Entertainment NEWS

“Social media prostitution is now widespread,” says a friend, who is also a well-respected top executive of a big corporation. “Newbie actors, basketball players, models, beauty pageant winners and contestants, name it. They’re peddling themselves on social media,” he reveals.

This weekend is historic.  After more than a year of fighting and protecting ourselves from the dreaded Coronavirus, the vaccines that are supposed to be our salvation from it finally landed on Philippine shores.

It’s almost been a year since the country was put on varying levels of quarantine classifications, each one saying basically the same thing: stay locked inside your homes lest catch the deadly virus.  While such restrictions enabled most of us to somehow keep ourselves safe from the potentially lethal illness brought about by the health scourge, these also led to the rise of an equally alarming concern that threatened another aspect of our state of health—one that attacked our mental fitness.  And it spared no one.  Including people we look up to, showbiz royalties and even top hitmakers.

The start of a new year always brings in the thrill of a restart—it’s as if something new is really about to happen; something that will allow you to snap out of the bad circumstance you’re facing or get you to an even higher plane of a winning situation.  For most Filipinos, the prospects for a change in luck position become even more promising whenever Lunar New Year is celebrated–which happens at about this time of every year.  Just a few days from now, the Year of the Rat will have to give way to the Year of the Metal Ox, which is said to be auspicious for most people.  The year is said to bring career advancement, business success, prosperity, and wellness for all zodiac signs.  So with the Chinese New Year celebrations just a few sleeps away, we decided to consult with some geomancers to find out fortunes await that stars in the forthcoming year.

Our roads first crossed back in the mid-1990s as young, promising news reporters of the Star Network, ABS-CBN.  I was covering the Malacanang beat, with then President Fidel V. Ramos, while Mon Ilagan was our eye in the Philippine Senate.  We were then both small players in the big league, but with big dreams.  When I decided to leave TV for the corporate world sometime in 1997, Mon stayed on with the station until he got part of his dreams fulfilled—getting the chance to host the morning show and even sometimes pinch-hitting in the late-night primetime newscast then known as “PULSO.” I was sincerely happy for him, having seen how he persisted on his uphill climb that started at the very bottom as a production assistant in Radio Veritas as early as 1981.  That’s hardwork that paid-off.

With only 11 days left before Christmas, it should be appropriate to share this story about genuine concern, humility and forgiveness between a known Talent Manager and a multi-media artist (radio, online, television and print) who was the Manager’s erstwhile favorite ward until a misunderstanding brought them apart several years back. Christmas, after all, is also about reconciliation and the mending of broken relationships, which I’d love for these two people to finally do in this special season of love and generosity.

‘Tis the season to be jolly and sing our fa la las. With Christmas just a little over two weeks away, the mad rush of preparations for the season is starting to peak albeit in a tempered manner, thanks to the still-raging COVID19 pandemic. As what has become customary over the years, part of the yuletide excitement among TV viewers is the unveiling of the different television networks’ Christmas Station IDs (CSID).

The list of this year’s participating movies in the 2020 Metro Manila Film Festival is finally out! Through a well-attended virtual press conference held recently, the organizers of this year’s MMFF revealed the wide array of film options that are awaiting Filipino movie fans this holiday season.  Since the announcement and enumeration of qualified entries lasted a long three hours, let me, in turn, write an article that is likewise about the interesting “numbers” that are represented in this year’s film fiesta. 

As a showbiz fan, I have always loved reading blind items. It gives me a different kind of thrill guessing who the personalities are behind the often-controversial circumstances these people get themselves involved in. This time around, let me be the one to share a blind item for readers to enjoy figuring out and likewise learn a lesson from. This involves a young actor, who we shall call from hereon as “Boy Studlet” (or “BS”), and a humble and simple citizen of the land, who we shall refer to as “Ordinary Juan” (“OJ”). OJ happens to be a trusted friend of mine who works in a utilities company.

We often hear him on radio or see him on TV dishing out precious, life-changing words of advice to his audiences, delivered in his own unique, fun and witty way. He surely is a breath of positivity and optimism as well as a voice of reason and sensibility to people seeking his counsel on air and off. The smart and likable guy that he is, it did not come as a surprise to many when his programs eventually skyrocketed in popularity, enabling him to eventually clinch the tag “Star DJ of FM radio,” for he deserves every bit of such recognition.