Aleck Bovick: Stardom, interrupted

Early this year, a girl named Aleck Bovick was launched as a bold star in the skin flick Kaulayaw. Everything went smoothly – promo and all – until the girl’s father surfaced and filed a case for custody of the girl whom he claimed was a minor. She was only 17.

Kaulayaw, directed by Francis "Jun" Posadas, was shown, all right, but Aleck’s sexy scenes were either deleted (by those behind the movie, not by the censors) or shortened, thus rudely interrupting what could have been a quick flight to stardom.

The girl turned 18 last May 18, therefore legally an adult. Her father, estranged it turned out, has slipped back to oblivion after his own 15 minutes of national-TV "fame," with the case dropped after an out-of-court amicable settlement (the father also abandoned his initial desire to manage Aleck’s career).

Well, Aleck Bovick is back with a vengeance, bolder than ever, in her second Jun Posadas starrer, Masarap na Pugad, where she kind of compensates – and how! – for what was clipped from Kaulayaw. In her love scene behind a fishing net with Gary Estrada (who outdoes his sexy turn with Priscilla Almeda in Sutla), for instance, Aleck refused to cover her private part with plaster ("Masakit pag dumidikit," she said) and did it in all her frontal glory (oops! quiet… the censors might be eavesdropping!).

How did she feel during the shooting of that and her other scenes in the movie?

"Sanay na ako," said Aleck, sounding as if showing "it" was as easy as breaking into a bedimpled smile.

She’s right. At 18, Aleck has the experience of a woman twice, even thrice, her age.

Her mother, half-German (surnamed Bovick), bore 18 children by three different men… 11 by her first husband, two by her second and five by her third husband (Aleck’s father). She was a dancer, "Sa Cubao yata," said the unsure Aleck, and she died at age 42 of leukemia. "I guess from loss of blood dahil sa kapapanganak," added Aleck who was only two years old then. "My memory of her I got only from her pictures. She was a beautiful woman, mukhang mataray at matapang, and her eyes looked like those of Dexter Doria."

Her father, surnamed Tambis, entrusted Aleck and her five siblings with their stepmother because, according to Aleck, he was sick of tuberculosis and he didn’t want his children to get the disease.

"I learned how to work at 14," recalled Aleck who got her mom’s German looks punctuated with thick luscious lips. "I worked as a GRO-model at La Legende for four months; that served as my training as a dancer. Then I worked for one year in Japan."

She almost got into the ABS-CBN Talent Center’s Star Circle Batch 8 and the starring role in Seiko Films’ Itlog that landed on Diana Zubiri’s lap.

"When Tito Robbie and his staff checked me out for the role," said Aleck, "I showed them my boobs, that’s why later on when direk Jun asked me to bare them again in Kaulayaw, hindi na ako nahiya. After all, I had nothing more to hide, di ba?"

She said she got the name Aleck from a character she saw in a Mexican telenovela.

"Aleck Tambis doesn’t sound good, does it? Mas maganda pakinggan ang Aleck Bovick, di ba?"

Masarap na Pugad (very Freudian, in case you didn’t notice) is opening Wednesday (Nov. 6) next week in Metro theaters and already, Aleck has a quick follow-up, Halik sa Apoy, also directed by Posadas, where she’s pitted in more torrid love scenes (brace yourselves for more of her frontal assets) with Gardo Versoza and Mark Gil (one at a time, yes).

Unlike most boldies, Aleck didn’t have any part of her body surgically-enchanced.

"Every part of me is original," she said, adding without any trace of embarrassment, "except that I’m not a virgin anymore. I lost it when I was 16 to a guy who fooled me, a double-timer. It happened at a motel in Sta. Mesa."

She has been wiser since then. Now she can tell if a man is serious with her or only after her body.

"I’ve been dealing with men," she said. "I can’t be fooled anymore."

Once, a mayor (from the South) pursued her like crazy, so Aleck gave him some kind of an "ultimatum."

"I was frank with him. ‘Look,’ I told him, ‘Iba ang trabaho ko; naghuhubad ako, hinahalikan ng iba’t-ibang lalaki ang lips at katawan ko. Can you take it? Now, if you want my body all to yourself, you must marry me. Then, you can have all of me."

You guessed it: The mayor never saw Aleck again.

"I don’t want to depend on anybody," said Aleck. "That’s why I’m working, even to the extent of showing and using my body."

As you can see, Aleck Bovick is not only brutally bold, she’s also brutally frank.