GMA considers Aljur’s complaint ‘unfortunate’

When news about his filing a “rescission of management contract” against GMA, the network that built him up, hit that headline over the weekend, Aljur Abrenica got more negative feedback than sympathy with most of the netizens dismissing him as “ingrate” (walang utang na loob). Of course, Aljur has his own reasons for making that (drastic?) move, with somebody “big time” suspected to be behind him, but showbiz-observers said that he should have been more circumspect in his moves and be thankful to GMA for keeping him (his contract is good until 2017) despite his being a “wooden” (read: ham) actor.

“He doesn’t attend acting workshops,” said a GMA insider, “that’s why his acting hasn’t improved.”

Already, Aljur has been overtaken by actors who came after him such as Rocco Nacino, Alden Richards and even much younger ones like Miguel Tanfelix and Ruru Madrid.

Is it true that the Kapamilya network has a standing offer for Aljur?

“None that I know of,” according to Cory Vidanes, Kapamilya channel head.

GMA’s initial reaction to the issue was to say that the network doesn’t release contract actors that easily. That was before the network got a copy of Aljur’s complaint.

Here’s GMA’s official statement:

GMA Network received yesterday (Monday, July 28) the complaint filed by Aljur Abrenica for the rescission of his Management Contract and exclusive Network Agreement. Our lawyers will review this and answer accordingly in court.

The Network considers this incident very unfortunate because GMA has greatly invested on Aljur, who is one of its prime artists.

GMA Artist Center has not been remiss in its duties as his manager, practicing a consultative style of management with Aljur. With his best interest in mind, this practice has accorded him every opportunity to personally assess all offers to reach a mutual agreement.

GMA Network has equally given him projects, some of which were lead roles in the Network’s primetime programs.

Aljur is a homegrown GMA talent who was discovered through the reality search StarStruck in 2007. Since then, he has been given numerous projects including Dapat Ka Bang Mahalin?, All My Life, The Last Prince, Machete, Coffee Prince, Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko and Kambal Sirena.

Likewise, GMA Network and GMA Artist Center have arranged major endorsements and corporate partnerships for Aljur.

In his complaint, Aljur cited, among other things, a planned album called Nota which he said he found “obscene,” to have been produced by a company not connected with GMA. The network deemed it “not bagay” for Aljur’s image and junked the idea.

Aljur could just have ironed out whatever kinks he perceived between him and GMA in private instead of going to court, couldn’t he?

Juan Direction star and cabbie make peace

The row between Juan Direction Filipino-Irish star Daniel Marsh (who has been living here in the past few years) and a cabbie was sorted out before it got out of control, thanks to peacemaker Raffy Tulfo.

The cabbie, Edward Villanueva (of World Taxi) accused Daniel of mauling him and damaging his taxi when he insisted that Daniel pay the P78.50 fare. Villanueva said that Daniel, who appeared to be drunk, hailed his cab at 5 a.m. last week outside the Prive Luxury Club at The Fort, Taguig City, and told him to bring him to the Tivoli Garden Residences in Mandaluyong City.

Daniel has his own story. He said that Villanueva, perhaps thinking that Daniel is a foreigner (tourist?), was not using the taxi meter and charging him P500. Daniel said that he gave Villanueva P100 and even told him to keep the change.

Anyway, last Monday, Daniel and Villanueva finally met — and made up.

Raffy told Funfare Update that Villanueva is a long-time listener/follower of his T3 show on TV5 where he sought help same day of the incident.

“My researcher is new on the job so he told Edwards to go home when he learned that Edward was complaining against Daniel,” said Raffy. “The researcher didn’t wait for me to talk to Edward. I could have fixed things at once. Edward wasn’t after areglo sa pera or whatever material, he just wanted to talk to Daniel; gusto lang niya katahimikan.”  

Last Monday afternoon, Raffy arranged a meeting between Daniel and Villanueva on his radio program on Aksyon5.

“The meeting was emotional,” added Raffy. “Nagkapatawaran sila at nagyakapan at the end of the interview.”

As they would say, all’s well that ends well.

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