For Troy and Nikki, age (gap) doesn’t matter

And the winner (hands down) is – drum roll, please! ….. Nikki Valdez, of course (as you all know by now)!

And her most-coveted trophy is six-foot-plus tall, very handsome, very sexy and very desirable – yes, Troy Montero!

Surprise, surprise?

The "losers" and most probable "contenders" (for Troy’s used-to-be elusive heart) must be secretly sneering at triumphant Nikki, a "dark horse" in the race, and dismissing her as, sigh, "undeserving," just like the way most of us are junking some awardees in the recent controversy-ridden 15th PMPC Star Awards as lutong makaw.

Like, well, Yam Ledesma (Star awardee as Best New Female TV Personality as host of IBC 13’s Lunch Break), Nikki is not about to return her "trophy" because deep in her heart she knows that she doesn’t only deserve "it," her "trophy" also deserves her.

Eat your hearts out, poor "losers"!

Don’t look now but Nikki and Troy are showbiz’s most unlikely pair. He’s tall and she’s, well, a bit short(er); he’s a hunk and she’s hardly the sexbomb type; he’s Kanong-Kano and she’s syanang-syana (still living with her parents in Laguna).

But then, they tick and click – and how! Despite the decade-plus age gap, that is (Nikki is 20, just out of her teens, while Troy is, so to speak, already out of the calendar). Very obviously, the age (gap) doesn’t matter at all. When two people, no matter how seemingly poles apart they are, are madly and passionately and intensely in love, nothing else matters, remember?

They have many things in common, according to Nikki who’s wearing a silver bracelet identical with the one Troy is wearing (both bought in Baguio by Nikki; while two similar alternate bracelets, one bearing the name "Nix" and the other the name "Cody," Troy’s real name, were bought in New York by Troy).

"We both love to eat, but we work out hard at the same time (Troy at the gym and Nikki at home). We both love to watch movies, the last one being America’s Sweethearts; but we missed Princess Diaries, although halos wala kaming pinalalampas na pelikula. We’re both funny people. And there’s no cultural gap between us, even if he grew up in the States at ako naman dito sa Pilipinas. He learned to be independent at an early age, while I am still living with my parents."

They call each other "Babes," but she sometimes calls him "Pangga" (Ilongo for "beloved").

Now, how did this unlikely romance bloom?

It happened last January when they participated with several other stars in a show in La Union. Even if they belong to the same station (ABS-CBN), Nikki and Troy were never that close; in fact, they never had a chance to really get to know each other until that show in La Union.

"At one point," recalled Nikki, "we got to talking really intimately. We talked about many things – about his life, about my life, about his family, about my family, about everything! I thought Babes was suplado. But that night, I discovered na mabait naman pala siya. Madaldal din pala siya."

Four months later while on a Lenten break in Boracay (they were in separate groups), Troy was completely won over, according to reports, when he saw Nikki in bikinis. There were several other girls similarly (scantily?) garbed but it was Nikki who caught Troy’s eyes – and heart. They got to talking intimately again. One month later, they were "on" (they’re celebrating their sixth month "anniversary" this month).

The romance works in spite, rather because, of the age gap. Her parents (who frowned on Nikki’s former boyfriend, the brother of another ABS-CBN star) approve of Troy – and vice-versa.

"I can be a brat sometimes," admitted Nikki, "so when Babes sees that I’m in a bad mood, he lets me be and talks to me only when I’m okay again. He treats me like a baby."

With a boyfriend like Troy, isn’t Nikki jealous and/or possessive?

"No," Nikki said with confidence. "I trust him. I believe that he won’t do anything that will hurt me."

But they do fight, sometimes, when they’re both not in the mood, both of them being moody.

When they make up, which is fast, they end up enjoying a movie. One time, they were even rumored to be smooching inside a moviehouse. Not true, insisted Nikki.

"We were watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I got so bored with the (English) subtitles that I fell asleep on Babes’ shoulder. Napasandal ako, pero it’s not true na nag-smooching kami, no!"

Nikki is aware that some girls (at ABS-CBN and outside) are envious of her (you know, of all the prettier girls around, why her, "why not us?") but she just shrugs it off, including accusations that she’s just "using" Troy. "Siempre, guwapo si Babes kaya maraming babae ang may gusto sa kanya."

What she likes most about Troy is, among other things, his eyes.

"Parang eyes ng babae, pati pilik-mata," she said. "Actually, I like the whole face. Maganda siya."

He’s also thoughtful, Nikki added.

"When I’m sick, Babes goes all the way to our home (La Pacita, Laguna) to bring me fruits. Or, he would call and say, ‘Hi, Babes! I’m going to the mall. Do you want me to buy anything for you?’ Even when he’s abroad, he calls just to ask kung mayroon akong gustong ipabili sa kanya."

Their theme song is Forevermore (by Side A), the same song Nikki sang at a bar when the Side A, that night’s performer, asked her to mount the stage and sing with them.

"When I was singing the song," Nikki remembered, "parang nag-blur ang buong place at ang face lang ni Babes ang nakikita ko. And that’s the story why we chose Forevermore as our theme song."

(Note: Nikki is one of the Backroom talents who will perform at Backroom’s Jammin’ Night on Oct. 24, Wednesday, starting at 9 o’clock, at Chatterbox Robinsons Galleria, for the benefit of the Golden Acres Home for the Aged. Other performers are Dessa, Gladys and the Boxers with K, Calvin Millado, Ara Mina, Rufa Mae Quinto, Ariel Rivera, The CompanY and Janna Viktoria.)

RP-made US movie

If you’ve seen (or if you haven’t yet, it’s still showing in Metro theaters) the new Kevin Costner starrer, Thirteen Days, you must have wondered why the scenes supposedly happening in Cuba looked strikingly very Philippine. Yes, indeed, those scenes were shot right here, in Pagsanjan (Laguna) and at the former US base in Clark, Pampanga.

Thirteen Days is about the US-Cuban crisis that nearly led to World War III when then US President John F. Kennedy and Cuban President Fidel Castro stared at each other eyeball-to-eyeball. Those 13 critical and decisive days are dramatically recreated in Thirteen Days, some of whose scenes were also filmed at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (also in Clark).

With the support of the Philippine International Film & Television Office (PIFTO) under its chairman, Lope V. Juban Jr., the government agency tasked to promote the Philippines as a location site for major foreign productions, filming was successfully completed. The foreign production staff, headed by producer Paul Deason (producer of films like Steven Spielberg’s Amistad and Jurassic Park), expressed his delight about filming in the Philippines after his initial misconceptions and misgivings.

Production Designer Dennis Washington (whose credits include The Fugitive, Dante’s Peak, No Way Out, Prizzi’s Honor and The General’s Daughter) said, "Everything came out surprisingly well. It’s been wonderful, from my crew, the construction crew and set decorating property. It was absolutely terrific."

According to Jun Juban, the production cost of Thirteen Days was a whopping $80 million but Jun wouldn’t say how much of it was spent in the Philippines where the shooting took three months to prepare and one and a half month to execute, with almost 200 Filipinos employed for the shoot.

A huge set was built in Clark and 10 "retired" jets at the former Basa Air Base were dismantled and hauled to Clark where they were again reassembled to look like new (they weren’t shown flying because they couldn’t fly anymore). The set in Pagsanjan looked like Cuba, including the Cuba Missile Base.

Unfortunately, Costner didn’t come for the shoot, but only Chris Lawford who played the US captain who discovered the missiles in Cuba aimed at the US.

Jun happily reported that more big Hollywood projects are scheduled to be shot in the Philippines, including Sony Pictures’ Fertig (tentative title) topbilled by Tom Cruise, and Miramax Films’ The Great Raid (cast not known yet).