Anne mum about wedding

For the record, thanks to this corner’s VDPA (Very Deep Penetration Agent) Funfare knows when and where Anne Curtis and boyfriend Erwan Heussaff’s wedding will be and the A-List designer creating her gown. But since Anne requested for privacy during last Monday’s launch of her Dream Machine platform, Funfare will keep (to borrow Maurice Arcache’s favorite alibi) “its lips sealed” until Anne herself (as she promised) tells all after the ceremony.

Toeing Anne’s Dream Machine thrust, just for kicks Your Funfarer asked her what kind of wedding she’s dreaming to have, how she dreamed of meeting a guy like Erwan (the chef brother of Solenn Heussaff) and how many children she and Erwan are dreaming to raise.

Understandably, Anne was mum but very graciously shared a piece of her mind.

“Our dream wedding?,” she asked laughing. “Secret pa ‘yon! But I assure you that we will reveal everything in due time,” adding, “every girl dreams of meeting her Prince Charming and I was very lucky to have met my Prince Charming in Erwan. And how many kids do we plan to have? I don’t know yet. Bahala na. We will cross the bridge when we get there.”

Pressed on about the date of their wedding (you know, just “around what date”), Anne confessed that three lucky couples will be wed next year (she didn’t say whether that will happen before or after hers and Erwan’s). Anne got the idea of helping the couples wed from It’s Showtime.

Jaclyn Jose as matriarch of a family with diverse members in Patay Na Si Hesus, written by Fatrick Fabada and directed by Victor Villanueva. The movie is distributed by Columbia Films International in the Pista Ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP). Left: The family mourning the death of pet puppy named Hudas.

“From our interviews with the contestants, we learned that they joined the contest because they needed the money for their wedding,” said Anne, “so it’s really a financial thing. You know, I’ve been so blessed to have found the man of my dreams whom I’m marrying in a dream wedding, so why not share the realization of that dream with three other couples?”

Helping people make their dreams come true is what inspired Anne to create the Dream Machine platform which is also against “dream shaming.” Anne herself has been “dream shamed” when she aimed high but she refused to be cowed.

“Hindi ako magaling kumanta and I did two sold-out concerts,” shared Anne, “and recorded two platinum albums. You shouldn’t let yourself be discouraged by people who tell you, ‘Ang taas mo namang mangarap; hindi mo kaya ‘yon.’ It’s okay to dream big. You just have to be realistic and passionate in pursuing your dreams. Nothing is impossible.”

Part of Anne’s advocacy is helping in the renovation of school buildings, such as the General Roxas Elementary School in Quezon City. All it took was a tweet from a teacher named Rica and Anne readily helped. She has just come back from Bobon, Northern Samar, where a similar school building needs renovation.

Incidentally, Dream Machine will raise funds by holding a Color Run Philippines on Sept. 3 at the MOA with the assistance of Run Rio, for the benefit of UNICEF Philippines’ program for children with disabilities. More than 10,000 are joining (tickets are sold out).

Three cheers to Patay Na Si Hesus

At the outset, Funfare wants to congratulate Liza Diño-Seguerra (photo, head of Film Development Council of the Philippines/FDCP) for the success of the first six-day (Aug. 16-22) nationwide Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP). Liza said that according to SM, the target gross was P100M but on its sixth and final day, the 12 entries (some of them on extended run) have already raked in more than P127M.

My friends Raoul Tidalgo and Edmund Silvestre and I watched Patay Na Si Hesus (PNSH) at a theater at Fisher Mall with a near-full audience and, on our way home, we continued laughing our lungs out.

Here are 10 reasons why we loved the movie so much:

Unlike other comedies, PNSH didn’t deliberately made us laugh but we laughed (with Edmund laughing the loudest!) anyway because of the unintentionally funny situations;

Never mind if 95 percent of the dialogue is in Cebuano (with English subtitles) but we were hardly lost in the translation.

The actors are so good, so natural, that they seem not to be acting at all;

We love it that the movie is a journey into the Filipino soul as the bereaved(?) family headed by Jaclyn Jose’s character embarks on a long and winding road trip from Cebu and on a ferry to Dumaguete for the burial of Jaclyn’s estranged husband living-in with another woman;

Along the way, Filipino customs and traditions are casually depicted as members discuss issues plaguing the family;

One memorable scene shows the actress (Mailes Kanapi) playing a nun babbling as she hitches a ride with the family and relieving herself on the roadside after discarding her nun’s habit and, for additional water to cleanse herself, uses a bottle of…oops!!! no spoiler alert here!;

A touching, heart-warming scene shows the real-life young actor (Vincent Viado) with Down Syndrome dancing;

And how the word that refers to a woman’s private part is dribbled around in a casual way that elicits belly-aching laughter;

The story ends on a brilliant note as funeral procession for the dead husband named Hesus (there, thus the title!) quietly passes by while, nearby, Jaclyn’s family cries their hearts out over the body of their pet puppy named Hudas (killed in a road rage); you won’t miss the irony (and the fun) of it all; and

Before you accuse the movie of being “sacrilegious” or “blasphemous,” watch the movie and see why it is so titled.

(Postscript: Three cheers to the actors — including Chai Fonacier as the lesbian daughter and Melde Montañez as the “board exam flunker” — and especially to writer Fatrick Fabada and director Victor Villanueva for coming up with a brilliant comedy that comedy actors should watch, promptly, and learn that they can make the audience laugh without trying desperately hard to, yes, make them laugh.)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)