Brazzil
November 2000
Behavior
Trying to add a little more spice to the already spicy Brazilian gossip media, Cravo e Canela has found a different way of showing celebrities. The Internet-based magazine—http://www.cravoecanela.net— mixes the explicitness of Playboy to the coziness of People and presents famous couples in their intimacy. In mid-October the featured couple was the hottest TV actress of the day Danielle Winits and her boyfriend Marco Mastronelli. The photo essay shows dozens of pictures of the pair in ardent kisses and teasing pictures, but nothing that gets close do hardcore.
Winits told Rio's daily O Dia that one reason to accept the challenge was to be with Marco since they live a very busy life: "I had another essay with Marco about one year ago for my store's catalogue. This way is much more fun. We rarely find time to be together. That's why we accepted the invitation." Danielle also knows that some people would like to see some more explicit scenes. "This is just a taste of real life," she explains. "It's not bashful, but it isn't vulgar either. They didn't go all the way. They did something sensual without being too graphic."
Other sites have also appealed to celebrities. Morango (strawberry. "Internet's tastiest site")—http://www.morango.com.br—for example, has been showing beautiful women in different degrees of undress. For Flávio Pedreira, the director of Cravo e Canela, the response from the public to the innovation has been very positive. Says he, "Our idea was to offer something new. For us a relationship is more important than someone by himself."
The Cravo e Canela (Clove & Cinnamon) pictorial is pure image. There is no text introducing the couple or accompanying the pictures. The photo essay that started the series and that appeared just before the one with Daniella and Marco was a little more daring, showing another actress, Gabriela Duarte with her beau, model Fábio Ghirardelli. Talking on TV to show hostess Marília Gabriela, Fábio showed enthusiasm about the experience: "We were at ease. We could be ourselves. We didn't have to interpret anything."
Patrícia Drummond, a producer, tries to explain the phenomenon. "What makes the biggest success on the Internet is voyeurism. To be interesting these essays have to be spicy. And since the people presented on Cravo e Canela are couples, they are allowed everything.
For actress Júlia Lemmertz, who had long and very explicit sex scenes with husband Alexandre Borges in last year's cult film Um Copo de Cólera (A Glass of Wrath), the exposure of famous artists to the public was unavoidable. "We have to keep our distance from the characters. But today the public is curious about everything and the artists, well, they wish to expose themselves."