Rufa Mae Quinto: What’s true, what’s not true

Offhand, it should not be surprising that Rufa Mae Quinto has become sizzling fodder for entertainment columns. After all, recent years have seen her go from starlet status in the business of show to certifiable celebrity with several films that were enthusiastically received at the box office (Booba and Baliktaran, most recently), a regular high-profile spot in a top-rating TV comedy, plus a novelty album that has become something of a cult hit.

That Rufa Mae has been figuring in entertainment columns at increasingly shorter intervals these days, however, may have less to do with her recent successes and more with the romantic controversy that she apparently has walked into unwittingly: purportedly, she has become the latest object of affection of action hero Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., who, by the way, is very much married (to Lani Mercado, in fact). They share screen time in GMA’s crowd-pleasing sitcom Idol Ko si Kap.

Whether the supposed romance had anything to do with the romantic meltdown that came between Rufa Mae and her longtime boyfriend, a hardcourt hero, remains to be confirmed but during a recent encounter with the entertainment media, the vivacious and bodacious actress did have this to say about the romantic talk going around:

"Sa totoo lang, hindi ko alam kung paano kami na-link ni Bong ever, ’no!" she protested wide-eyed. "Ilang beses pa lang kami ni Bong nagkakasama sa eksena since I joined the show, ’no. Hindi ko talaga ma-get ever!"

Well, as the oft-used adage goes, perhaps that is the price Rufa Mae has to pay for fame – and her celebrity quotient could only rise with the upcoming release of Radyo, a Viva Films presentation under the direction of Yam Laranas in which she stars opposite Jeffrey Quizon. In the film, she plays an AM radio DJ who finds herself terrorized and hunted down by a psychotic fan.

The actress is very much excited about her new movie. "Nung nakita ko nga ’yung trailer, na-impress talaga ako dahil malinis yung pagkakagawa. Ito ’yung tipo ng pelikulang maipagmamalaki ko talaga," says Rufa Mae, who is profuse with praise for her director. "Si direk Yam, ano yan e – he’s simply the best. Ang galing na director n’yan. Parang Hollywood style nga ’tong movie namin dahil he approached it in a very organized manner that we ended up shooting only for 18 days. Talagang the best, ’di ba?"

The director, fresh from the huge success of his feature-film debut Balahibong Pusa, returns the compliment by saying, "Rufa Mae was my first and only choice for the radio DJ. She is, in fact, the DJ that I wanted. She is a wonderfully intuitive actress that I was happy to give her a lot of elbow room in her scenes. Of course, playing the role could have only been very tough on her because she had these scenes where she had to shift from emotion to emotion, sometimes going through contrary extreme emotions in one scene such as downright terror and comic spunkiness. But Rufa Mae acquitted herself very well. She is a good actress with a good material, and I would like to think that this movie provided her with the material to tap into her inherent skills."

That much has been acknowledged not too long ago when Rufa Mae was honored by the Philippine Movie Press Club with a Best Supporting Actress prize at the Star Awards for her wildly zany, scene-stealing performance as Regine Velasquez’s best friend in Dahil May Isang Ikaw.

As her celebrity stock continues to rise, rumors and intrigues – both the benign and the nasty – may very well become a permanent fixture in Rufa Mae Quinto’s very public life. And with the positive buzz already surrounding Radyo, she will have to get used to them.