Valeen & Jerald still can’t believe it

Curtain-raisers:

An avid Funfare reader reminded me about three celebrities who fell in love with the “wrong” guys when they were younger (and didn’t know any better since, you see, “love is blind”) but were saved from the dire consequences of their “indiscretion” by their parents and well-meaning (wiser) friends: 

A beauty-queen/actress who, at barely 15, almost eloped with a handsome, equally young actor but was thwarted by her eagle-eyed mom. The actress became very successful and her ex-boyfriend is behind bars.

A TV host berated and declared “big liar” a journalist who wrote that her actor-boyfriend was suspected to be a drug user. She soon found out the truth and broke up with him. Today, she’s happily married to a very decent man (and good provider man) whom she met in the same network they were working in.

A singer-actress cried a river (nay, an ocean!) when her celebrity parents vehemently opposed her budding romance with a promising actor (who developed into a very fine one). Reason: the parents confirmed that the young actor had a “bad habit.” Fast-forward to today: singer-actress is happy in her newly-acquired freedom and the actor is on a direction-less, long-winding “trip.”

* * *

During a mini-presscon for The Write Moment at the 77 Limbaga restaurant over the weekend, Jerald Napoles kept on lifting Valeen Montenegro’s arm and trying to kiss her armpit, so flawless that it seemed to light up the little spot of the restaurant where they were perched on stools.

No malice, really. Valeen (granddaughter of Mario Montenegro, a respected actor-painter dubbed a Brown Adonis because of his kayumanggi complexion and wife Letty Alonzo, both of LVN Pictures) was not at all offended since she and Jerald are close and comfortable with each other, they both being regulars on GMA’s Sunday Pinasaya.

In fact, they were having fun with themselves and with the movie writers who, thankfully, refrained from asking (confronting) them with ticklish questions ­— you know, how Valeen was able to survive the bashing that trailed the nasty rumor about her personal life (she is said to be happy now with a “walang sabit” guy)…and, haven’t you wondered, how is Jerald related to the woman in the pork-barrel mess?

At 34, the Tondo-born Jerald appeared in stage plays (Dulaang UP’s St. Louis Loves Them Filipinos and Tanghalan Pilipino’s Noli Me Tangere, and also Magsimula Ka, Care Divas and Rak of Aegis, etc.) before he started working at GMA (now in Super Ma’am with Marian Rivera who is managed by Triple A Talent Management, same agency managing Maine Mendoza and, yes, Jerald).

Valeen herself has proven her worth in a few movies and TV shows (as a comedian in Bubble Gang and Sunday Pinasaya and as villainess [Alexander Lee’s “ex”] in My Korean Jagiya).

And still, they couldn’t believe that they are now bida in The Write Moment (one of the eight official entries in the 2017 QCinema, from today until Oct. 28) which marks the feature-film debut of writer-director Dominic Lim (who said that the story was inspired by his fantasies).

Jerald plays a heart-broken writer who tries to get back his ex (Valeen) with his romantic-comedy “hugot” script but fails and instead finds himself magically living out the scenes he has written, forced to follow everything verbatim or else face being stuck in an existential loop of scenes that repeat over and over again.

An instructor at the Asia Pacific Film Institute, Lim has been writing for TV (#ParangNormalActivity, LolaBasyang.com for TV5) and for film (My Rebound Girl for Regal Films and the digital series Forever Sucks, The Complex and Sabagay Life for D5), and trained under Jun Lana’s Cine Panulat Screeenwriting Lab.

“Are they sure?” Jerald recalled himself asking when offered the project which is executive produced by Jun and Perci Intalan’s Ideafirst Company in partnership with CMB Films and the QC Film Development Commission; they were also behind the QCinema hits Sleepless (2015) and Ang Manananggal Sa Unit 23B (2016). “I asked myself, ‘Sigurado kaya sila?’”

Oh yes, Jerald and Valeen assured that they were comfortable during their love scenes. No malice between close friends, right?

(The Write Moment will be screened on these dates: Oct. 20 at Trinoma, 4 p.m.; Oct. 21 at Gateway, 3:30 p.m.; Oct. 22 at Gateway, 8:30 p.m.; Oct. 23 at Robinsons Galleria, 4 p.m.; Oct. 24 at Trinoma, 9 p.m. and at Robinsons Galleria, 1 p.m.; Oct. 25 at Gateway, 1 p.m. and at Robinsons Galleria, 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 26 at Robinsons Galleria, 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 27 at UP Town Center, 1:30 p.m.; and Oct. 28 at Gateway, 1 p.m.)

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