Haim Saban, who this year led a consortium to buy Univision Communications for over $12 billion, is also on a personal quest to put Hillary Clinton in the White House. And while raising money for Clinton’s campaign seems to be on his priority list, he’s shedding some superfluous -if more glamorous- investments. Today, Mr. Saban announced he has put his $12 million estate in Acapulco up for sale.

According to an amusing press release put out today by the real estate company in charge of the sale, Villa Edén is a three-acre gated compound has 12 bedrooms plus five servants’ rooms, 17 bathrooms, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, two pools, five massage rooms and a wine cellar. (Five servant rooms? How many servants can you accommodate in there?)

Villa Edén was previously owned by Time Warner Inc., which used it for years to entertain clients and movie stars. According to the news release, it has housed Mel Gibson, Barbra Streisand and Kevin Costner, among others.

After a three-day smorgasbord of upfront presentations and alcohol-fueled after parties, Thursday night brought a relief from those frivolous, nearly meaningless, social events: it was the formal launch of Diageo’s Estamos Unidos con un Propósito campaign, now in its second year.

At hand was Univision’s leading lady Cristina Saralegui, who has been appointed the celebrity behind the effort, this year aimed at helping Latinos buy their own home. During a brief but sweet speech in a mix of English and Spanish, Mrs. Saralegui said Diageo has donated $500,000 to the campaign since its inception two years ago.

The good cause at the heart of the event didn’t mean attendees were not treated for a special evening: After all, Diageo is the sponsor of the campaign, which meant there was whiskey and tequila aplenty.

Even Cristina got her own special gift: a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label, with at $199.99 the company calls its “rarest blend.” (Why is it that the people with the big pockets always get the most expensive gifts?)

The rest of the mortals didn’t do bad ourselves, especially Mexicans with a palate for good tequila: Diageo also handles the Don Julio and Cuervo Traditional brands. Alas, not many chismes or juicy gossip to report this time. People seemed too tired and hung-over to misbehave, including this blogger.

Lots of beautiful -and some not-so-beautiful- people gathered last night at the Splashlight Studios in Manhattan for the annual star extravaganza also known as the “People en Español” party.

This blogger had a few too many to remember (or maybe she choses not to remember), the bad and the ugly so let’s highlight some of the good.

-The party could also have been called “The City’s Most Beautiful Bartenders.”

-Jackie, como siempre, looked ravishing! This time in a sexy red dress, and with visibly less pounds than a couple of weeks ago.

-Oswald Mendez introduced this blogger to the “hottest ass in Hispanic advertising” (and It’s not who you think)

-This blogger made it home in one piece (barely) and woke up to some good -and serious- news: According to the latest data from the U.S. Census,the nation’s minority population reached 100.7 million, with Hispanics still the largest group, with 44.3 million.

OK, maybe not all the 44.3 million are beautiful … but algo es algo!

Oh, and by the way; a preliminary agreement was reached among senators from both parties, leaving the doors opened to an immigration reform. Want more? Wolfowitz has finally resigned his post at the World Bank. Such good things happened while we were all too busy partying! (Still waiting on Gonzales, though)

Univision’s upfront presentation this year was a sea of change from last year’s, when tensions with programming partner Grupo Televisa were more than evident.

Unlike last year, this time Televisa offered up its talent for the star-studded celebration –including marketing pop phenomenon Rebelde (What is it with these kids anyway? they cannot even sing!).

Also, we spotted Haim Saban entering and leaving the presentation with Alfonso de Angoitia, Azcarraga’s right hand side man.

However, during a press conference, Univision’s new chief Joe Uva had no comment at a reporter’s question about a pending litigation with Televisa and the upcoming federal jury trial on October 31, which revolves around Univision’s alleged programming license violation. Another contentious topic, online rights, wes also out of bounds: Mr. Uva had no comment.

“Univision executives will not discuss matters related to pending litigations, so if your questions are related to that, please abstain,” was the quick intervention from Univision’s always efficient CMO.

Forget Barbara Bermudo and Jackie Guerrido. This afternoon, during Univision’s upfront presentation at Time Warner Center, the ones making heads turn were some top media and advertising executives who have been shedding some serious pounds lately to look good and slim for the occasion.

Kudos to Manny Vidal, Alex Lopez-Negrete and Otto Padron for losing those extra pounds. What’s their secret, really? It’s gotta be the exercise and excess work cause they were all nibbling at the mini empanadas as if there was no tomorrow.

One of these characters (pardon, but will not say which) said he’s still working on losing some more weight: “I will not stop until the gay guys start chasing me!”. Ay, ay, ay!

The Hispanic television upfronts are always great for networking. For several days, you get to share food and drinks (sometimes too many) with some of the main players in Hispanic media and advertising. But besides the fun, there’s never really much in the area of news or ideas to come out of these events.

Until today.

This morning, right before Fox Sports en Español’s upfront presentation at Cipriani, an advertising exec I like and admire suggested I become something like “El Gordo y la Flaca” of Hispanic media and advertising. If you know El Gordo y la Flaca, you know that nothing escapes them when it comes to Latino celebrities. So, this exec told me, I should try to do the same with the chismes surrounding Hispanic media.

I guess that was sort of what I attempted when I started this blog, but I couldn’t have put it better. That might be my true calling and perhaps my new title: Latino Media & Advertising Gossiper. After all, serious journalism seems so pasee these days.

Of course I will need your input -and chismes- to make it happen. Write to me, even if you wish to remain anonymous. Who knows? this “business” might prosper someday to hire my very own team of paparazzi.

Stay tuned for highlights on Azteca America, Telemundo and Univision upfront presentations in New York City. 

Hispanic leaders in Ohio can now be happy. The local radio station WLW has agreed to bring down a billboard considered by many as offensive.

The culprit is a huge billboard showing a donkey and a man wearing a Mexican sombrero and dark moustache under a sign that reads “The Big Juan.” See? the radio station’s slogan is actually “The Big One,” thus the play on words.

As usual, the main complain had to do with the use of stereotypes and what the gringos at the station thought was the way Mexicans look. Now, if you ask me I think “The Big Juan” thing is actually quite funny, but if WLW wanted to be accurate, instead of bringing down the billboard it could have just replaced the donkey with an SUV or, even better, a Hummer. That would make Juan your “typical” Mexican in the U.S.

As far as the flag is concerned, it could very well become the bumper sticker. Ajúa!!!