What makes the Matt-Melissa loveteam click

CEBU, Philippines - There’s reason to believe that the importance of love teams has somewhat diminished, if we are to go by the current showbiz trend of pairing and unpairing—like a game of musical chairs—of young stars in movies and television.

While it has proven to be a time-tested way of launching a new face into public consciousness, loveteams do not necessarily equate to staying power, and we can probably count with our fingers the few sturdier ones currently left standing. Perhaps, the most patronized of them all is the Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson tandem. It has spawned the uni-name Kimerald, crossed over to commercials and endorsements, and birthed legions of, shall we say, diehard fans that would clog internet highways whenever rumors or reports of attempts to mix and match them with other stars surface.

If you're hard-pressed to identify which tandem comes close to the success of Kimerald, both Kim and Gerald themselves offered the answer in a recent visit to Cebu by saying, "Without bias, we believe it's Melissa Ricks and Matt Evans."

Like Kim and Gerald, Melissa and Matt are products of reality shows, the current goldmine of new stars. Melissa was first introduced to Star Circle Quest, while Matt first caught our attention through the first edition of Pinoy Big Brother Teens. Both are tall, and bearing mixed-blood features, in other words, a good-looking pair launched through the fantasy series Pedro Penduko, which had Matt starring in the titular role, and Melissa as the diwata love interest. They have since been featured in over 15 television/movie projects together since 2006, an obvious measure of the effectiveness of their tandem.

The two are extremely grateful for the chance to be an onscreen pair many times over, knowing very well that onscreen pairings are a fickle science. Notice how many a team-up looked perfectly good together and playing out a seemingly perfect story, but still couldn't make our hearts beat faster; on the other hand, some team-ups pull you in so much so you forget about the absurd plotlines. ABS-CBN business unit head Deo Endrinal has told The Freeman, "We believe in love teams, but sometimes meron kang loveteam na malakas pero mali yung character na binigay mo sa kanila, mali yung project, so it might not work."

But it looks like the projects have so far worked for MattMel, or as how fans call their loveteam. “From the start of our loveteam, maganda ang plans ng ABS-CBN para sa amin. We are very much aware that not all love teams are pursued, but we have been fortunate to have always been given the push. Never kami nawalan ng project," Melissa tells The Freeman during the recent Aloguinsan fiesta of which the two were guest stars.

ABS-CBN will continue to invest in their love team as a new TV series, tentatively titled as "Tanging Yaman," is in the offing for the two, which Melissa describes as “never been done on Philippine TV."

Matt says that they already had their storycon, and it's going to be a primetime teleserye that has a story “na tumatakbo sa lahat ng characters.”

This goes to say, we'll be seeing more of their loveteam, despite the fact, it is currently enjoying some experimentation. Melissa, for one, is being paired up with Jolo Revilla in the top-rater “Pepeng Agimat”.

And where there are loveteams, rumors of a budding romance off-screen should not be far behind. Through the years, we've seen how these rumors are used and abused as a publicity stunt. Interestingly, the two said that they've been successful so far in making their lives separate from work, to the point that they've never discussed—except when asked by the media—the possibility of making reel things real. Melissa feels that the present generation of young stars no longer have that pressure.

So, if there's no "secret" romance out there to titillate the imagination of fans, what makes their tandem click? “Siguro kasi, okay talaga ang onscreen chemistry namin. And all-out ang efforts namin to make it work. It's a give and take relationship. We help each other," Matt says.

Onscreen chemistry. You'll never get to understand the extent of its power and magic unless you get to see the reaction from the receiving end.

During the Aloguinsan Fiesta recently, the two separately sent the audience swooning and screaming as they serenaded, played cute, and joked with audience members inside the municipal gym. But it was nothing compared to the reception when they emerged together onstage for two final songs, coupled with charming banter in between.

Perhaps, the way love teams of today and of the past are created and groomed has somehow evolved, but one thing has remained clearly unchanged: this old-fashioned concept never fails to evoke strong emotions from star-gazers. (NMT)