Sweet vindication for Angelica

Hers is a story of sweet vindication. Long ago and far away, before industry people discovered she can be funny and endearing as a bumbling looker, Angelica Jones had one too many offers to turn into a sex siren.

But Angelica looked deep inside her and shook her head. "No way will I go sexy," she promised herself. "If I grab those offers now, I won’t be able to look at myself straight in the eye."

So she suffered in silence. Angelica survived on TV guestings, singing stints in the provinces, pictorials for calendars, product endorsements. Anything to get by, except go bold.

It wasn’t much, but she did get by. Most importantly, her conscience was crystal-clear. She did not betray any of her values.

It helped that Angelica’s mother, who separated from her husband three years ago, was a fighter. She used her business acumen and refused to go under.

Mother and daughter got by with the earnings from shows Angelica’s mom produced.

The two shared a bond thicker than blood. It was borne of mutual love and respect.

Angelica was by her mom’s hospital bed during the latter’s worst hours. Moved by their show of unwavering support for each other, Angelica’s brothers, who were then lukewarm towards their mom after the separation, finally saw the light.

"They realized my mom was just after their welfare," Angelica, the only girl in a brood of four, relates.

Mother and all her children kissed and made up . Angelica has since taken her brothers under her wing. She’s sending the youngest to school and is helping the eldest.

She can very well afford to, now that things are finally coming up roses for her. The former That’s Entertainment mainstay (Monday group) is so busy she has no time to go out on a date. She has a teleseries (Basta’t Kasama Kita, where she plays a mini-skirted secretary) a talk show (The Buzz, where she is in the Tanong ng Bayan segment) and a noontime program (MTB).

That fair, flawless skin has also earned Angelica the right to endorse Likas Papaya soap.

Best of all, Angelica just got her latest wish, the one she frequents Baclaran Church for every Wednesday: a movie. Star Cinema is handing her, not just her first movie, but her chance to shine as leading lady to boot.

Angelica plays Vhong Navarro’s one true love (with kissing scene to prove it) in Mr. Suave. The role is a pleasant departure from the usual leading lady stuff where the girl is a bland nonentity, forever at her leading man’s beck and call.

Angelica breaks so many rules as she schemes her way in life as a ne’er-do-well hustler from Japan. When she spots Rico Suave (Vhong), she sees a goldmine of a victim in him. Thus does the riot – and the comedy burst forth like a free-flowing spring.

"Feel na feel ko ang role because my first boyfriend’s name was also named Rico," gushes a ticked-pink Angelica.

No one, not even her discoverer, Ronald Rafer, saw the spark of comic talent in the then newcomer playing a minor role in Bridesmaids. Angelica was barely out of her teens, one of those starlets struggling in anonymity.

When Angelica was 14, Jojo Veloso signed her up to a management contract, but the relationship promptly ended after it led to a legal battle.

Badly bruised but undeterred, Angelica plodded on. One of her aborted movies cast her as John Rendez’s leading lady in a project of Metal Dog Productions.

Going bold would have been an easy way up. But Angelica stuck to her guns.

"I resisted the temptation (to go bold). It’s much better to work your way to wherever you want to go," Angelica says. So she waited for that one big break. Never mind if she had to languish in so-so assignments for years.

True enough, Angelica’s patience paid off... and how!

A guesting stint at Whattamen paved the way for Angelica’s movie debut. Star Cinema managing director Malou Santos saw Angelica delivering her witty punchlines in the sitcom and wasted no time asking her casting directors to get her in the movie, Joyce Bernal’s debut as a director of comedy films.

True, Cafeteria Pinoy (with Bernardo Bernardo), guestings in Home Along Da Riles (where director Jerry Sineneng noticed her talent for comedy), The Buzz and MTB sharpened Angelica’s comic skills, but to her credit. the 20-year-old kooky beauty had it in her since Day One.

"Even as a student, I gravitated towards the wackiest in the campus," relates Angelica.

It comes as no surprise then, that men linked to her thus far, Long Mejia and Vhong, happen to be comedians.

"I prefer having comedians as friends because they have a sense of humor," says Angelica, who changed her real surname (Alavar) to adopt her mom’s maiden name on screen.

Now, all Angelica need to do is be her kooky, wacky self, to earn money she never imagined can be hers someday. Now, she can dream big – buying a Mercedes Benz van, a house and lot for her family, putting up a restaurant business.

And while she’s not embarrassed to take the cab to the MTB set when her driver can’t make it, Angelica can always paint the town red in a Daewoo she’s paying on installment basis.

"I am doing my best in my work because this is the only way I can get the things I want without stepping on other people’s toes. I am proud of the fact that I got to where I am now through sheer hard work," says Angelica.

It’s sweet victory for someone who refused to let promises of a fast buck and life’s harshest trials bring her down.