For Erap, Ai-Ai is Box-Office Queen

Curtain-raisers:

• Guess where Craig David went Saturday night to unwind after his show at the Big Dome the previous night — yes, The Embassy at The Fort where he met a pretty TV reporter. They clicked and in a jiffy they were, according to Funfare’s “Party-hopping DPA,” “sweety-sweety already” when they left...together. Read carefully the following two italicized sentences for clues to the lucky girl’s identity. Was it a “great sin?” Or was it a night “full” of “I do’s?” One thing is sure, added the DPA. “Craig had a generous taste of the fabled Filipino hospitality.”

• This actress (whose surname is the same as that of a movie queen) can breathe freely now that the court has granted her petition for the annulment of her marriage which seemed to have been doomed from the start. “Her days of misery started shortly after the honeymoon,” said somebody close to the actress. “The marriage felt like a maximum-security prison.” She’s now gradually picking up the pieces and starting a new life with her children away from her husband whose sister is married to the son of a high government official.

• Meanwhile, Funfare’s “legally-correct DPA” said that a popular actor should stop grumbling that the annulment of the marriage of his beloved long-time home companion has been gathering dust in court. “The truth is that the decision declaring her marriage (to a non-showbiz man by whom she has a daughter) null and void was final last year pa. I got this information from the Office of the Solicitor General.” It turned out that when the Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision, the OSG didn’t anymore meet for reconsideration. O, tuloy na ang kasal!

* * *

No, the much-awaited movie team-up of Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Ai-Ai delas Alas hasn’t been scrapped. In fact, if Erap would have his way, he would start shooting for it anytime so it would make it to this year’s Metro Filmfest in December. That’s five months before the 2010 presidential elections in which, keep your fingers crossed, Erap might run in his effort to unite the opposition. The election ban on TV and movie appearances starts three months before election day (May 10).

“Ai-Ai is the real Box-Office Queen,” Erap told reporters who talked to him during last Saturday’s anniversary celebration of MOWELFUND. “Her movie (Star Cinema’s Ang Tanging Ina N’yong Lahat) was the top-grosser in last year’s (2008) Metro Filmfest, so she’s the Box-Office Queen of the Year. And that’s why I want our movie to be shown also in the Metro Filmfest.”

The still untitled romance-comedy (with Star Cinema as probable producer) should be a riot considering that Erap, besides being an action superstar, is also an effective comedian as proven by the hit Erap movie series (among them Erap Is My Guy with Nora Aunor and Tatay Na Si Erap with Boots Anson-Roa who was actually pregnant with her and her late husband Pete’s youngest child Benjamin during the shooting; she gave birth on the day the movie opened).

Yes, Erap and Ai-Ai will have a kissing scene, definitely.

“Dream ko ‘yan matagal na,” Ai-Ai has been saying.

Another Tiangco as Navotas mayor?

His kuya Toby is on his last term as Mayor of Navotas City and is running for congressman in the 2010 elections, so John Reynald “John-Rey” Tiangco is being tagged as “susunod na” by the city residents.

Mayor Toby Tiangco himself is giving John-Rey the thumbs-up.

At 36 (Nov. 21, 1972), John-Rey is highly-qualified to step into his kuya’s shoes.

“He has achieved so much and it’s a challenge for me to match, if not surpass, his record,” admitted John-Rey who could be an actor. He has been married for three years to young socialite Barbara Pardo. They have no child.

A B.S. Accounting graduate from the College of St. Benilde, DLSU, John-Rey is the managing and corporate director of the R & LT Shipyard & Realty Development Corp. and the Trans-Pacific Journey Fishing Corp.; and president of the Admiral Aqua Farms, Inc., Admiral Marine Construct, Inc., and Admiral Koi Food Specialties, Inc.

He also acted as president of the Signal Marine Shipyard, Inc., Pt. Sinar Purefoods International (Indonesia) and Trinity Marine Ventures (Vietnam), among others. Currently a member of the Navotas Jaycees and Friday Club of Navotas, he is the president of the Metro Manila Shipyard Association, vice president of the Inter-Island Deep Sea Fishing Association, director of the Confederation of Tuna Industry and Alliance of Fishing Associations, and a member of the Philippine Exporter Association and Philippines Ship Builders Association.

Furthermore, he is the adviser of Samahan ng Malayang Kabataan ng Navotas, Navotas City Fun Bikers, C4 Aerobics Taebo and Civic Organization, Navotas Joint Rescue Team, Kapitbahayan Senior Citizens Association, Inc., Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Kabataan ng Paez, Samahang Tanglaw ng Wawa, Samahang Magkakapitbahay ng NBBN, Navotas Polytechnic College Council of Student Leaders and vice chairman of the Navotas Scouting Committee.

Aside from socio-civic endeavors, John-Rey is also into sports. He used to be a Philippine Team member in the World Youth Cup (tennis, 1987) and the Philippine Team captain in the World Youth Cup (1988); UAAP champion (DLSU UAAP Tennis 2001 and 2005); and top-ranking player in the Philippine Tennis Juniors from 1984 to 1989.

As I said, he’s “highly-qualified.”

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