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George W. Bush had a problem answering "choice or necessity" when it came to his favorite quest. But not so Salma Hayek. "It's a choice," she says of producing Latin-theme fare. "But the things we choose are what we also need."

Most projects simmering at Hayek's production company, Ventanarosa, are not pegged to her own onscreen ambitions. Still, it's impossible to imagine the Frida Kahlo biopic "Frida," which made Hayek the first Latin thesp ever to be Oscar-nommed as lead actress, would have gotten made otherwise. Ditto "Ugly Betty," which Hayek exec-produced and lent her star glamour to.

"I produce because I want to create more opportunities out there for Latinos and women, and because I can also do it. So why not?" she says, and then adds, "I love/hate it!"

The love part is obvious. As for the hate: "It takes such a long time, and there are so many people involved." But in the end, "I have a head for it."

Female producers have always been Hayek's mentors. Her Mexican soap, "Teresa," was produced by a woman, and she learned by example, watching producer Elizabeth Avellan on Hayek's early Hollywood pics "Desperado" and "From Dusk Till Dawn."

"I saw Elizabeth come on the set with a belly," she recalls. "I saw her breast-feeding while she was fighting with someone. I paid attention."

The Hollywood strike and Hayek's new baby, Valentina, have created a slight lull in her producing sked. Otherwise, she signals "nothing but support" from ABC and Disney and a "new business model that's never been done before from the American perspective, one that includes some of the Latin territories in the world."