Iza admires Piolo’s family values

Even before she started in showbiz, Iza Calzado already had a checklist which served as her guide for her career path. Part of that list is to do a project with Piolo Pascual, certainly one of the biggest actors in ABS-CBN. She first worked with Piolo in the Star Cinema movie “Milan” in the role of his character’s missing wife. Said performance won for Iza the Breakthrough Performance by an Actress from the Golden Screen Awards in 2004.

She was reunited with Piolo ten years later via the blockbuster movie “Starting Over Again” shown last February. Iza’s acting in this movie which also starred Toni Gonzaga drew praise from critics.

She finally gets Piolo on her own in the new Kapamilya series “Hawak Kamay” which premiered Monday night. “I feel fulfilled because I can proudly say I am now the new leading lady of Piolo,” said Iza even if she shares the spotlight with the equally talented Nikki Gil who also plays an important role in the series as the ex-girlfriend of Piolo.

One thing that Iza likes about the award-winning actor is his being family-oriented. She says it’s probably the reason why they clicked right away. “My family has a soft spot in my heart. Our chemistry is born out of my admiration for him. He values his family so much and what makes me appreciate him more is the fact that he is also a single parent,” Iza explained.

In “Hawak Kamay,” Iza plays the role of Bianca, a strict lawyer who will become the love interest of Gin, (Piolo) a failed musician who became an alcoholic but who strove to change after he was tasked to fend for four kids who were left under his care when his sister died. The show is a family drama from which the audience can draw inspiration from. It sends the message that one need not be related by blood to become one happy family. Also featured in the show are Kapamilya child superstars Zaijan Jaranilla, Andrea Brillantes and  Xyriel Manabat. Being introduced in the series is new child wonder and Grand I-Shiner Yessa Camille.

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We were not able to attend the Yahoo Awards held Friday at the MOA Arena but we saw the list of winners already. A friend who was able to attend the event was gracious enough to ask for a press kit on our behalf which provided a list of winners. But we had seen the list in the Yahoo website and we admit that while we were among those who voted during the contest period, using our two Yahoo accounts, we’d like to share our comments with regards to the winners.

Most of the winners came from the Kapamilya network as they got the lion’s share of the awards. Of the Kapuso stars nominated, only Bea Binene and Jake Vargas won for Celebrity Couple of the Year, Jennyln Mercado for Female Kontrabida of the Year and Julie Anne San Jose who won Song of the Year for “Bakit Ngayon.” The rest of the winners were Kapamilya talents, as they completely dominated the contest whose winners were determined by fan votes.

Which made us think – are the Kapuso fans really not that aggressive in voting for their idols? Or are there really very few Kapuso fans that are willing to cast their votes? The Kapamilya fans are more aggressive in voting and if they are that many, they can really give their idols a massive and dominant victory.

While we agree with some of the choices like Coco Martin, Sarah Geronimo and Kris Aquino we can’t help but ask questions with regards to the other winners. We were also wondering as to how the Yahoo group chose their set of nominees – their selection process was not explained. We can’t help but give a sigh or break into a smirk when we went over the list of winners.

Since choosing the winners was done with the fans voting for their idols (it’s really a popularity contest, if you ask us), the name of the game is the more fans you have, the better chances of winning. And the more fans you have who are willing to vote via internet every day, then it will not be surprising if a star wins a category in grand fashion, leaving the opposition to fight for the crumbs.

Even if a nominated celebrity has plenty of fans but they are slowpokes or are not keen on voting, no matter how popular said celebrity is (or his or her fans believe that he or she is popular) then said star doesn’t stand a chance. He or she is destined to lose.

Question: How did Karylle and Vice Ganda win as Loveteam of the Year? They are more of a tandem, not as loveteam since there is no love angle that connects them. Karylle is married and Vice Ganda is gay and we don’t mean that to insult or deride Vice Ganda who is certainly very popular. Will Yahoo kindly explain why Vice Ganda and Karylle were nominated as a loveteam? Probably it was because of “Showtime” where they are both mainstays but still, we maintain, they are not a loveteam, compared to the other nominees like Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, or Dennis Trillo and Tom Rodriguez who were packaged as a loveteam in “My Husband’s Lover.”

Are Karylle and Vice proud they won as love team of the year? Yes, we surmise, because they accepted the award with smiles on their faces. But do they deserve it? That is another question. Well, their fans think so. So how can we argue with that?

Kim Chiu won three awards– Celebrity of the Year, Actress of the Year, plus the Fan Club of the Year for KimXi (the fans club of Kim and Xian Lim).

We saw the list of nominees and if someone were to ask us who should win the Celebrity of the Year award, we believe the one who deserves it is Megan Young for the honor she brought the Philippines in winning the first Miss World title for the Philippines. But she got the lowest votes among all the nominees, since the contest was decided by fan votes.

Kim also won Actress of the Year for what? For the movie “Bride for Rent” or the drama series “Ikaw Lamang”?

Vhong Navarro won the Male TV Host Award probably for “Showtime” but we can’t help but think that this was more of a sympathy vote for the comedian-TV host who suffered indignities from Deniece Cornejo and Cedric Lee.

How come JC De Vera was nominated as Emerging Star when he is not a newbie? He had been acting for ten years and had gone the rounds of the three TV networks. If nothing still happens to him in Channel 2, there is no other network where he can transfer.

Congratulations to all the deserving winners, better luck next time to the losers and those who won but whose victory were questioned by many people, well we hope you are happy. Which we are sure you are. After all, you won, di ba?