.
"I meet people with stories like this or worse every day," she said.
