So you watch, and wait, and you just know that Betty's going to get her man. Nobody loves happy endings more than a telenovela addict. (Not to mention the white.) To have a fea (okay, Ana Maria Orozco, a beautiful model impersonating a geek) starring in a soap was unheard of. Telenovelas, Latin American soap operas, are the province of the rich and the beautiful. A nerda who was rejected again and again, mocked mercilessly because she was, well, fea. A brainiac who yearned for love in the gaze of her undeserving boss, the wimpy and duplicitous Armando. Forty-five minutes left still in last night's final episode of 'Betty la Fea.'ДЇor 18 months, an estimated 80 million viewers across the United States and Latin America have tuned to the Telemundo network - lunes a viernes, Monday through Friday - to this Colombian export, getting their daily half-hour fix of the homely, lonely Betty, who just happened to be a financial whiz. Okay, so Betty still snorts when she laughs. But when it comes to makeovers, nothing, but nothing quite compares with the beauty-enhancing powers of a soap-opera writer hellbent on transforming Betty la Fea - Betty the Ugly - the most popular telenovela heroine ever, into Betty la Bella. Then there's the magical power of a little hot wax smoothed over - and then yanked off - an errant, oh how should we say. A little shampoo, a flatiron and a blackhead extractor can do wonders for a girl's image.

Betty la fea telemundo