Inday Badiday: Pinoy ‘infotainment’ pioneer

Arguably, Inday Badiday was a pioneer of "infotainment" in the Philippines. She was a class by herself in her genre of journalism.

Lourdes Jimenez-Carvajal was her real name. And she magically transformed gossip into a much-sought multimillion-peso commodity in the country.

"Ate Luds," as she was fondly called, also made gossip a form of "character analysis" of stars in the local entertainment industry.

Much to the chagrin of the guardians of the moral fiber of the Philippine society, Inday’s "character analysis" of movie actors and actresses appearing on her no-holds barred shows was a much-awaited event every week by millions of Filipinos.

Her shows, to a large extent, documented the "social history" of the local entertainment industry. This was no lame excuse to gossip.

But Inday did not invent the art of gossiping. In the bygone days of old world New York, academics have said that "gossip has traditionally been more important than money or politics, and almost as important as literature."

"Gossip peeps through the dozens of histories and memoirs written in the last two decades about the great days of the New York intellectuals, but it’s usually placed on the margins of the story," wrote columnist Robert Fulton.

In the Philippine setting, Inday pushed it to the center stage of our everyday lives. She did this even before academician David Laskin observed that gossip "asserts itself and shoves aside history, poetry, philosophy etc."

The talk shows and columns of Inday touched on the involvement of local movie scribes with actors and actresses, among other things. They focused on issues of sex, adultery and sexual jealousy.

She herself had her own share of life’s overexhuberance and frailties, which can be said to be enough to fire a life time of gossip talk show.

It would be a disgrace to talk about gossip in the Philippines today without uttering her name. It would be like talking about Sisa and avoiding Padre Damaso or to be snobbish about it, "it would be like avoiding the subject of alcohol while analyzing the career of F. Scott Fitzgerald" as one of my favorite lines say.

It is said that gossip grows more respectable as it ages, and eventually it turns into essential history."

Inday made the foibles of local movie stars look like saga, and her shows and columns chronicled their adventures.

She arrogated into herself the important role of being an arbiter of truth in the celluloid world.

Her gossips extended the boundaries of everyday morality and she repeatedly staked her claim to gossip about the insiders and outsiders of the local movie industry.

Inday, you were a "a vicious gossip, a charming storyteller, and a wonderful social historian."