Victor’s love child to be born on Dec. 14 - FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo

Curtain-raisers:

• When she celebrated her birthday (Nov. 19) belatedly with a party a few days ago, Priscilla Almeda got a surprise gift from Solar Films producer Wilson Tieng – the L-300 Mitsubishi Priscilla has been using. It’s a well-deserved gift because Priscilla’s starrer for Solar, the controversial Sutla, was one of last year’s moneymakers. Her next Solar movie is Syota ng Bayan (with, among others, Tonton Gutierrez), also directed by Romy "Sutla" Suzara.

• A Funfare US West Coast DPA confirmed that Carmina Villarroel is giving birth to twins early next year. Here’s wishing Carmina an advance "all the best."

• The presence of Lyn Ching at her and her friends’ cute kiosk called Quickly, selling instant cool drinks, keeps business brisk, indeed. Quickly is located along Timog Avenue, Quezon City, a stone’s throw from Lyn’s place of work, GMA 7.

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At yesterday’s presscon for his latest movie, Star Cinema’ Ex-Con (again directed by Toto Natividad like his last film, Suspek, shown last year), Victor Neri very casually admitted that, yes, as blind items have been insinuating, he’ll be a father (soon-to-wed?) on Dec. 14 (a day after the opening of Ex-Con), when his non-showbiz girlfriend gives birth to a baby boy (as the ultra-sound showed).

Victor said that he and the girl haven’t agreed yet on whether they should settle down as legal partners, but that might have to come soon – the wedding, I mean.

His admission came as anti-climactic because since Funfare put out the blind item middle of this year, everybody was guessing who the "wholesome, quiet and deadly" young action star.

"I’m proud of my child and I’ve nothing to hide," said Victor.

In Ex-Con, Victor’s leading lady, Rica Peralejo, sheds her sweet image by dabbling in kissing scenes (plus a semi-nude bed scene) with Victor. How time flies, ‘no! It seems only yesterday when both Victor and Rica were playing on the set as bona fide members of the ABS-CBN kiddie show Ang TV. Now look what they’re doing!

Gary vs Pops vs Regine

Three big shows are being mounted this weekend, that of Gary Valenciano (actually a two-day show that started last night) at the Araneta Coliseum, Pops Fernandez at the old ULTRA and Regine Velasquez at the Glorietta.

Pops and Regine have an edge over Gary because both their shows are for free. That of Pops is her traditional birthday concert (with Carlos Agassi among her guests; Carlos himself is celebrating his birthday around this time) and that of Regine is a promo of sorts for her new Viva album.

According to reports, Gary was "slighted" that Pops should hold her concert on the same date as his. But then, that’s how the showbiz cookie crumbles, as in matira ang matibay.

Now, isn’t it interesting to find out which of the three shows will draw the biggest crowd? Your guess is as good as mine.

The truth about Jaya and Janno’s US concert

A few issues ago, Funfare mentioned that the show in New York last month featuring Jaya and Janno Gibbs attracted barely 300 to a 2,400-capacity venue, although both performers gave their best, as usual. It was a very good show, so where did things go wrong?

Jaya’s manager, Joji Dingcong explains in a letter to Funfare. Here it is:

Dearest Ricky,

I am writing to you to shed light on what really happened to the Janno & Jaya US Concert Tour during the early part of this month.

Yes, its true that the San Francisco show scheduled on November 3, 2000 at the Masonic Center was canceled, and only the shows in New York and Long Beach managed to push through as planned.

However, the very reason of the cancellation of the San Francisco show was due to the failure of our promoters to secure the "work permit" on time.

The procedure to get a temporary work permit from the INS requires a long process. Though we have submitted the papers required from our end to our promoters, it seems that their lawyer who filed the said papers to the INS has little experience with INS procedure and failed to properly examine the sufficiency of all the documents. (Artists and promoters, including contract with venues, income projection, etc., submitted the documents.) Thus, this greatly contributed to the delay for the INS to respond to our request positively.

For this reason, Janno’s work permit, together with the musical director, and backup singers, was only released on November 7, 2000.

The news re: audience attendance in New York and Long Beach is attributed to the fact that "news" really does travel fast especially in the Filipino community in the US. The big news re: cancellation of the San Francisco show dampened the enthusiasm of ticket buyers in New York and Long Beach for fear of non-appearance. Janno and Jaya only managed to do limited personal appearances to counter the news, since they are also pre-occupied with preparing for the shows as they are set to use an all-American band for the remaining performances.

The silver lining to this unfortunate incidents is that in time of great adversity, like the true artists that they are Janno and Jaya delivered a magnificent show in both cities. They are the talk of the town, literally! Jaya’s magnificent voice and Janno’s thespic skills have definitely wowed the crowd.

For this very reason, various promoters have already approached our group negotiating for a repeat performance next year, and ironically in exactly the same three cities.

Thank you Ricky, for your consistent support always.