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Sammy Sosa's Skin Tone Raises Questions
Sammy Sosa, right, and his guest arrive at the awards ceremony on Nov. 4, 2009. His lighter complexion raised some eyebrows.
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Eric Jamison
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AP
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Former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa showed up at the Latin Grammy awards last week, looking much paler than usual. Speculation flew that he had bleached his skin or was suffering from a medical condition.
But in an interview Wednesday, the Dominican Republic native blamed a night cream and the bright television lights for the way his skin appeared. Sosa, who celebrates his 41st birthday Thursday, said he is not suffering from any skin illness.
"It's a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some," he said on Primer Impacto, a program on the Spanish-language network Univision.
Sosa, who also wears colored contacts, said he uses the cream as a moisturizer and is in discussions to market it.
Contributing: NPR staff and wire service reports
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