Heartthrob

The steel barriers could barely hold the fans back when he appeared.

“Eduardo! Eduardo!” one girl gasped, reaching out with her hand as if trying to hold him.

“I want a life-size chocolate doll of Eduardo that I can eat,” cried another teenage fan.

If you do not watch Spanish-language soap operas or read People en Espanol, it is likely you have never heard of Eduardo Verastegui. With his lean, chiseled features, jet-black hair and blue-green eyes framed by black eyelashes, he certainly looks like a movie star--and to Spanish speakers, Verastegui is a major heartthrob, on par with Leonardo DiCaprio.

But to spend a day with the 28-year-old Verastegui is to live in L.A.’s two worlds--one Latino, one Anglo. In the Spanish-speaking world, Verastegui is a rising star; in the English-speaking one he’s a virtual unknown.

Those two worlds intersected recently on the set of Verastegui’s first English-language film, “Papi Chulo,” which was being shot at Pan Pacific Park in the Fairfax area of Los Angeles. An excited, mainly Latino crowd gathered to watch the young star in action. Female extras on the film knew him from his soap opera, “Tres Mujeres” (“Three Women”), which was broadcast in the U.S. on Univision. Some of the younger girls in the crowd also know him from Jennifer Lopez’s video “Ain’t It Funny.” Grasping their disposable cameras, they pleaded with the guards to let them take a picture with Verastegui, who was born in Mexico and now lives in L.A. As the crowd grew larger, Verastegui walked over, quickly signing the loose pieces of paper held out by his eager fans.

“Mostly Hispanic people know who he is,” said 15-year-old Karem Cebrero. “Hispanic people will go see this movie and maybe a curious white person.”

Jonathan Baruch, his manager, said he had never been with a client who struck such a chord in one community while going unrecognized in another--all in the same city. He remembers going to the annual Fiesta Broadway in April and watching as the crowd screamed out Verastegui’s name while he sang his latest hit on stage.

Take him wherever there are Latinos and he is treated like royalty.

“We went to eat at Dan Tana’s and we go in and the valet parkers are like ‘Oh my God, it’s Eduardo,’ ” recalled Baruch. “We sat down and we got the best service because the busboys brought us out the special this and the special that. My nanny, oh my lord! My nanny almost collapsed” when Baruch invited Verastegui to his home.

But among Anglos he is little more than a pretty face.

On this afternoon, after filming scenes for “Papi Chulo,” Verastegui took a walk to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at the nearby Grove shopping center. He strolled through the new outdoor mall, adjacent to Farmers Market, clad all in black with his shirt open but nobody paid attention. The guy making the drinks behind the bar even asked for Verastegui’s name to later claim the double latte he ordered.

Verastegui feels the strangeness of his double life in Los Angeles. He is somewhat taken aback by his anonymity in certain circles here, though he admits that in Mexico he misses being able “to eat a taco and get food all over my face” without people noticing.

“It’s weird. I’ve been acting for nine years, I’ve done five telenovelas [soap operas] and have recorded one [solo] album, and there are people here who never in their lives have seen me,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Despite his fame in Latin America, Verastegui was discovered by Hollywood by chance--on an airplane.

“I never give my card out. Never, never, never,” said Christian Kaplan, vice president of feature film casting for Fox Filmed Entertainment, who spotted the former model on his way to Miami. “Let’s just say I give it out judiciously. I didn’t know who he was.... I go down to the baggage-claim area and he is getting hounded by autograph whores.... All I knew was there was this guy and I was working on a movie called ‘Papi Chulo.’ I gave him my card and hoped he would call.” (“Papi Chulo” means “hottie babe” in Spanish.)

If some in Hollywood have their way, Verastegui will become the next big Spanish-surname film star--following in the footsteps of actors such as Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz. After immersing himself in English-language classes, the Mexican actor-singer was cast in “Papi Chulo,” scheduled for release next summer. Verastegui plays the title character--a lothario who is set upon by three women he’s dating simultaneously. He has signed with Hollywood’s latest management powerhouse, the Firm, and is represented by the ICM agency.

His handlers are choosing his parts carefully; they don’t want him cast forever as the hotblooded Latin. Nor do they want him overexposed on the party circuit (to his disappointment, he was told to avoid the Playboy Mansion parties). Since he lived in Miami for a while, they advised him to dress with a little less South Beach flash and more subdued L.A. cool.

“It’s not about him being a Latin lover, it’s about him being established as an actor,” said Baruch. “It’s staying true to the community that he comes from but also broadening his base.”

Verastegui, who studied acting in his native Mexico, is not the only unknown in “Papi Chulo.” Joining him is Sofia Vergara, a Colombian soap opera actress and beauty queen; Jaci Velasquez, a Christian pop singer; and Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sanchez, best known for her role in “Rush Hour 2.”

“We figured we would go with the next wave,” said Elizabeth Gabler, president of the studio’s Fox 2000, noting that this is their first Latino-dominant film. “It’s new ground for us.”

There is plenty of room in the marketplace for a Latino romantic comedy. Some executives point to the success of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as proof that reaching out to a core audience can be lucrative (“Greek,” which cost $5 million, will likely gross $100 million by the end of the week). Jim Gianopolus, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, said only half-jokingly at a recent wrap party for “Papi Chulo”: “There are 2 million Greeks in America and 40 million Latinos. If ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ can do more than $50 million, by simple mathematics ‘Papi Chulo’ should do $1.6 billion.”

Gianopolus was pointing out a question that has bedeviled studios for the past decade: how to tap into the vast, yet, for them, elusive Latino audience? While Latinos form the fastest-growing moviegoing audience in the United States, there has never been a Latino box-office smash like “Greek Wedding” or “Waiting to Exhale.”

“We are still waiting for the big hit,” said Santiago Pozo, head of Arenas Entertainment, which recently formed a partnership with Universal Pictures to produce and distribute Latin-themed movies. Pozo, who has been marketing to the Hispanic market for more than 15 years, said most studios think of the Latino audience as “an afterthought.” In addition, the story line in many films is watered down to the point where it becomes a caricature, losing the authentic ethnic flavor that makes it special.

“If you are trying to make salsa with ketchup, you will have a total disaster,” Pozo said. “Most of these movies are decaf--they are Latin movies for Anglos.”

“Papi Chulo,” the first film from director Linda Mendoza, is hoping to reach the English-speaking audience while not alienating the Latino audience. The movie was made in English so it would not become a “foreign” film. And its sensibility is definitely American Latino, said executive producer Tajamika Paxton.

Still, Paxton says if the movie reaches only a fraction of the Latino audience, it’s possible they’ll have a gold mine. “If just one-third of the population went to the movie, then this would be a success,” she said.

But Verastegui wants more.

“The forum for promotion in the United States has all been in Spanish,” he said, referring to Latino films distributed here. “As much as you want to assimilate into the [English-language] culture, you cannot erase who you are. But after making it in my country, the ultimate goal is to make it in Hollywood--in English.”