Ate Vi’s fears prove to be unfounded

Titillating curtain-raiser:

• Funfare’s VDPA (Very Deep Penetration Agent) huffed and puffed (the favorite expression of my late friend columnist) the titillating news that a third party did cause the break-up of a young couple (oops! I’m not saying when the split happened, huh!). It’s not the actress referred to in the rumor but another actress who is alert and eager (there’s your clue if you are perceptive, hahaha!) to have a serious relationship after her past “fruitful” one. According to the VDPA, the actor’s steady girlfriend wanted to offer herself pure on the wedding day that may never happen anymore so, to quote Sylvia La Torre’s famous character, Filipino custom, no touch! So during the out-of-town shoot of the actor (who couldn’t help it) and the “third party’s” movie, something intimate happened. Even if from the start the actor made it clear that, you know, it was just a quickie encounter, the “third party” got so attached to him that she kept on asking for more. Is that why the actor is conscience-stricken?

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At the end of the gala screening of her Cinemalaya movie Ekstra last Sunday (July 28) at the CCP Main Theater when the SRO audience gave her a heart-warming applause, Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos finally rested assured that she had really nothing to be afraid of at all.

You see, as she confessed in last Sunday’s Conversations, Ate Vi was having sleepless nights how the expected well-heeled guests would react to her turn as a bit player in the Jeffrey Jeturian-directed movie that is Ate Vi’s tribute to extras without whom a movie, any movie, will never be complete.

Among those Funfare spotted in the audience were STAR columnist and art patron Danny Dolor, Dr. Danny David (who was known as Raffy Raval back when he was an actor), Tessie Tomas, Pen Medina, director Wenn Deramas, STAR contributor Phillip Cu-Unjieng with TV host Issa Litton (who claimed to be a one-time extra), London-based writer-director Jowee Morel (who directed Pilar Pilapil in Leona Calderon), talent manager Noel Ferrer, Mario Hernando, Rajo Laurel, Noli Hans and Funfare’s “beauty-watcher” Gerry Diaz who took the pictures accompanying this piece.

Ate Vi made a perfect choice of Ekstra as her first foray into the world of indies. The movie, which is competing with four others in Cinemalaya’s Directors Showcase category, chronicles a day in the life of a bit player in a teleserye and it gives us a first-hand look at the hardships and sacrifices, and humiliation and embarrassment, that a bit player has to go through to land a bit part with a meager fee…all for the pleasure of rubbing elbows with big stars and seeing themselves on screen, even only for a fleeting moment (don’t blink or you will miss them, you know).

Most of the scenes elicited applause from the audience and by far the most applauded was the scene in which the haughty character played by Cherie Gil slaps the ekstra whose head is wrapped in a sack as the “double” for the character of Eula Valdez.

When Gerry Diaz asked Ate Vi what her favorite was, she said that it’s toward the end showing her sitting on a table at a neighbor’s party, feeling at last at peace and at ease in her comfort zone after an emotionally-draining and physically-crippling day on the set.

Watch Ekstra (showing in mainstream theaters nationwide second week of this month) so you may sympathize with bit players and start looking at them with kindness.

Will this MWP batch produce our very first Miss World?

Hope springs eternal.

So as yet another Miss World-Philippines (2013) is picked on Aug. 18 (airing on GMA, the search’s new partner) at the grand ballroom of Solaire Resort & Casino, us beauty-watchers keep our shaky fingers crossed, hoping against hope that finally (finally!!!) we’ll have our first ever Miss World.

So far, the highest spot won by a Filipina was in 1972 when Evangeline Pascual placed first runner-up to Miss USA Marjorie Wallace who was eventually dethroned. Evangeline didn’t want to replace Wallace because, she said, she didn’t win it, although there are unverified reports that the title was never offered to her (sayang!). The other was Gwendoline Ruais who also placed first runner-up in 2011.

Funfare’s “other beauty expert” Celso de Guzman Caparas covered the 2013 MWP press presentation.

Observed Celso, “The girls are a mix of pageant veterans, neophytes, showbiz personality and even a reigning beauty titlist.”

They are:  1. Nicole Marable, 2. Roselle Marie Ferrer, 3. Princesslyn Dignadice, 4. Khadija Nasser, 5. Zahra Bianca Saldua, 6. Karla Patricia Alas, 7. Samantha Mae Bernardo, 8. Frances Claire Vintola, 9. Pia Kamil Ochengco, 10. Janicel Lubina, 11. Mercegrace Raquel, 12. Anjellica Lopez, 13. Paula Estenso, 14. Vina Openiano, 15. Ma. Lily Teresa Salazar, 16. Aikah Dindah, 17. Jennifer Hammond, 18. Omarie Linn Osuna, 19. Maria Paula Bianca Paz, 20. Megan Lynn Young, 21. Jennyline Carla Malpaya, 22. Patricia Lae Ejercitado, 23. Ria Rabajante, 24. Sandra Flores, 25. Melanie Barret, and 26. Henna Kaizelle Nicole Cajandig. 

The only bet from showbiz is Megan Young, the Kapamilya star who is a pageant neophyte. Saldua was inspired to join when she learned that Miss World 2013 will be held in a Muslim country. At 6-foot flat, Estenso is the tallest. Paz was Miss World Philippines 2011 3rd Princess and Lubina was crowned Miss Scuba Philippines 2012 and Slimmers World Miss Bikini Philippines 2013. Marable, Raquel, Paz, Ejercitado, Rabajante, Flores and Cajandig are Bb. Pilipinas alumnae. Flores was a Miss Philippines Earth 2012 candidate. Openiano and Flores were Mutya ng Pilipinas 2013 semi-finalists.

Some of them are shown on this page.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)