Will Jolina play Darna?

Curtain-raisers:

• Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez is finally filing today a petition for the annulment of his marriage to Alma Moreno, with former Solicitor General Frank Chavez as his lawyer. Mayor Joey is asking the court for the custody of their three children (Yeoj, Wynwyn and Vittorio Joey) and adopted child MM.

• Could it be true that Sharmaine Arnaiz has a new lover (with a prominent and influential five-letter surname), that’s why she’s emboldened to be speaking out even belatedly on her "role" in the Joey-Alma break-up?

• A Funfare DPA swore that there’s really more than friendship between Diether Ocampo and Andrea Bautista (Bong Revilla’s younger sister). During the rehearsals (and at the show itself) of The Hunks at the Folk Arts Theater last Valentine’s Day, Andrea kept Diether company, although she tried to be as inconspicuous as possible – to no avail.

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There’s a report that it’s Jolina Magdangal and not Judy Ann Santos who might play the title role in yet another remake of the already wornout komiks character Darna (played by, among others, Rosa del Rosario, Eva Montes, Gina Pareño, Anjanette Abayari and even Dolphy in a spoof).

Jolina, however, denied to Funfare that there’s such an offer for her from Star Cinema. "But if ever," joked Jolina who just came back from a successful business/pleasure trip to Hawaii and the US Mainland, "I will reinvent Darna. I will update her costume at gagawin ko siyang very Jolina."

If you ask me, either Jolina or Judy Ann would make a good Darna, with Judy Ann as slim as a ramp model. But the big question is: Is there still an audience out there for Darna whose komiks sister, Dyesebel, has become as passe as her rubber tail?

Anyway, Jolina is still ecstatic over the box-office success of her new movie, Star Cinema’s Kung Ikaw Ay Isang Panaginip (with Leandro Muñoz and Rafael Rosell IV), which is still showing (now on its third week) in some Metro theaters. Her euphoria has been buoyed by her recent successful trip to the US, the highlights of which include:

• Right after appearing at the Senate to help spearhead the Anti-Piracy Bill, Jolina flew to Hawaii to perform at the Hula Bowl in Maui. Having established an impressive track record in the concert scene in Asia, Australia and the US, Jolina was invited by the organizers to do a pre-game performance.

• Hula Bowl is a much-celebrated annual college football game in Hawaii which was held at Maui’s War Memorial Stadium on Feb. 2. It was attended by more than 30,000 spectators coming from all Hawaiian islands and the US Mainland.

• Jolina is the first Filipino artist who performed in this event. It was covered by ESPN cable TV and was beamed all throughout the US.

• After the game, Jolina did a solo concert at a reserved portion of the stadium attended by a very large crowd, an unprecedented phenomenon for a Filipino performer in Maui.

• Jolina then flew to Los Angeles to open her Jolina’s Fashion Gallery store at Musikang Pilipino in West Covina. She launched her Jolina products in the US market to a jampacked store on Feb. 5. Outlets will likewise be put up in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

• Jolina also did a successful concert, Jolina Live in Glendale, at the historic Alex Theater in Glendale, California on Feb. 8 which was produced by John N. Ling of JNL Entertainment Productions. She is the second Filipino artist to perform at the prestigious theater. The first was Nora Aunor some years back.

Jolina is back in town for the taping of her highly-rated sitcom Arriba, Arriba and to do a concert at the Corpus Christi Gym in Cagayan de Oro City today and open a Jolina’s Fashion Gallery at Gaisano Mall also in Cagayan de Oro City on Saturday, Feb. 23.