Curtain-raisers:
- Here’s good news to those waiting for the local release of Ma’Rosa, directed by Brillante Mendoza (photo), the movie that won Jaclyn Jose Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival: According to Brillante, Ma’Rosa (which competed at the same filmfest) is showing nationwide starting on July 6. See you at a moviehouse near you.
- Texting a reply to a Funfare question from Amsterdam where he’s vacationing with husband Robin Padilla, three-month pregnant Mariel Rodriguez said that if a boy, their son will be named Fernando “because Robin is Robinhood Fernando and, if a girl, Maria because I am Maria.” Mariel had suffered two miscarriages before she got pregnant again. “No,” she said, “I am not infanticipating (naglilihi).”
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And speaking of impending date with the stork, Iya Villania will keep her own either end of August or early September, according to expectant first father Drew Arellano.
“It’s really my first time to be one,” Drew told Funfare in jest, “kasi so far, wala pa namang ibang (babaing buntis) na nagdo-doorbell, hehehe!!!”
Yes, the couple (married in January last year) is having a boy. Asked if they have already chosen a name, Drew said, “Not yet. We are still thinking of one.”
But when Iya told the movie press at the presscon the other day for San Miguel Pure Foods Home Foodie Season 2 that the child would be named Antonio, Drew expressed (or feigned?) surprise. “Ha, you have already found a name?” The name is in honor of Drew’s late father, lawyer Antonio Arellano (a.k.a. Atty. Aga).
Ready to be a dad?
“Yes,” assured Drew, “ready na ready na ako.”
When his parents broke up, Drew opted to stay with his father Atty. Aga whom Drew looked up to as his idol, more of a friend than as a father.
“I will be easy with my son,” said Drew who will leave the disciplinary task to Iya. “In my case,” added Drew, “it was my mom who is the disciplinarian. I will be a barkada to (Antonio). We will be buddy-buddies.”
Incidentally, the Home Foodie show falls right smack along the couple’s alley.
“I love to cook,” revealed Drew who is joined by Iya as co-chef on the show. “I usually look for new recipes on the Internet,” agreeing that, as per the show’s bulletin, anyone with an interest in food and new food experiences is a foodie.
Iya, who is equally popular and looked up to by her followers and peers, will encourage kitchen newbies to cook as she takes on the journey herself, from novice to an intermediate cook.
San Miguel Pure Foods believes that aside from dining out, foodies should also come home and harness their passion for food by cooking in their own kitchen and creating their own food experience. Home Foodie is all about inspiring home cooks to reinvent traditional favorites and recreate dishes from food discoveries using San Miguel Pure Foods products.
Home Foodie Season 2 recipes are “Kayang-kayang Sarap,” delicious and definitely doable that even kitchen newbies can do the recipes. Drew has been the perfect host in Season 1 given his wide mass appeal, non-alienating persona aside from being a true blue foodie.
Besides the foodie show, Drew also hosts the travel show Biyahe ni Drew which has brought him to various parts not only of the Philippines but also of Asia.
Home Foodie viewers are expected to learn tips and techniques in food preparation with the experts from the San Miguel Pure Foods Culinary Center led by chefs Llena Tan-Arcenas, Rene Ruz and RJ Garcia.
(Catch San Miguel Pure Foods Home Foodie beginning June 13, Mondays thru Fridays, after Unang Hirit on GMA7.)
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)