MEDIUM RARE
It’s the night of the harvest moon, also known as the mid-autumn festival with its mooncakes, family gatherings, and poets and lovers having their share of moon-gazing – unless the rain spoils all such plans, as it seems to be in the habit of doing every year right around this week and up to the 22nd or 23rd.
You can have your days in the sun, most people seem to prefer idling in the moonlight.
Brother Sun or Sister Moon, there’s someone on the horizon who’s in a very stellar position right now. Her name is Janine Gutierrez, big-screen and small-screen actor, and she’s going places at top speed as a shower of stars seems to accompany her every move. The multi-awarded actress – among other accolades, Urian, FAMAS under her belt – has just returned from the Venice Film Festival where the new film she co-stars in, “Phantosmia,” was reportedly given a standing ovation. Directed by Lav Diaz, who’s notorious for his long movies, this one is said to be “only” four hours long. I guess the talented Janine can make four hours seem shorter.
The 34-year-old Janine Gutierrez comes from a showbiz family – Lotlot de Leon and Ramon Christopher are her parents, which makes Nora Aunor, Christopher de Leon, Pilita Corrales and Eddie Gutierrez her grandparents. She owns a degree in European Studies in International Business from Ateneo de Manila University. Before that, she went to school in St. Paul Pasig. For now, she’s the classy b_tch named Iris in ABS-CBN/Netflix’s “Lavender Fields,” and she’s got the eloquent eyebrows, the soulful eyes, the height and shape, and “educated” voice to make the perfect foil to the kind and gentle, unsuspecting Jodi Sta. Maria as Lavender Fields (yes, that’s the name of her character; will wonders never cease?).
With Iris’ father, the villainous Edu Manzano backed by a private army, and the well-dressed Janine in stiletto heels spoiling for a fight, the question now is: How will Lavender win the war? Worry not, for there’s something like 85 more episodes to go.
Whatever viewers think, and whatever generation they may belong to, Jodi and Janine are a far cry from the “Anak Dalita” prototypes of long ago.