Limelight

By Boy Villasanta Controversial and fastidious filmmaker Jade Castro is back to the grind. After being indiscriminately accosted in a bucolic town somewhere in Quezon Province early last year for a crime he surely wasn’t even an accomplice, Jade and three of his companions suffered, endured and languished a jail term that lasted for months. Castro was hailed by his …

Here’s a poignant narrative of two young guys in love but no histrionics, steamy bed scenes or sex acrobats elsewhere, just feel-good moments. As a matter of fact, their gayhood per se isn’t the source of the irony or conflict in the story but realizations of their little mundane thoughts as jealousy or self-consciousness which they easily dismiss. Main characters …

by Boy Villasanta The local entertainment industry is mourning once more. It is because of popular actor-director Ricky Davao’s death yesterday, May 1, 2025 to still unknown cause. Ricky’s demise was confirmed by Viva Entertainment through its Facebook page. “Pahinga ka na (Rest now), Sir Ricky,” wrote the social media arm of the entertainment company. Ricky, Frederick Charles Caballes Davao …

Santé International’s CEO Joey Marcelo shared insights on resilience, purpose, and building a global brand at the Asia SME Forum 2025 held March 27 at the Marriott Hotel Manila. In his keynote speech, Marcelo shared his journey—one marked by resilience, reinvention, and relentless optimism. He opened about founding Santé International back in 2007 after enduring five failed direct-selling ventures, a …

Nora Aunor is alive. Her body had died but her soul lingers. In the Christian faith and tradition, where the majority of Filipinos thrive, it is believed that, in death and in the afterlife, the separation of the physical body from the spiritual soul is a divine intervention. In this context, Nora’s spirit, therefore, is around—mostly in layman’s or various …

By a stroke of fate, award-winning actress Janine Gutierrez had to manage her state of loss and shock when two of her loved ones kicked the bucket one after the other. First, it was her paternal grandmother Pilita Corrales who passed on peacefully. According to Jackie Lou Blanco, Janine’s aunt, Pilita died in her sleep. Being a daughter of Corrales’ …

by Boy Villasanta Actor Kristoffer Ian de Leon has announced the passing of her mom, Superstar Nora Aunor yesterday, April 6  2025. “With deep sorrow and heavy hearts, we share the passing of our beloved mother, Nora C. Villamayor “Nora Aunor” who left us on today April 16, 2025 at the age of 71. “She was the heart of our …

Curiously, it’s a one-way ticket. Professional ramp models are mostly confined to walking the runway and wearing the latest collection of designers. Rarely are they appearing or have appeared however short-lived onscreen as movie and television stars or as theater performers except perhaps for beauty queen-models like Michelle Dee, Melanie Marquez, Maria Isabel Lopez, Pia Wurtzbach, Pilar Pilapil, Evangeline Pascual, …

In theater, I was taught by my professor, the late erudite Dr. Carolina U. Garcia, the concept and trend that are embodied in the literary philosophy of Relativity of Truth. Dr. Garcia utilized the modern European play “Right You Are If You Think So” written by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello to illustrate the dogma. The theater piece is about a …

Although kabuki as a theater form in Japan has been around and embedded in the Japanese arts and culture for four hundred years, it has not reached mass audiences in the Philippines except perhaps to lit students and theater enthusiasts and practitioners and Oriental philosophy learners. Unlike anime which has swept the whole world by storm, kabuki has been relegated …