Direck

Curtain-raisers:

* Korina Sanchez denies that she "volunteered" to be included (along with ABS-CBN colleagues Dong Puno, Ted Failon and Noli de Castro) in the LAMP Senatorial line-up for the 2001 elections. "I've been getting feelers," says Korina, "but no, thank you, I'm not interested in politics. I'm not running!" Lito Banayo, LAMP spokesman, clarified in a TV interview on Pulso that there's a clamor for Korina and the three other TV men to join the LAMP line-up and LAMP will be very happy if one or two, if not all, of them respond positively to the "clamor."

* Could it be true that Michael de Mesa has quit (or has been "fired?") as director of the top-rated ABS-CBN chiller Okatokat!? Now, what could be eating Michael? What's his problem? Funfare can't hardly believe reports that he has been "negligent," knowing Michael to be dedicated to his job.

* Direk Gil M. Portes is now finalizing plans to do a movie on the colorful and dramatic life of Comfort Gay (to hordes of sex-hungry Japanese during the Second World War) Walter Dempster, Jr. (a.k.a. Walterina Markova, half-Jamaican) who was featured in the STAR's Life Section last Sunday. The movie, to be produced by RVQ Productions, will feature RVQ producer Dolphy as Walterina (perfect casting!) and son Eric Quizon as the younger Walterina (no other actor could give justice to the role). It will be a bold movie (with Doy del Mundo as scriptwriter) against which Sodom and Gomorrah will pale in comparison.

After directing three feel-good, light-romantic films (I'm Sorry My Love with Onemig Bondoc and Judy Ann Santos, Hey Babe with Jolina Magdangal and Marvin Agustin, and Dahil May Isang Ikaw with Aga Muhlach and Regine Velasquez), diminutive five-foot-flat director Joyce Bernal (no relation either to the late Ishmael or Salvador) gets a tough assignment in her fourth outing, Star Cinema's Tunay na Tunay: Gets Mo? Gets Ko!, the action starrer of Robin Padilla and Jolina Magdangal.

It's a "blasting" change of pace for Joyce who was the first one to be rattled (first-time jitters, you know!) when, right in the movie's opening, Robin fought goons in an explosive (literally!) sequence. More such fight scenes were shot in quick succession with Robin and Jolina taking on more goons along crowded Carvajal Street in Chinatown and at a Chinese Temple somewhere in Malabon that led to a car chase that ended in Subic where four cars were blasted to pieces.

"It was unnerving," admitted Joyce who soon recovered from her initial shock and adjusted to being an "action" director without further hassles. "You have to have a tough stomach to survive all the gore, never mind if it's all make-believe, and all those bodies blown to the air, never mind if performed by expert stuntmen."

It helps, of course, that Robin is Joyce's big crush -- "Isa sa mga pinapantasya kong lalaki," she said.

In Tunay na Tunay: Gets Mo? Gets Ko!, Robin plays an undercover agent at odds with crooked cops. He crosses the path of Jolina, as a runaway girl who refuses to marry a guy forced on her by her father, at the Chinatown where they both hide under aliases.

"Robin is not difficult to work with," said the smitten Joyce. "When I was told that my next movie would be with him, I felt like I was floating. I couldn't believe it! Imagine, I'd be directing my big crush, my fantasy boy!"

In fact, her next movie, Viva Films' Date with The Star (tentative title), will again be topbilled by Robin together with Regine Velasquez in an action-romance-comedy inspired by Notting Hill. It's a perfect material for Joyce who is a hopeless romantic, a basically happy person despite what she calls "an unhappy childhood" back in her native San Carlos City (Pangasinan) all because, Joyce revealed with amusement, "Babaero ang father ko." She grew up mostly with male cousins who taught her how to drink (gulp!) at an early age.

Turning 31 on May 6, the 95-pounder never finished a film course at UP because of an unfinished thesis. She quit school in 1990 and, after working as film editor, went back to UP in 1993 and quit again to continue working in the movies. Her first editing job was Sabado Nights, followed by more films directed by the likes of Rory Quintos, Toto Natividad, Jerry Sineneng and Boy Vinarao from whom Joyce learned far more than what she would have learned in school.

"Direk Toto told me that the last 30 minutes of a film, especially an 'action' film, must deliver the biggest impact."

Joyce also learned a lot from the Ricky Lee workshops she attended. For a while, she stayed at Ricky's place, watching movies, talking movies and dreaming movies with him. "I got my passion for movies from him," said Joyce who looks forward to directing Cesar Montano and Sharon Cuneta, her favorite actress.

"I've seen all of Sharon's films," said Joyce, boasting that she could still recite from memory many of Sharon's dialogues in her films. "I know Sharon's songs by heart ."

Lorna replaces Fanny in Hair Asia affair

When the 9th Hair Asia National Open Championship for Hairstyling and Make-Up, led by Hair Asia publisher Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz, opens on Monday, March 6 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) at the exhibition hall of the World Trade Center (Roxas Blvd., Manila), Fanny Serrano will be sorely missed. Fanny has been hosting the annual event and he would have loved to be in the core of the event as usual. Unfortunately, at around the time the Hair Asia competition happens, Fanny will be undergoing a delicate heart surgery at the St. Luke's Medical Center. He has been diagnosed to have a congenital hole in his heart. (Say a little prayer for his fast recovery, please!)

Taking Fanny's place is Lorna Tolentino, also Evelyn's bosom buddy, who herself (like Evelyn) is a walking advertisement of the beautiful event they're hosting, impeccable from the tip of her fingers to the last strand of hair on her head.

"This year," said Evelyn, "we have three times more participants. This is our biggest competition ever."

The over-all Champion stands to win a round trip ticket to Berlin, Germany, site of the Hairworld Olympics 2000 with a side trip to L'Oreal technical studio in Paris and trophy from President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Category champion will receive P10,000 in cash; first runner-up, P5,000 second runner-up, P5,000; and attractive cash prizes and gifts from the major sponsor Splash Manufacturing, makers of Kolours Premium Colouring Créme, Tricks Styling Line, HBC exclusive distributors of Joe Blasco Cosmetics and L'Oreal Professionnel.

Participating manufacturers in Hair Asia's Cosmetics Fair includes Major Sponsors Splash Kolours Premium, Tricks Styling Line, Joe Blasco Make-up and L 'Oreal.-Minor Exhibitors are Aktuelle, Belcon Marketing, Braidwood Company, Clairol Herbal Essences, Framesi, Golden Fabulouz, Head & Shoulder Anti-Dandruff Shampoo, Max Factor, MTN Marketing, Persona Cold Wave Lotion, Schwarzkopf, Sebastian, Skin White, Splash VIS Card, Total Beauty Supplies and Wella.

Every now and then, Funfare gets letters from long-time friends with, yes, glad tidings of great joy. Here's one, from Lorli Villanueva who has something interesting to tell Funfare readers:

I left last year to visit my children in the States. My daughter next to Princess, my eldest who was Miss Asia New York in 1997, graduated from Jacksonville University, magna cum laude! Her name in Denden Alcantara and she was immediately taken by Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute in NY. Sloan is the largest cancer research institute in the whole US.

Meanwhile, I took a job in NY as Marketing Manager of Sequel Communications, the largest Filipino owned telecommunications company in the US; a job I quit from last Sept. 1999. But that job got me into the most prestigious recognition there is in the US, which is being named into the International Who's Who Among Business Professionals in the Field of Information Technology for the year 2000!

Anyway, I am now in the country also after the very successful premiere showing of Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa, the telemovie I directed for Supremo Films which starred Caloocan City Mayor Rey Malonzo as Andres Bonifacio, Ina Raymundo as Gregoria de Jesus, Amy Austria as Monica the first wife, John Arcilla as Ladislao Diwa and Tirso Cruz as Teodoro Plata. Ricky Davao plays Dr. Pio Valenzuela, with the support of prominent stage actors and actresses. It is my frustration that the film has not been shown in the Philippines until now, but again it will be shown in NY/NJ on June in time for the Independence Day celebration. The premiere showing was for the benefit of the Filipino World War II veterans in Washington DC.

Apart from this, I am taping for a TV show entitled Special Pinoy Edition which will be aired in NY on International Cable Channel. This is produced by couple Fernando and Milagros Mendez who also own the magazine Special Edition Press. It is published in the US quarterly. I am hosting and directing this show which is being canned here in the Phils. and will as well include segments in the US. Predictably, it has a newsmagazine format and which hopes to reach the mainstream US market as well as Filipinos who are the biggest ethnic group now and growing in numbers.

But it is my dream to still go on directing movies and in fact, I am prepared to present to producers the script of my next film which is based on a true story. Sana may producer no?!