by Nickie Wang
Kapuso network may have been outnumbered by the Kapamilya station in the recently-concluded PMPC Star Awards, but this time it has something to be proud of. Out of seven nominations received by the Philippines in the upcoming 15th Asian Television Awards, GMA-7 leads the pack with six nominations and its closest rival ABS-CBN with just only one.
Comedian Michael V and top leading man Dingdong Dantes are nominated for the performance category. Michael is nominated in the Best Comedy Performance by an Actor/Actress for Pepito Manaloto. Meanwhile, Dingdong is one of the contenders in the Best Drama Performance by an Actor for the local adaptation of Stairway to Heaven, which also stars his real-life and onscreen partner Marian Rivera.
In the programming category, the documentary Planet Philippines, hosted by Richard Gutierrez, is nominated for Best Natural History of Wildlife Program or Docu Drama. The evening newscast 24 Oras (Maguindanao Massacre episode) is nominated in the Best News Program category. The network’s long-running gag show Bubble Gang is up against other comedy programs in the region vying for the Best Comedy Program award. GMA’s docu program Reporter’s Notebook is nominated in the Best Public Affairs Program category for its report on typhoon Ondoy.
The series Dahil May Isang Ikaw earns ABS-CBN its lone nomination. The Kristine Hermosa, Jericho Rosales, and Sid Lucero starrer is nominated in the Best Drama Series category. On the other hand, the series was also nominated in two categories in the International Emmys namely Best Drama Series and Best Actor (Sid Lucero).
According to the website of Asian Television Awards, to be eligible for entry, all programs must be broadcast for the first time between July 1, 2009 and June 30, and there is no limit to the amount of entries that can be submitted. Take note, each entry is a separate submission and requires its own entry form and entry fee, in other word; TV stations need to shell out some dough before their programs get nominated. Now that leaves us with the impression or the question rather whether or not GMA-7 pushed hard just to be nominated.
The finalists for the latest edition of ATA were derived from 1,020 entries from 16 countries, namely: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
The winners of 37 awards will be announced at the Asian Television Awards 2010 Gala Dinner to be held in Singapore on Dec. 9.
Paquiao’s next fight
Manny Pacquiao next bout is not with Floyd Mayweather. Although a lot of boxing enthusiasts would love to see these two popular athletes inside the ring, Manny’s next fight does not involve fisticuffs. The pound-for-pound master and Saranggani Province representative now faces a $10 million lawsuit.
According to the court document that news site TMZ got hold of, Pacman was sued on Nov. 17 by RBM Group International in L.A. County Superior Court claiming that the boxer signed a contract in 2009 to record 12 songs, but never did.
Manny, who is also known for his passion for music, was given a check amounting to $40,000 in October 2009 but failed to record the album. This incident caused a $200,000 loss for RBM, according to the document.
The champ’s whose estimated asset stands at $42 million as of the first half of 2010 according to Forbes Magazine, has just received a whopping $25 million paycheck after defeating Mexican boxer Antonio Margarito. Although $10 million is just a fraction of Manny’s asset, it’s still a huge amount of money when converted to peso. Will Manny win this battle this time? Let’s just wait and see.
Another scandal
After Mark Herras, 43-year-old singer Pops Fernandez is the latest victim of a circulating fake nude photo. The file is now being shared through MMS after it became a hot topic among bloggers and netizens.
For people who are photoshop savvy, they can instantly dismiss that the Concert Queen’s head was just edited using simple cropping and photo enhancement software, giving an visual effect that her head his connected to the nude body.
Pops ex-husband Martin Nievera was quick to defend the mother of his two children. He said that there’s no way that Pops would do such lewd act.
On hind sight, this photo scandal suddenly made Pops a hot trending topic on the internet. Although it’s not a good jumpstart for a comeback, at least the public still has an idea who she is.
VERY WANG 