The Bench success story

Look. What do Richard Gomez, Lucy Torres-Gomez, Juliana Gomez, Jomari Yllana, Diether Ocampo, Borgy Manotoc, Eric Fructuoso, Assunta de Rossi, Amanda Griffin and, well, KC Concepcion (even if she’s from the sister company) have in common?

They’re all Bench models!

The trend of using a celebrity as an effective endorser began in 1988 when a sensual hunk posed languidly on a bench, his muscles rippling through a Bench T, his body oozing with sweat, his lips partly open, his looks inviting. Richard Gomez single-handedly carried the quality of Bench to the consumers.

In 1992, the nation’s pre-pubescent girls went gaga over a trio called the Guwapings. Jomari, Eric and Mark Anthony Fernandez were at the same time also known as the Bench Brats and their influence over the youth carried over to the Bench boutiques as they made hip-hop a popular look. Even now, the influence is still there as teens buy what they now call "elephant pants," loose wide pants that caused one adult to comment, "parang winawalis nila ang kalye!"

In 1997, Jomari went solo as the company’s principal endorser of its men’s underwear line. Today, Bench is the number one selling local brand of men’s briefs. After the Brief Encounter fashion shows, the style of briefs that Jomari modeled was completely sold out, despite its P230 price tag!

In 1995, long-time consultant Douglas Quijano suggested to Bench mogul Ben Chan that they change the name of its line for females from Georg to Her Bench. Douglas insisted that Suyen Corporation take advantage of the widespread popularity of Bench by including a his and hers boutique. True enough, Her Bench is now a well-patronized individual boutique. Lucy Torres-Gomez and Amanda Griffin are its main endorsers.

But coming out strong is baby Juliana, whose birth became a national event. A whole line of baby products (notably Baby Bench) was created in her honor, two months before she was born. Today, the body and bath section of Bench is highly popular. This despite the fact that Juliana — now a beautiful one year old — still has to pose for the first time for Bench!

Diether found his Bench niche in its hair care line. Diet is now called Mr. Fix, Fix being the name of the hair gel that he endorses.

Borgy and Assunta are the newest Bench endorsers and KC Concepcion lords it over in the sister boutique Human.

Bench is on the lookout for new models, male and female, ages ranging from 14 to 21, for its many new lines. Douglas is conducting the auditions this weekend at the Bench office in Pasay. If you think you are qualified, then go. You may call up Karen of Bench (8872311 loc. 126) or Douglas himself through 141-021371 or 09189100905.

Who knows what the future holds for you?

Leandro shines in Kasangga

How could a wholesome, well-behaved and harmless-looking young actor be so scary, so threatening and so lethal-looking?

That question raced through my mind while I was watching last Tuesday night’s edition of Kasangga, hosted by Rudy Fernandez for GMA 7, featuring true-life crime stories.

The episode, entitled Ina, Sinamurai ni Junior, chronicled the incidents that led an otherwise ideal son, withdrawn and seemingly self-contained when sober/sane, to hack his mother with a samurai when he was possessed by an invisible evil which told him to do gory things (such as kill their pet dog and bury it in a grave the son dug up at the foot of the stairs of their humble residence).

The mentally-disturbed son was played by Leandro Muñoz and the mother by Boots Anson-Roa. Knowing Leandro to be a nice guy in real life (you can ask his mom, Pat Garcia-Muñoz), I was terribly impressed by his transformation in that Kasangga episode into an evil character, his pretty-boy Close-Up face turning macabre and his eyes burning with murderous hatred.

"Is this my son?" Pat laughingly told me during a phone chat the morning after the airing of Kasangga. "The character Leandro played was the exact opposite of his real self. While watching him deliver that deadly swing of the samurai at Boots Anson-Roa, he seemed all too suddenly like a complete stranger to me. Why, in real life, Leandro couldn’t even hurt a fly."

Like his younger brother Carlo ("Hello, Billy!"), Leandro has been consistently proving his thespic talent not only on the small screen but on the big screen as well (such as his comic turn in his movie debut Isusumbong Kita sa Tatay Ko, his dramatic performance in Anak as Claudine Barretto’s suitor and his poignantly romantic portrayal of Judy Ann Santos’ comatose boyfriend in Kahit Isang Saglit). I should say that Leandro more than compensates for his, well, little lack in height with the intensity of his acting, proving once again, once and for all, that big things do come in small packages (look at the likes of Hollywood’s Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise and our very own Janno Gibbs and a dozen others).

Leandro is seen regularly as a young NBI agent in the thrilling ABS-CBN legal show Your Honor (Wednesday nights, topbilling, among others, Richard Gomez and Eric Quizon who give memorable performances, very credible as lawyers, week after week). On the big screen, he’ll soon be seen in Star Cinema’s Kung Ikaw Ay Isang Panaginip with Jolina Magdangal who, according to a Funfare DPA, is getting unusually fond of Leandro (and vice-versa). The two do make a handsome pair, don’t they?

Asked how he was able to flesh out that mentally-deranged Kasangga character (who, according to the epilogue, wasn’t charged at all for killing his own mother on grounds of insanity), Leandro simply said, "I try hard to imagine myself as the character I’m playing, I try to get inside the character, and everything just flows naturally. It’s as if I let myself be ‘possessed’ by the character."

Tessie, how could you?

There’s this little controversy stirred up by Tessie Tomas during the presscon for her forthcoming show Teysi at Twenti (soon at the Music Museum). Asked who she thought were the country’s promising comediennes, Tessie mentioned a few names but wondered aloud when Marissa Sanchez’s name was brought up. "Why," Tessie asked, "comedienne ba siya?"

If Tessie was trying to be funny, she wasn’t funny at all. If Tessie was trying to create a "gimmick" for her show, she wasn’t effective at all, not because with her stature it isn’t nice for her to be making such (belittling?) comment about her colleague, be she as big as she is or not as popular (yet) as she is.

In latter interviews, Tessie said that she wasn’t aware (honest?) that Marissa is a comedienne, never mind if they belong to the same channel (ABS-CBN) and Marissa has already guested on Tessie’s show Feel at Home.

Next time, Tessie, be careful with what you say especially during a presscon. Once spoken, hurting words can never be taken back, no matter how hard you try to apologize.

Incidentally, Marissa herself will be doing shows at the Music Museum in November. But Tessie can rest assured that during her own presscon, Marissa won’t be saying anything that will hurt Tessie.

"After all," said Marissa (through somebody close to her), "bata pa ako talagang idol ko na si Tita Tessie."