Jericho Rosales reluctantly agrees to do love scenes for "BALER"

It took a lot of persuasion, but Jericho Rosales has agreed to do love scenes in the movie “Baler,” one of the eight entries in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.

Jericho is a born-again Christian, so there are a lot of taboos he must observe. Among other things, he can’t make the Sign of the Cross, he can’t do love scenes or kissing scenes.

So he was very reluctant to do sensitive scenes with Anne Curtis, his leading lady in Baler. I don’t know how they did it but he finally consented. After all, it’s all for art’s sake.

There is talk that Jericho has spiritual advisers to whom he turns for guidance, and among them are Piolo Pascual and Sam Milby.

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Local showbiz’s high and mighty showed at the birthday dinner of Tita Dolor Guevarra at the Vera Perez Garden last week. Among the celebrities I caught a glimpse of were: Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, Ms. Susan Roces, Ms. Armida Siguion-Reyna, Conchita Razon (the mom of Martin Nievera) Douglas Quijano, Ms. Shirley Kuan, Ms. Pat P. Daza, June Torrejon, Ricky Lo, Marichu Maceda, Danny Dolor, Malou Choa-Fagar, Aster Amoyo, Ronald Constantino, Direk Boots Plata (the hubby of Tita Dolor), and Lawrence Tan.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero and wife Cristine also dropped by, and so did Kris Aquino, who came with her personal make-up artist at friend Bambbi Fuentes.

Over caramel and chocolate cake, Pat P. pressed Conchita Razon if Martin and wife Katrina Ojeda had split up. Ms. Razon answered tersely, “I don’t know anything.”

The buzz is that Martin has moved on, and his new lady love is related to royalty in Brunei.

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Ogie Alcasid went through a lot while filming Desperadas 2. By his own admission, his private parts almost got crushed because the girdle he wore while playing a woman was too tight.

“I have to empty my bladder before I put on my costume so I can fit everything in,” he said.

Ogie got the role for Desperadas 2 after Eugene Domingo declined. He’ll join the original cast of real girls—Rufa Mae Quinto, Ruffa Gutierrez, Marian Rivera and Iza Calzado.

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KC Concepcion stepped onto an international stage in Hong Kong last week not as an actress but as an envoy of goodwill.

KC has been the Philippine ambassador of the United Nations’ World Food Programme for the past year. At the plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative conference in Hong Kong she reiterated the WFP’s commitment to feed more people.

KC was joined onstage by former US President Bill Clinton and Korean superstar Jang Dong Kung.

According to one report, KC also got to meet Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh and Chinese actors Jet Li and Karen Mok.

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Jake Cuenca was supposed to be in Baguio last week for a taping. Instead he ended up in a hospital in Pangasinan, a possible victim of typhoid fever.

Jake said he was already feeling ill even before he left Pangasinan. In the car he began to shiver. “I was feeling terrible. Still, I wanted to go to Baguio. But my driver decided to take me to a hospital.”

When he arrived at the hospital, he was told he had the symptoms of typhoid.

Jake spent a day at the Pangasinan hospital before being transferred by ambulance to the Polymedic in Manila.

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Judy Ann Santos was overwhelmed by the P1 million donation from the government to help in her campaign to make Ploning the first-ever Philippine film to win an Oscar.

Ploning is vying for a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the Academy Awards.

Juday said she needs at least P5 million to promote Ploning, which she helped produce. “I’m happy and overwhelmed by the government’s contribution,” she said.

Juday had organized an auction and a P1,000 plate dinner to raise money for Ploning.