Amazing entertainment stories through the years

At the Public Information Office (PIO) of Quezon City under ex-mayor Herbert Bautista’s watch where I once paid a visit to his erstwhile publicist Aries Gutierrez, I noticed a tallboy newspaper filed on the rack with a green masthead Market Monitor.

The paper has a distinct layout.

I simply browsed over its pages and found out what it could offer my reading curiosity and I was satisfied with its business slants.

The entertainment pages were a mix of showbiz and culture.

I thought I could write for them.

No sooner said.

Journalist Tirso Paglicawan advised me to join a meeting with Nelly Lumbaca who was and still is the publisher of the paper.

Paglicawan was then the designated Editor-in-Chief.

At the time, I was running a column for OpinYon, a tabloid with a national circulation but is marketed and published as community journalism as well.

I was offered by Nelly to fill up the entertainment column inches of the beat which I readily accepted.

There was no conflict of interest between the two papers as they were independently published online and offline.

Apart from my indie media orientation, my work in the respective outlets was critical of opinion-laden stories of the industry.

Here in Market Monitor entertainment, I saw to it that features, columns and breaking news were treated in context no matter how controversial and issue-oriented.

At the time, I wrote an essay-type column that tackled showbiz stories like Anne Curtis and Erwan Heusaff’s wedding, the Famas as an institution etc.

Coco Martin in ABS-CBN’s “Ang Probinsiyano” was making headway as the Filipino staple entertainment while getting amazed and shocked by the Barretto sisters washing their family’s dirty linens in public.  

As the figurehead of the page, I wanted objectivity and balance however ticklish the line that divides spin doctoring on subjects and criticisms, constructive and outright mangling, especially malicious.

I had to strike a balance between straight reportorial accounts and editorial types of write-ups.

The challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic was real in regularly churning out showbiz news. Face-to-face encounters were discouraged like interviews, press conferences, movie premieres and other public gatherings. Still, there were many ways to gather and provide the public its own share of entertainment news like phone calls, social media contents from exclusive owners like Instagrams and other resources.

Cinemas were locked and live streaming was the only platform where films can be watched if only for VCR player at home of digital audio-visuals. International film festivals were still held but mostly online. In some world film events in 2022, a year seemingly eased up at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN), an A-Lister not only in South Korea but in Asia as well, moviegoers who wanted to enter physical theaters must wear face masks.

At home, digital showing of films was the only option even with the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

With the disenfranchisement of ABS-CBN’s Channel 2, its free TV and DZMM, its AM station, its contract stars were disarray. Piolo Pascual and Catriona Gray were temporarily assigned to TV5. However, Piolo remained loyal to ABS-CBN Kapamilya Network after a short stint with a  weekly variety show produced by a blocktimer for the Manny Pangilinan media conglomerate.

John Lloyd Cruz had also a short-lived appearance in GMA Network while he was on his own figuring in controversies like his fathering Elias with Ellen Adarna and his readily nipped in the bud transport business with LGUs that earned him hot spots when he was served with a local bread named kalahi.

In 2021, John Arcilla won Coppa Volpi Best Actor at the Venice International Film Festival for Erik Matti’s “On the Job: The Missing 8.” Two Filipino internationally acclaimed directors, Lav Diaz and Brillante Ma. Mendoza were toasts of the town at the British Film Institute where his film “Historia ni Ha” and his Head of the Jury at the 43^rd Moscow International Film Festival.

It’s also the beginning of Kris Aquino agony over her health condition but she’s around to heal herself while Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos are still very much around.                  

For less than ten years in my stead, I have withstood the test of broadsheet movie journalism.

Here I am, beating weekly deadlines for the printed edition and 24/7 submissions for the online publication.

I have presented to the reading public a first-hand account on the breakup of pop stars Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla and Jericho Rosales and Kim Jones.

Angelica Panganiban’s giving birth was also big news and the milestone of “Eat Bulaga” from Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9 to ABS-CBN, GMA Network and now TV5 has given dimensions to the colorful stories of show business.

I also brought in the commercial successes of the first and second Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards’ team-up in “Hwllo, Love, Goodbye” and its sequel, “Hello, Love, Again” and the forthcoming return of KathNiel on the big screen. (Boy Villasanta)