The year 2010 in review: The biggest showbiz issues and happenings

In the world of show business, the year 2010 spelled “major, major” controversies, happenings, birth, deaths, weddings, and breakups. Let’s take that one last look at 2010 as we finally bid goodbye to the year that was and welcome the brand New Year.

    The showbiz world could not be that exciting if not for the controversies that surface. Easily one of the top controversial stories that rocked the showbiz world was the breakup of the marriage of Kris Aquino and James Yap. Many were surprised with the startling revelation of Kris on “The Buzz” that her married life with her famed basketball star of a husband was far from being a bed of roses. It was on national TV that Kris revealed that she’s putting an end to their marriage. In her televised outpouring of emotions, Kris revealed the pains she suffered by trying to keep the marriage afloat, which led to her decision to put an end to it. The Kris-James breakup was controversial because it involved their son Baby James who supposedly was witness to the unpleasant state of relationship of his famous parents.

    Kris filed a petition for her marriage to the former MVP of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to be nullified. At some point, there was no stopping Kris from saying so much about how unpleasant her relationship with James was, prompting the lawyer of James to file a petition in court for a gag order to stop Kris from further maligning her husband in her interviews. What many thought was an ideal marriage was debunked by Kris herself. But after exchanging unpleasant words in print, there was a ceasefire of sorts and Kris said she and James had finally been talking. In fact, James agreed to stand as the body double for Diether Ocampo (leading man of Kris in her filmfest entry “Dalaw”).

    TV host Willie Revillame terminated his contract with ABS-CBN and transferred to TV5 where he launched his new game show titled “Willing Willie”. Last May, Willie threatened to resign from his program “Wowowee” on ABS-CBN if the Kapamilya network would not sack showbiz reporter cum radio program host Jobert Sucaldito who, Willie said, had been maligning him in his radio program for almost a year. Willie took a leave from “Wowowee” and later on, was suspended by ABS-CBN for being unprofessional and for violating some provisions of his contract with the network. Before July ended, Willie made an announcement that he is coming back to “Wowowee”, which did not materialize. ABS-CBN replaced “Wowowee” with a new show, “Pilipinas Win na Win,” hosted by Kris Aquino, Robin Padilla, Pokwang and Mariel Rodriguez. Sometime in September, Willie called a press conference to announce that he would be rescinding his contract with ABS-CBN and would be transferring to TV5.

    The Kapamilya network filed a case against Willie for breach of contract, saying that the controversial TV host’s contract stipulated that he would have to stay with them until his contract ends on September 2011. But the court did not act on the petition for writ of temporary restraining order (TRO) that ABS-CBN sought which paved the way for the airing of “Willing Willie” on TV5. Unperturbed, ABS-CBN filed another case of copyright infringement, saying that the format of “Willing Willie” is the same as “Wowowee”, which ABS-CBN developed. The legal battle between Willie and ABS-CBN continues.

    When “Wowowee” bowed out as an aftermath of the controversy with Willie, the Kapamilya network fielded on its time slot the new show “Pilipinas Win na Win” with Kris Aquino, Robin Padilla, Mariel Rodriguez, Valerie Concepcion and Pokwang as hosts. But Robin left the program after a week and went to India. Mariel followed him and many were surprised when news came out that the two got married. It was a whirlwind romance. Aside from the alleged wedding in India, Robin and Mariel also reportedly got married in Benguet. But this was denied by Robin himself although the Ibaloi chieftain who conducted the rites said that a wedding did take place. Robin and Mariel went back to India to shoot a film.

    Caught in the issue of the Robin-Mariel wedding were KC Concepcion, Bianca Gonzales and Toni Gonzaga who were allegedly maligned by Mariel.

    Kris Aquino accepted the decision of ABS-CBN to take her out as host of “Pilipinas Win Na Win” as the noontime program’s ratings did not improve. She was replaced by the Hitmakers composed of Rico J. Puno, Marco Sison, Rey Valera and Nonoy Zuniga, whose stint in “Pilipinas Win na Win” ended Dec. 31 as ABS-CBN decided anew to junk the show.

    Word Wars. A word war ensued between Angelica Panganiban and Claudine Barretto, Marian Rivera and newcomer Bela Padilla, and once again, Claudine and her elder sister Gretchen Barretto.

    The issue between Claudine and Angelica started because of the latter’s tweet that Angelica is reportedly spreading lies that Claudine is having an affair with a married man who is the best friend of Derek Ramsay, the boyfriend of Angelica.

    Of course, Star Magic (which manages Angelica) came to her rescue and defended her. Star Magic through Mr. Johnny Manahan threatened to sue Claudine if she won’t stop talking. In this fracas, Derek and Raymart Santiago intervened to put the issue to rest. The two gentlemen finally spoke up to address the issue.

    Newcomer Bela Padilla made “noise” by saying that Marian Rivera hurt her during the taping of “Endless Love”, something that the luminous star of GMA 7 denied. In this case, it was obvious Bela gained tons and tons of publicity as she went up against the queen of GMA, who was pictured as the kontrabida. It was rumored that Marian got jealous of Bela, prompting the former to get physical with the newcomer. The problem was settled when GMA 7 decided to step in and make the warring ladies make peace. But it was obvious that Marian was at the losing end because Bela was able to “use” that incident to gain her 15 minutes of fame.

    If there was one issue that rocked showbiz world like a bomb being dropped, it was the “vaginal lock” issue that supposedly involved sweethearts John Lloyd Cruz and Shaina Magdayao. According to the malicious rumor, John Lloyd and Shaina supposedly got tangled in an uncompromising situation while allegedly sharing an intimate moment together. The rumor proved to be false and was deemed a demolition job to discredit the couple.

    Dennis Trillo and Jennylyn Mercado admitted they were an item while Gerald Anderson went emotional at the presscon of a Star Cinema film with Kim Chiu, saying that he hurt his “ka-loveteam” because of stories linking him to Bea Alonzo. The relationship between Bea and Gerald was short-lived as they broke up after their concert tour in the US.

    Judy Ann Santos gave birth to Baby Lucho, her firstborn with husband Ryan Agoncillo. If Ryan and Juday were successful in keeping their wedding private, they were also successful in keeping the baptism of Baby Lucho private as well. They did send out photos of Baby Lucho to the press. The couple felt slighted though when a TV show did not heed their request to make the event private by showing a footage of the ceremony and the photo of Baby Lucho on TV.

    Manny Pacquiao made history in beating Mexican boxer Antonio Margarito in their boxing bout held in Texas.

    Pacquiao won his 8th world title, cementing his name as one of the best boxers, if not the best, in his generation. In the elections held in May, he won as Sarangani representative in Congress and is said to be setting his sights on the presidency for the 2016 elections.

    The year 2010 was a good one for Eugene Domingo. She won a best actress award from the Golden Screen Awards for “Kimmy Dora” and made box-office success via the movie “Here Comes the Bride”. She ended the year by winning the Best Supporting actress award at the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival for “Ang Tanging Ina Mo: Last Na ‘To”.

    Ai Ai delas Alas won the best actress at the MMFF for “Ang Tanging Ina”, while Comedy King Dolphy made history by winning the Best Actor award (“Father Jejemon”) and best supporting actor honors (“Rosario”) at the filmfest. But the filmfest stirred controversy because the jurors snubbed the performance of Jennylyn Mercado and the directorial work of Albert Martinez in “Rosario”.

    Sharon Cuneta and Aga Muhlach had a “tampuhan” or misunderstanding of sorts, which led to the megastar’s “emotional outburst” at Ai Ai delas Alas’ concert. Shawie, as she is fondly called in showbiz circles, instantly earned “negative” reactions because of her “pag-e-emote” in the wrong place and event. But the two had since talked and patched up their differences and have remained friends.

For 2010, Charice Pempengco’s star continues to shine as she was cast in the top-rating show “Glee”. Sid Lucero was nominated in the Emmy Awards for the TV series “Dahil May Isang Ikaw”, while Dingdong Dantes was nominated as best actor in Asian TV Awards for “Stairway to Heaven”. (FREEMAN)