Real ‘Billy’ a Mama’s Boy

Curtain-raisers:

• Could it be true that the real "secret" girlfriend of a popular action star is not his current sexy co-star but his previous equally sexy leading lady? The two "real" lovers are said to be meeting in a very clandestine manner.

•Kris Aquino’s daily late-afternoon show Kris & Tell is in limbo, to be replaced anytime now with a game show which will temporarily stay on K&T’s current timeslot before it is moved to primetime. As I’ve been saying, dear Kris was perfect for her defunct Today with Kris Aquino show, so I can’t figure out until now why, to paraphrase that popular line, things were fixed when they ain’t broke.

•Also, followers of Eto Na Ang Susunod Na Kabanata (the show I go home early for Sunday nights) are appealing to ABS-CBN decision-makers not to axe the show so soon. I second the motion. But then, it’s not the insistent public appeals that decide the fate of a TV show but the load (especially the lack of it) of commercials. Some good things don’t last, do they?

• Over at GMA, some shows are also fading out domino effect. Kiss Muna (topbilling, among others, Jomari Yllana and Ara Mina) is folding up, to be followed soon by a few others such as... Idol Ko Si Kap (starring Bong Revilla)?

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Like in the case of his kuya Leandro (former Close-Up Boy), it was a TV commercial that made people take a second, serious look at Carlo Muñoz. Admittedly, although Carlo has been doing "bit" parts in ABS-CBN TV dramas, highlighted by an attention-arresting "starring" role middle of last year in the Walter Navarro episode of Charo Santos-Concio’s Maalaala Mo Kaya, it was the PLDT "Billy/Grasya" commercial that catapulted Carlo to national consciousness, endearing him to many people with his being, well, a "Mama’s Boy."

The truth is that in real life, Carlo is the same as Billy, the US-based Pinoy who can’t resist the impulse to place a long-distance call to his RP-based over-protective/over-solicitous mom (played by radio talent Aurora Uding) to keep her posted on his every move, including his choice of a girlfriend, Grasya (23-year-old Filipino-Norwegian Gina Celso).

You guessed it: Carlo, like Billy, sees to it that his mom, Pat Garcia-Muñoz, is the first to know what his next move or his next decision is. Carlo asks his mom’s opinion on almost everything, on just about anything. But unlike Billy, according to Pat (a long-time friend of mine), "Carlo is secretive when it comes to his love life, so I don’t know kung sino ang ‘Grasya’ sa buhay niya."

What about Gina Celso?

"I didn’t get to know her that well because we were together only on the last (the third) episode of the PLDT series of commercials," said Carlo who does find Gina "very pretty, very sexy and very attractive," that’s all. "Sayang I didn’t have a chance to know her better." (Another girl played Grasya in the first two episodes.)

Anyway, after Grasya came home with Billy from abroad, how come the widely-followed PLDT commercial was rudely interrupted at the peak of public expectations that, finally, Grasya and Billy would march down the aisle to the ecstatic approval of Billy’s mother? (Now being telecast is the suportahan ta ka episode.)

Speculations: Did the team behind the Billy/Grasya series quit? Were the team members displeased when their request for a raise in talent fee was turned down? What happened? Where did something that started so well go wrong? (They – whoever they are – are such killjoys, aren’t they? Imagine leaving all of us in a cliffhanger, wondering how the romance of Billy and Grasya would end?)

Asked about it, Carlo simply said, "I don’t know the real score. Like everybody else, I’m looking forward to the much-awaited wedding of Billy and Grasya."

Meanwhile, Carlo is proving his thespic worth mostly in TV dramas since he isn’t really getting a good acting break in movies (after starring with Judy Ann Santos in Love Text and with Aga Muhlach and Joyce Jimenez in Narinig Mo Na Ba Ang L8est?, he’s now co-starring with Claudine Barretto and Rico Yan in a yet untitled Star Cinema movie). Curiously enough, it’s Charo Santos who seems to be the only one at ABS-CBN who notices – and believes in – Carlo’s acting ability, thus giving him the exposure that he deserves in Maalaala which again recently featured Carlo in an episode showcasing his vast but hitherto untapped thespic reservoir which rival station GMA 7 exploited (to a certain extent but not yet enough) in one of the Larawan episodes pitting Carlo in a May-October romance with Pops Fernandez, directed by Louie Ignacio with restraint. (In the ABS-CBN soap Pangako Sa’yo, Carlo plays a "now you see him, now you don’t" character, as the factotum of Tonton Gutierrez, when his talent can be put to better use.)

"Only four years ago," said Carlo who was introduced in 1997 as a member of Star Circle Batch 7, "I was a fan watching Pops in concerts from afar. So I couldn’t believe that I was holding her in my arms and kissing her – on the lips! – in that Larawan episode. It was a dream come true for me, a big honor. Not every aspiring actor can act with or can kiss a big star like Pops, di ba?"

Henceforth, the increasing number of Carlo’s fans are hoping that ABS-CBN/Star Cinema would give him the big-screen break that he’s very much ripe and ready for.

Martin vs. Jose Mari?

I hope that that little "footnote" in last Saturday’s Funfare won’t trigger a major "war" between Jose Mari Chan and Martin Nievera, two of today’s biggest acts in the recording and music scene. I mentioned that Jose Mari was "not pleased" with Martin’s choice of the title My Souvenirs for his new album (MCA-Universal), released only recently and has already hit the "gold" mark, because Jose Mari’s album (before his forthcoming one entitled A Heart’s Journey) is also called Souvenirs (on Universal Records). Either Jose Mari’s Souvenirs and Martin’s My Souvenirs help each other or, knock on wood, confuse the buying public about each other.

Also, I mentioned that Jose Mari was "slighted"’ when Martin put up a show last Easter at Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas one day before Jose Mari’s own show at the Bellagio Hotel right across the street from Aladdin, thereby "dividing" the target Filipino audience. (Both shows were successful, thank heavens!)

True to form, Martin was on the line first hour last Saturday morning, explaining the whole... "mess"?

He said that he honestly didn’t remember that Souvenirs was also used by Jose Mari for his album and even if he and his producers wanted to change it, it was already too late, but not late enough to add the word "My" to the title.

"Jose Mari is miles ahead of me and I would never do anything to hurt him," said Martin.

The Las Vegas show was a result of some mix-up. Martin said that he was originally scheduled to perform at the Fontana Bar of Bellagio end of April, with 21 weekend shows drawn up, but he suspected that somebody "badmouthed" him to the Bellagio management so the stint was scrapped. His agent hurriedly booked him at Aladdin Hotel’s ballroom to which he drew more than 4,000 people (ballroom capacity is 7,000) despite the fact that they barely had two weeks to promote his show.

"I even told my agent to request the producers of Jose Mari’s concert to invite me as a ‘guest’ performer kung okey sa kanila," explained Martin. "I could have sung one song on Jose Mari’s show for free."

Anyway, Funfare has a bright idea for MCA-Universal’s Ramon Chuaying and Universal Records’ Bella Dy-Tan. Since they are sister companies, why don’t MCA-Universal and Universal Records put Jose Mari and Martin together on one album and call it, why not, Among Our Souvenirs? (But then wouldn’t Connie Francis cry "Foul!" because she happens to have a song called Among My Souvenirs?)

Great idea, isn’t it? Imagine Jose Mari singing Martin’s songs (Be My Lady and You Are My Song, etc.) and Martin singing Jose Mari’s song (Deep in My Heart and Beautiful Girl, etc.). What a beautiful and smash-hit sound the two great balladeers would make!

Think about it, Jose Mari and Martin.

Meanwhile, perhaps Jose Mari and Martin can stop and talk awhile and sort out whatever "kinks" there are deep in their hearts – if any.