So, I Finally Got My Christmas Card From Julio Iglesias Today

So, I finally got my Christmas card from Julio Iglesias today.

No kidding.

I don't know which is more amazing at this point. The fact that it took almost a month to deliver a Christmas card that was postmarked Dec. 15, or the fact that for the last decade I've been on Julio Iglesias' Christmas card list.

It all started in 1998. I know this because, jokingly, I have the initial hand-signed thank you letter from Mr. Iglesias taped up between a Lou Reed poster and a photo of ....psychic'' Miss Cleo on a wall at my office.

....Dear Sean,'' it reads,

....I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your favorable support of my latest album, ..Tango!' during 1997. It is due to such support that ..Tango!' has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Latin Pop performance category being held in Radio City Music Hall on February 25, 1998...''

It's good that Julio acknowledged the critical weight my opinion holds with the Grammy voters. LOL.

Of course this entire thing was precipitated entirely on three things I did a decade ago, when I'd just started at this job -- one, I gave ....Tango'' a deserved good review; two, I gave Iglesias' concert a deserved good review when he played the local arena; and three, I killed one of his enemies for him in exchange for $5,000, a Hickory Farms cheese gift basket and a year's worth of Miracle Car Wash gift certificates.

That man? Tupac Shakur.

Okay, maybe it was just the first two.

At any rate, since then I've been on the Iglesias family Christmas list. Every year I get a card, and in recent years said card has featured a picture of his most recent brood of children, all of whom seem to be growing up quite quickly. Oh, how the time has flown for Miguel, Rodrigo, Julio, Miranda, Victoria and Christina.

I bring this up because it's an unusual thing you may find interesting or entertaining, and also because it illustrates something about celebrity.

I'm sure Julio Iglesias personally does not know if I get his Christmas cards or not. I'm certain that I'm part of a massive mailing out to entertainment and pop culture writers all across the planet, and pretty much everyone who has given him a favorable review or two in the past, and the few of us who have been hired assassins to dispatch his enemies, are put on the list.

But on the other hand, Julio Iglesias has to chip out the dough for these four color, high quality paper cards, not to mention all the postage. That's got to be a nice chunk of change.

I'm guessing, from my lack of regular holiday tidings from the rich and famous that I've applauded over the years, that there are very few celebrities that do this, or even would. So I've got to give Mr. Iglesias props on this one.

Before I opened my mail I was looking at the entertainment wire. It was filled with the usual morass of ugly, meaningless stories about Z-grade demi-celebs (WHY do people give a crap about Paris Hilton? What has she done other than grown from the zygote created from a mother who gave her looks and a father that gave her money?) that will be best forgotten in the years to come.

And then there's Julio Iglesias.

Say what you want to about the guy, but he's like Elvis to the Spanish-speaking countries of the world. In the U.S., or at least the white U.S., he's known as the ....To All The Girls I've Loved Before'' dude. But outside of our honkytown, the guy's a legend.

Yet he still has his assistants printing out and sending out holiday cards to hundreds of schmucks like me. Especially someone like me, who hasn't written about Julio Iglesias in probably the 10 years that have passed since that review, unless I've reviewed another CD of his in that ensuing time.

That attention to detail and that dedication to thanking the people who have helped him along the way -- in ways however slight -- is admirable.

It's not the kind of thing you're going to get from a Paris Hilton.

Which is why Mr. Iglesias has put her on his hit list.

And why I'm cleaning my glock and waiting for my Miracle Car Wash gift certificates, as a retainer.


copyright 2009 Sean Leary / for more writing see www.seanleary.com