Onemig's wife Val doubles for Rachel Weisz

Curtain-raisers:

• It’s joke time (laugh at your own risk, hahaha!):

• From Nap Gutierrez who’s greeting Funfare readers A Happy Chinese New Year, complete with what he called “famous Chinese names,” to wit:

• Born during the night – Andy Lim

• Born blind – Kenneth Sy

• Born fat – Bob Uy

• Born small and tiny – Kathy Ting

• Born different – Eva Yan

• Born on a Sunday – Lynn Go

• Born with picture – Lara Huang

• Born sweet – Ken Dy

• Born secretly – Tina Go

• Born normal – Nat Ting Wong

• Born abnormal – Sam Ting Wong

= From Sony Music boss Narciso Chan:

• Mga Inglisera sa kanto o nagmamaganda:

• Ats if!

• The nerd!

• I’m sick of tired!

• True good to be true!

• When it rains, it’s four!

• Once in a new moon.

• Keep your mouth shock!

• I hope you don’t mine.

• Connect me if I’m wrong.

• Will you please give me alone.

(Melanie Marquez must be laughing!)

*   *   *

Seriously now…

Did you know that Onemig Bondoc’s half-French/half-Filipina wife Valerie Sophie Geraldine Christine Bariou (Val for short) is acting “double” for Rachel Weisz in The Bourne Legacy?

The Bondoc family during a social event.

This was confirmed by Onemig during a brief phone chat with Funfare yesterday.

“She’s happy with what she’s doing, so okey lang,” said Onemig, who has a five-year-old daughter named Arnelle with Val. Then he passed the phone to Val.

Val has been shooting for Bourne for two weeks since Jan. 8 when the third installment of the hit Bourne franchise moved the filming here from New York and Bangkok. The first three Bourne Identity movies topbill Matt Damon and the new one has Jeremy Renner (last seen with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3: Ghost Protocol) playing an entirely different role. Shooting has wrapped in the Malate area, Remedios Circle, NAIA and Navotas Fishport, and will continue in Marikina City and Intramuros, Manila. Playdate is in August.

Pretty enough to be mistaken for Rachel, Val was among the many who auditioned.

Without revealing much about the movie, Val said that all she was asked during the audition was about herself and her experience, before they were asked to meet with the producers, the director and other people involved in the production. Then, they were screen-tested.

“Only three of us who auditioned for Rachel’s double remained,” said Val whose knowledge of martial arts was for sure a plus factor. “I learned Judo in Shanghai when my father was based there,” added Val who graduated with a Business Management degree from a university in Paris. Her father is a banker. “We had a teacher in school who is a martial arts expert and I studied Judo under him.” She also strudied in South Africa when her father was assigned there.

Being Rachel’s “double” has been a wonderful experience for Val. Except to say that Rachel is “nice and friendly,” Val begged off from talking more about Rachel as a sign of respect to her. “Basta, mabait siya,” said Val of Rachel whose husband, Daniel Craig (the newest 007), has flown in to pay her a visit, followed the other day by Edward Norton who is in the cast of Bourne Legacy.

Scenes where Val doubles for Rachel are thankfully not threatening, so I presume that Val hasn’t been insured.

Doing movies is not new to Val who was in I Love You Virus, the international movie Jericho Rosales did with a Hollywood starlet, in which Val plays a glamorous secretary “who speaks with an American accent…my first time to experience Hollywood.” She was also in an episode of Discovery Channel and another one on National Geographic. She has done a few commercials, too, including the one about a diaper where she’s cast as the rich lady buying the item at a store together with a “poor” lady.

But her favorite role is being wife to Onemig and mother to Arnelle. She’s also into fashion designing, while Onemig is busy managing the family’s real-estate business and a new school (for card-processing) put up also by his family.

“I’m happy with what I’m doing,” assured Onemig who wouldn’t mind taking off from his business if a good offer comes along.

He and Val have been married for five years.

“I’m glad that Val is getting this kind of opportunity,” Onemig said of Val’s inclusion as “double” in Bourne Legacy. “I’ll support her in whatever makes her happy.”

What’s up?

• Congratulations to Pianne Tobiano Sinfuego, daughter of Pinky Tobiano, for passing the UP chemical engineering exams. In fact, she passed in all the schools she applied for, “I’m a proud and happy mom,” said Pinky who’s mounting a concert for cancer patients on Feb. 3 and 4.

•The grand premiere of Star Cinema’s My Cactus Heart will be held tonight, not in a cinema for a change, but at the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) house right across from the ABS-CBN Studios. Its stars, Maja Salvador, Matteo Guidicelli and Xian Lim, will be there to welcome guests. The movie, directed Enrico Santos, opens tomorrow in more than 100 theaters nationwide.

(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.)