Joyce Unfazed by detractors

When Joyce Jimenez co-hosts with Aga Muhlach tonight's Film Academy Awards at the PICC, those in the "live" audience and televiewers at home will surely keep an eagle eye on her to find out if she'll act, well, "ecstatic."

You see, some people are out to destroy Joyce by spreading the canard that she's popping the "E-pill" while drinking (it's a lethal combination, may I inform you, and anybody who dares down that mixture is dead in several minutes -- not dead-drunk but dead as in lifeless).

Will Joyce look as if, yeah, she's floating in the air, talk incoherently contrary to the script (written on the tele-prompter), dress indecently (maybe with some vital parts of her anatomy exposed for the whole world to enjoy) and make a mess of herself on national television?

Laughed Joyce, unfazed by the evil minds deadset on destroying her ("For what motive... I really don't know," she said), "I can get ecstatic just by the force of my mind, my imagination. I don't have to pop pills to do it. I am naturally high."

Joyce is unperturbed by the smear campaign against her, although she's concerned about people she loves and how they'll take the rumors.

"Bahala na ang Diyos sa kanila (the detractors)," added Joyce who's being advised by her friends to teach her detractors a lesson by hauling them to court. "I'll let divine justice take care of them."

Also contrary to the rumors, Joyce's first team-up with Aga for Star Cinema, untitled just yet, will go on as planned, having started shooting several weeks ago in Clark, Pampanga, during the hot-air balloon festival where they created quite a stir by openly flirting with each other.

The two have hit it off beautifully since then. To think that on their first meeting, there seemed to have been a mutual "disaffection" between them!

Recalled Joyce, "I went to the set of Aga's sitcom Oki Doki Doc to visit Jimmy Santos (Aga's co-star). Aga ignored me, so I ignored him, too. But now, he's saying that I snubbed him daw. Our second meeting was when I attended a function at the Aga Muhlach Center for the Deaf even if he didn't personally invite me. Our first shooting day in Clark was our third meeting."

The two have become good friends, often seen out on friendly dates (as in, yeah, no malice).

No, Joyce isn't quitting showbiz -- yet -- not in many, many years. After the Star Cinema movie (which will resume shooting as soon as kinks in the screenplay are ironed out, with Olivia Lamasan as director), Joyce will shoot a Viva movie, Biyaheng Langit, with Mark Anthony Fernandez, with Tikoy Aguiluz as director. She might also star in a TV show (details are confidential thus far).

She can only take her annual vacation in L.A. by November, in time for Thanksgiving and extending up to the Christmas holiday which Joyce always spends with her family.

Meanwhile, she has no choice but to buckle down to work.

As usual, this is going to be a "fearful" forecast because, as I've been saying over and over again (ho-hum!), a forecaster can fall flat on his face and recoil in embarrassment like a dog with tail between the legs.

Who's going to win in tonight's 18th Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP) Awards in the major categories?

One thing is sure: It's going to be a very "friendly" awards. That's what friends are for, isn't it?

Without much ado, here's Funfare's "fearful" forecast:

* Best Actor -- Fernando Poe, Jr. (Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko)

* Best Actress -- Lorna Tolentino (Luksong-Tinik)

* Best Supporting Actor -- Ryan Eigenmann (Unfaithful Wife 2)

* Best Supporting Actress -- Glydel Mercado (Sidhi)

* Best Director -- Joel Lamangan (for Bulaklak ng Maynila and Sidhi)

* Best Picture -- Sidhi (Crown-Seven Ventures, Inc.)

You bet?

But as Richard Gomez is saying in the Squibb E TV commercial, "Don't take my word for it." Find out for yourselves.

When Cocoy Laurel sang the Spanish version of Unchained Melody at last Sunday's edition of A.S.A.P., I was convinced more than ever that he's the best and the finest Filipino singer of Spanish songs, bar none. As I listened enraptured to Cocoy singing (making Ariel Rivera beside him sound like a poor back-up singer), my hair actually stood on end. Such was the power and intensity of Cocoy's voice, especially when he's doing, that's right, the Spanish version of Unchained Melody.

That's why I can hardly wait to watch Cocoy "live" in his show on April 5 (Wednesday) at the Music Museum (starting at 8 p.m.) to launch his new CD entitled Te Quiero (a Ryan Cayabyab project -- his second, the first being Lea Salonga's CD -- for BMG Records). Ryan himself is Cocoy's show's musical director, with Freddie Santos as director.

Yes, that song is included in Cocoy's repertoire which is made up of the selections from the Te Quiero album, such as Adoro, Somos A Mi, Somos Novios, Contigo Aprendi, Abrazame, El Reloj, Latino, Como Todos, Noche de Ronda, Jurame and Cocoy's own composition Padre Nuestro.

Te Quiero gained widespread popularity upon its release last January because of its new concept in recording Spanish songs interpreted with a certain "freshness" by Cocoy. To achieve this "new" sound, Ryan tapped young and talented musicians to do the arrangements, including Mon Espia, Mark Lopez, Jay Durias, Arnold Buena, Henry Garcia and Albert Tamayo.

Okay, Cocoy, hasta la vista!

Seiko Films' new "bold" find, Brigitte de Joya, is daring not only "visually" (ready, willing and able to show her rich natural resources) but also verbally (dare her and she'll spew "shocking" statements about, blush, "foreplay" and some such intimate games).

Brigitte, 18, is being introduced in Seiko's Gigil which also stars Nini Jacinto (whom she resembles, much to Nini's disapproval), Leonardo Litton, newcomer Paula Gomez and Jethro Ramirez (remember him from Sutla?).

Having spent part of her life in the States, Brigitte is liberated, admitting that she has dated several Americans and Filipinos.

Asked who's better, the American or the Filipino, Brigitte said without batting an eyelash, "Ang Pinoy, siempre! Mas matindi...!" (Note: The rest of what Brigitte said is, sorry, unprintable. I'll let your imagination do the "talking.")