Gov. ER Ejercito blames Kris Aquino for Dingdong's Best Actor win

Is it still an issue for Governor Jeorge "E.R." Ejercito, losing the best actor award at the 37th Metro Manila Film Festival for his movie "Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story"?

At the victory party that he had for the success of Manila Kingpin (which won 11 awards including Best Picture and the Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural Award), Gov. ER took Kris Aquino to task for saying that she'd stake her family's name that Dingdong Dantes would win the best actor award. Kris' words proved prophetic as Dingdong indeed won as best actor, beating Gov. E.R., Ryan Agoncillo, Vic Sotto and Jericho Rosales.

Gov. E. R. feels that the members of the jury were influenced by the statements of Kris with regards to Dingdong winning the best actor trophy. Well, Kris has the prerogative to say her opinion. After all, we are all entitled to our opinion. If her statements did influence, in some way, the jurors then we believe it is not solely the fault of Kris. The jurors who chose to be influenced by Kris' statements should be faulted as well, that is if they allowed themselves to be influenced by Kris in voting for Dingdong as best actor.

Please remember that the composition of the jurors of the MMFF also had common people like a bus driver, a teacher, a student, among others, aside from five others who came from the film industry. If the common people who were part of the jury were the ones who were influenced by Kris in voting for Dingdong, then these jury members should also be taken to task.

Anyway, the awards night is over and the trophy had been won by Dingdong. We understand Gov. E. R.'s sentiment that it is a bitter pill to swallow that Manila Kingpin won majority of the awards but he lost to the most important award that he'd hope to win - the best actor trophy.

In our honest opinion, while Gov. E. R. and Dingdong were good in their respective roles, for us the rightful best actor winner in the filmfest should be Ryan Agoncillo, for his effortless, no non-sense performance in "My Househusband: Ikaw Na." Simple but heartfelt.

Judy Ann Santos is also our winner for best actress for the same movie although we don't have any misgivings with regards to Maricel Soriano winning the award for Yesterday, Today Tomorrow. But honestly, we liked Judy Ann's effortless acting even if other people might say that Juday's role is lighweight compared to the role played by Maricel.

But we'd like to wish Gov. E. R. good luck. The awards season is starting soon. He can look forward to getting acting nominations for "Manila Kingpin" but he'd be up for a bigger competition since the scope is expanded as it covers all films shown the whole year. That means more rivals for acting recognition.

Gov. E. R. also gave a good performance but we are just wondering, if the film version that was made by Director Tikoy Aguiluz was the one shown instead, what could have been Gov. E. R. chances of winning? We have been reading quite a number of comments in various Facebook accounts, saying that the governor's chances of winning would probably been better had Direk Tikoy's version of "Manila Kingpin" was the one shown.

A question begs to be answered. Since Direk Tikoy and Gov. E. R. had been talking already after the controversy initiated by their misunderstanding regarding the move of Gov. E. R. and Scenema Concepts to reedit the film without Direk Tikoy's knowledge, will there be a chance for a Director's Cut of Manila Kingpin to be released, as many people on the Net have been requesting? In fact, there was an online petition requesting that a Director's Cut of the film be made and be shown as well.

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By the third week of January, the members of the Entertainment Press Society will start reviewing movies shown in 2011 for the annual Golden Screen Awards which is now on its ninth year. The Executive Committee of the Golden Screen Awards are now busy discussing what films should be included in the shortlist of movies that would be reviewed by the members, including the filmfest entries that the members should have finished viewing as well.

It is a prerequisite for ENPRESS members to review all the filmfest entries to make them eligible to join the review sessions come the third week of January. This early it's quite exciting to anticipate what films would make it to the short list for the review, all the way to the final list of nominees.

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Only eight castaways remain in the hunt for the P3 Million cash prize and the title of being this season’s Ultimate Sole Survivor. This after hunk actor Arthur Solinap got voted off in last night’s tribal council on GMA-7’s Survivor Philippines Celebrity Doubles Showdown.

Arthur now joins Chuckie Dreyfus as the second member of the jury, which will soon play a crucial role in determining this season’s Ultimate Sole Survivor.

This week, the remaining eight Apolaki tribe members – Stef Prescott, Gino dela Peña, Betong Sumaya, John Odulio, Maey Bautista, KC Montero, Mara Yokohama, and Arnold Aninion – will face another reward challenge. Are they willing to go against one another just to win the reward?

An aura reader will also visit the Apolaki camp this week to interpret the aura of the remaining castaways. And before the week ends, the strength and endurance of the castaways will be put to test as they compete for immunity in a difficult challenge made more strenuous by the ever-changing weather!

Who will win in this immunity challenge? And who will be voted off in the next tribal council? Find out in Survivor Philippines Celebrity Doubles Showdown, weeknights after Munting Heredera, on GMA Telebabad.

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It's a New Year so there is a new adventure for award-winning host Drew Arellano, in the first adventure of Weekend Getaway, as he is joined by two Filipino-British in the storied town of Baler, Aurora.

Henry and Matthew Edwards were raised in United Kingdom that's why they are excited to see and learn more about the Philippines. Baler is now known as a surfing destination in the Philippines and the two Fil-Britons did not waste their time in trying out the beach. They will also trek to Baler Church and Quezon Memorial and also try out making a well-known product of Baler - a hat made from Sabukot, plus the yummy Baler suman.

The travel mission shouldn't be missed so Henry and Matthew tried to pick coconuts from the tall coconut trees. They also need firm resolve to enable them to show an authentic Comedia de Baler that uses real swords and knives as props. They also need a unique selling style to sell their Baler suman to the people of Baler. Will the two Fil-Britons pass the challenge?

Join Drew and the two weekend warriors as they tour Baler in Weekend Getaway tonight at 10 on the number one news channel: GMA News TV.