People are talking about Iza Calzado, Ellen Adarna and Eat Bulaga

…are talking about

 

Iza Calzado

SHE has never looked desirable compared to what she is now today even if she played a sexy beauty queen back then in her former mother studio. Additionally, Kapamilya Network is able to unleash the better actress that’s within Iza all along.

 

Eat Bulaga

The Indonesian version of the country’s longest running noontime variety show, which bears the same title, officially premiered last Monday. In a very irrelevant random post on Facebook, someone says Showtime will have a franchise in “Laos.”

 

Ellen Adarna

A throng of women clad in a cloth-that-leaves-nothing-to-your-imagination, sashayed before hundreds of men who were cheering endlessly. It was the big-bosomed Ellen who received the loudest cheers from the ogling and drooling crowd and not Sam Pinto, who apparently got the highest vote as the sexiest in the annual men’s magazine poll.

 

…are not talking about

 

Annabelle Rama

She strikes again! That would have been the reaction of people who have been following Annabelle’s latest drama in public. The feisty talent manager sure can afford herself cars and jewelry but her money can’t buy her class and breeding, not even delicadeza.

 

Ehra Madrigal

She wants to further her career that is why she has been religiously following an exercise routine and a healthy diet for months now, as a matter of fact she has already lost 30 pounds. The starlet is probably has been misinformed, she should’ve taken acting lessons instead because that’s what she badly needs.

Cesar Montano

Just when you thought that politics was his biggest heartbreak, insider reports say that he is eyeing a government post again. Considering that he already lost in two consecutives elections, Buboy is now trying his luck in Manila. Do we have to rub it on his face that he’s better of as an actor?

Venus Raj’s major-major successor

by Nickie Wang

A high school salutatorian, a magna cum laude at the University of the Philippines College of Architecture, and a top-placer in the June 2010 Architecture Board Examination—these are the qualities of Venus Raj’s successor.

General Santos’ 24-year-old stunner Shamcey Supsup waved her right hand to the people at the Araneta Coliseum on April 10 wearing the Bb. Pilipinas Universe crown and sash upsetting more than 30 girls who came there only to applaud Supsup. Some of them were pageant repeaters, fashion models, and television talents (who are not that well-known enough).

People 5.29.10

…are talking about

Barbie Forteza and Joshua Dionisio
These young stars are fast becoming teen sensations. Although bad PR sometimes make young onscreen couple looks stupid in their actions, Barbie and Joshua are still appealing among teens and different age groups. This is probably the reason GMA is maximizing their popularity with another follow-up on First Time. Barbie and Joshua will soon star on Pilyang Kerubin, which is another series for teen romance. It is also their third team up with Stairway to Heaven and First Time.

The sound that reverberates in ‘The Echo’

By  Nickie Wang

Filipino audiences still prefer stories that can challenge their intelligence as reasonable viewers and a clamor for original, logical, intelligent, and entertaining movies is growing each day. This is one of the reasons why foreign movies receive record successes here in the country. As a matter of fact, You Changed My Life, a romantic-comedy film starring Sarah Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz, is not the top-grossing film of all time in the Philippines, it’s Spiderman 3. It’s not even the number one film in the country this year; it’s a movie from Hollywood, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Now here comes The Echo, a Hollywood film directed by Filipino filmmaker Yam Laranas. It is a rehash of 2004 thriller Sigaw, which starred Richard Gutierrez, Angel Locsin and Iza Calzado. Will this film be fortunate to get the benefits Hollywood movies enjoy in the Philippine box office? The answer still lies on how the movie was [re]made.

Asia’s Titanic premieres on National Geographic

By Nickie Wang

Asia’s Titanic is not an Asian version of the 1997 movie about the sad tale of star-crossed lovers portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It’s not even a love story. It’s a full-length documentary that narrates a mishap far more disastrous than the ill-fated maiden voyage of the ship that sank after its collision with an iceberg.

It premiered on National Geographic Channel (NGC) (Sky Cable Channel 41) 9 p.m. last night.

Asia’s Titanic tells the tragic sinking of MV Doña Paz after colliding with an oil tanker, just few days before Christmas of 1987. It is a powerful and dramatic story made by a Filipino production team that equals the hallmark standards of NGC. It is the first documentary directed by a Filipino for the channel.

Asia’s Titanic director Yam Laranas shared his view with the Standard Today why he chose to pitch the MV Doña Paz mishap when he received the invitation from the NGC.

“It’s the bigness of the event,” Laranas said. “When it happened, I was just fresh out of high school and I had no capability to interpret that sort of trauma in me because when I read the newspaper, I realized more than 4,000 lives lost, how can that be possible? I’ve been telling people: You go to [SM] Megamall A; imagine everyone inside the building is dead. That’s how tragic it was.”

Laranas, whose film credits include Sigaw, Balahibong Pusa, Hibla and Patient X (currently under production), spent almost four years with the help of a talented and hardworking team to produce the documentary. According to the director, the research process took so long because they had to meticulously check every detail to maintain international standard followed in producing documentaries.

“We have learned so much from this project including the way we tell the story. They [NGC] guided us because this is not reportage, this is not current events, this is storytelling. They always warned us that we’re not forensics, we’re storytellers,” the filmmaker explained.

With first-hand accounts of survivors and rescuers and actual transcripts from Philippine congressional inquiry into the tragedy, and archival footage of photos and the reenactments from the collision, Asia’s Titanic dissects MV Doña Paz’ tragedy and retells the story that changed the lives of some 26 survivors.

“The drama comes in naturally. You don’t even have to motivate anyone because we have real survivors on camera and they are willing to share their experience,” Laranas furthered.

Laranas explained that as a filmmaker and as a storyteller, his main objective in making the documentary is simply to tell a story and not to investigate. Asia’s Titanic is not about asking proper authorities to revisit the intrigues and mysteries that surrounded the tragedy.

This is not a documentary that calls out justice for the victims. It’s up for the people what to do or how to react when they see this, the filmmaker emphasized.

Why Titanic?

In a very interesting conversation with Asia’s Titanic director before the exclusive preview held at the Rockwell Cinema on Aug. 18, we asked him why they gave the documentary with such familiar title. Laranas defended that they could have called the project The Doña Paz Tragedy but their main objective is to convey stories of people who experienced the disaster. He put an emphasis on the stories behind the disaster where thousand lives perished while swimming on a sea of fire while the others were already trapped inside the ship and drowning.

“For every tragedy, there is a real drama unfolding, there are real people, and real death and survival. Titanic is famous, and the only way to catch the attention is to take the Titanic’s name and bring it to us,” Laranas explained and made it clear that they are not making any comparison although Doña Paz had more casualties amid being just quarter of the size of the famous ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Echo

The 2004 horror flick Sigaw is one of the films that have been affixed to the name of director Yam Laranas. According to him, the remake of the film, which is entitled The Echo, is coming out on Sept. 23 and will be released under Viva International. It was produced by Vertigo Entertainment, which is known for producing other Asian horror flicks like The Grudge, The Ring and The Departed.

“The news came out early even before we did production. People thought that we already did the production,” Laranas answered why The Echo, which stars Iza Calzado and Hollywood actor Jesse Bradford, will be commercially exhibited in the country only now.

Laranas noted that filmmaking in the US is quite different compared to the local setting. He said that it takes about a year to develop a script, and the grueling part of post production goes under meticulous work before a film is released for commercial exhibition.

“I had to live in New York and study for a while and at the same time, production took us about a year. We are technically a low-budget film, $5 million is super cheap compared to your G.I. Joe or to your Transformers. We are actually the lowest in the rank of pecking order. And it so happen that there’s crisis so we are not the priority,” he added.

The strategy of The Echo’s producers was to go worldwide and tap different audiences to assure return of investment.

“So far, right now, we’ve managed to earn more than our budget already, so that’s the fun part,” Laranas ended.

Making Boracay even hotter this summer

By Nickie Wang/Manila Standard Today

What makes the tropical island Boracay the hottest and best beach this side of the planet?

It’s not the 7-km stretch of powdery white sand beach with pristine blue water or the upscale resorts and hotels that are lined up along the beach of the tropical island. It’s actually the lifestyle and culture distinct to the island that match the expectations of party people, beach bums, backpackers, and tourists alike.

While the rest of Luzon was being ravaged by a typhoon, Boracay island made everyone’s sky bright and sunny as celebrities trooped to the small paradise for some summer actions. From May 8 to 9, a bevy of television personalities attended the Nestea Fit Beach Volley National Circuit ’09, this year’s hottest summer event, and gave the adage “work hard and party harder,” a whole new meaning.

Celebrity volley

Nestea Fit Beach Volley is an annual sports event that gathers some of the country’s best collegiate teams. This year, 18 dynamic teams from different colleges and universities battled out for a hundred-thousand-peso cash prize and the prestige to be called the country’s best.

The real highlight of the summer event was not the presence of the athletes or the physically vigorous sport, but it was the appearance of local celebrities who brought entertainment to the crowd at the white sand court of Bora. Crowds couldn’t help but cheered for their favorite celebrities and consumed megabytes of memory taking gigabytes in digital snapshots of Rhian Ramos, Paolo Contis, Alfred Vargas, Iza Calzado, Polo Ravales, JC Tiuseco, and Survivor Philippines finalists Jace Flores, Kiko Rustia, Kaye Alipio, Nikki Dacullo, Rob Sy, and Vern Domingo.

“We are here to enjoy and have fun, that’s the real essence of the entire game,” Survivor Philippines first sole survivor JC Tiuseco told us after his team ruled the sand court and won the celebrity volley showdown.

Most of the personalities who participated in the celebrity matches admitted that they don’t know how to spike or didn’t even have a short volleyball crash course beforehand. In short, most of them often hit the inflatable ball out of the line and committed numerous service errors like not having the ball reached the other side of the court or hitting the ball in a straight upward direction.

Sure these celebrities drink Nestea Fit with L-Carnitine, which is a naturally occurring amino acid that plays a vital role in the metabolism of fat, because they look oozing hot, and we are actually pertaining to Iza and Rhian who basked in the sun without wearing any make-up (the way it is supposed to be because it’s a beach, right?).

“It’s also our chance to meet and bond with other people. With our busy schedule back in Manila, it’s hard for us to play and enjoy because we need to work. I can’t even go to the gym as often as I have to,” JC, who became an instant celebrity after winning a reality contest, shared.

Beach buddies

Enjoying the sight of picturesque Boracay, we often see people enjoying some activities together. JC Tiuseco with close friend and fellow Survivor Jace Flores consider their Boracay summer experience as their time to catch up with friends, even most of the time they have to pose for photo opportunities whenever people recognize them while walking around the busier side of the island.

“I feel like I’m still in the Survivor series. The location is pretty much the same and I’m reunited with the people who were also part of the Survivor series. So the whole game was not really hard. I used to play volleyball but this one is a different kind of fun. We didn’t look at it as game but a friendly competition,” Jace explained. “If we would consider the beach volleyball a challenge, it’s nothing compared to the challenges we had in Survivor. Kaya it’s like, kahit saan na kami dalhin, we are quite sure that we can easily do all the challenges,” JC quickly added.

While Survivor buddies JC and Jace were having a good time and nostalgic about their beach experience, smitten couple Paolo Contis and Lian Paz looked so inseparable. Lian was like Paolo’s number one fan supporting and cheering her boyfriend most especially when he makes service aces during the celebrity matches.

On the other hand, Polo Ravales and rumored ex-girlfriend Bianca Paz Villamores were also seen together holding hands in public. “Are they back together, were they really an item or what?” asked one of the guests of the event.

All roads lead to a party

Beach party, that is. With Boracay’s reputation as the country’s premier summer destination for party animals, Nestea Fit Beach Volley National Circuit ’09 featured an array of events dedicated to people who purposely visited Boracay to have a moonlit merriment with overflowing bottles of beer and glasses of cocktails.

After the fashion show dubbed “Hot and Fit Body of Work” featuring invited celebrities and the Survivor castaways sporting the latest summer island wear designed by PJ Arañador at Juice Bar at Plazoleta on May 8, people present at the venue continued to party the night away with feel-good music and bottles of malt drink, wine and vodka.

“This year’s event is much bigger; aside from the new product [Nestea fit], we also expanded the event by including parties and concerts that guarantee unique Nestea summer experience. So far, all our expectations have been met and we can basically say that whole event was very successful,” Ronald Chuacokiang, Nestea brand activation executive, told us before the dinner arranged during the victory party.

Capping off the three-day event was a victory party cum concert on May 9 headlined by music heavyweights Sandwich and 6cyclemind as they rocked Boracay with their famous hits at Paraiso Bar. Members of the press, celebrities, athletes and Nestea officials partied all night with a safe idea that next year will be just another exciting time to celebrate fitness and enjoyment with the iconic brand Nestea.