Face-Off: Arjo vs Mom Sylvia

Curtain-raisers:

• Sexy Actress paints (not walls, huh, but on canvas) and gave many of her signed works to her Sexy Drama Actor boyfriend as souvenirs. SDA proudly hung the paintings on the walls of his bachelor’s pad. Fast-forward: SA and SDA broke up and before long, SDA hooked up with Another Sexy Actress and lived-in with her. ASA was terribly impressed by the paintings on the walls now signed by SDA who told ASA that they were only part of his works. Of course, ASA believed him.

• An influential talent manager can’t get over the fact that every time she sees a sexy young actor from a major network, she imagines an “I am a callboy” band around the actor’s forehead. He may not be but the talent manager swears that the actor‘s aura is that of one.

• A Funfare “insider” insists that the actor-product of a talent search goes back to his “old profession” between assignments when he runs out of money, with his “talent” fee raised a hundred-fold. Oh well, to paraphrase what my favorite wag always says, you can take a boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of a boy.

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Last week, Arjo Atayde was confronted with a big challenge when he did a heavy scene with his mom, the multi-awarded Sylvia Sanchez in the Kapamilya soap Pure Love in which he plays Alex Gonzaga’s love interest. Sylvia is the newest addition to the cast, in that scene playing Arjo’s mother who is mentally disturbed.

“It was my first time to act in a scene with my mom,” said Arjo. “I was supposed to visit her and she couldn’t remember me. Her character kasi has lapses, kung minsan nakakakilala at kung minsan naman hindi.”

A natural actress, Sylvia always reminds Arjo not to act — you know, act natural. And that’s what Arjo did in the crucial scene.

“I didn’t break down,” added Arjo, “hindi ako humagulgol. I was glad that, when we got home, my mom told me that I did well. At home, I’m used to my mom kaya kabisado ko na siya. But in our scene together, ibang-ibang nanay ang dating niya.”

As a seven-year-old kid, Arjo used to accompany his mom to the set of the ABS-CBN soap Esperanza (starring Judy Ann Santos and Angelica dela Cruz) and to go over his mom’s script and memorize her dialogue.

Anytime now, Arjo will again do an even heavier drama scene with his mom, also on Pure Love.

“I’m ready,” said Arjo.

Incidentally, Arjo denied that the nude guy on social media is not him (but only his look-alike).

“That picture is fake,” clarified Arjo. “Look, I don’t have a six-pack. My body looks very different from the body of that guy.”

Zero piracy in public vehicles

The Optical Media Board headed by Ronnie Ricketts (photo), the MTRCB, the Land Franchising & Regulatory Board, the Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines, together with several NGOs and Commuter TV (a subsidiary of Magnavision headed by Ramon Chuaying) have just launched a program called Transformation of Public Transportation calculated to curb, and eventually totally eliminate, film piracy.

From now on, DVDs shown on public vehicles nationwide will have to be approved by the MTRCB. That means passengers will not be fed with mostly pirated material, most of them X-rated. The group’s target is “Zero piracy in public vehicles.”

Using CommuterTV as its platform and jumping board, the group aims to cover all the provincial and city buses by presenting an eight-hour program grid containing world-class video materials which are informative, educational, inspiring and entertaining.

Produced by Magnavision, Inc., franchise holder of Fax, Universal and other world-class contents, CommuterTV presents a new and exciting experience for the Filipino commuter.

“We have several titles ready,” said Ramon.

Meanwhile, Ronnie proudly reported that the Philippines has already been removed from the “watch list” in which it stayed for a few decades as one of the countries with uncontrolled film piracy. Initially, the Philippines was in the “priority list,” then to “watch list” and finally to the “out list.”

“Our new program is a big help in our war against piracy,” according to Ronnie. “We will be monitoring the public vehicles.”

Briefly noted

•After joining four Philippine national pageants and two in the UK, Fil-Brit Zandra Gallinguez Flores (left), 25, made it as 2014 Miss Supranational UK. She will represent England in the 2014 Miss Supranational against the Philippine bet, Bb. Pilipinas-Supranational Yvette Marie Santiago. Reigning Miss Supranational is the Philippines’ Mutya Joanna Datul.

• Belle, Beast, Gaston, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere and other much-loved Beauty and the Beast characters come to life on Jan. 11 to 25, 2015, as Ovation Productions brings the original Broadway spectacular to the CCP Main Theater stage. Experience Belle and the Beast’s wonderful and unique love story in this one of a kind Broadway musical which turns 20 years old this year!  Tickets go on sale starting today.

The production is directed by Rob Roth and choreographed by Matt West.

Daily showtimes except Mondays are 8 p.m. with matinees at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater, CCP Complex. For inquiries: Call Ticketworld at 891-9999 or log on to ticketworld.com.ph or beautyandthebeast.com.ph, and Facebook.com/beautyandthebeastph.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)