The Gloria Romero fan turned movie producer

Movie fans will be movie fans until their hair turns grey. Some of them, in fact, end up becoming members of the household of their idols; others transmit their "fan-ness" to their children who learn to admire and adore, if not the idols of their parents, the star-kids of their parents’ idols.

A few become movie producers, such as Regal Matriarch Mother Lily who, as a high-schooler, used to skip classes and fought with the guards at the LVN Studios to gain entry so she could watch her idol, the late Nida Blanca, in the flesh. When Mother Lily became a movie producer, she hired Nida for several movies. How Nida laughed when she learned that Mother Lily is her avid fan!

That was also the amused reaction of Gloria Romero when she learned that the producer, Violetta Sevilla (and her lawyer husband Romy), of her latest movie, Cass & Cary (with Bayani Agbayani and Vhong Navarro in the title roles), is a die-hard Glorian (if that’s how you call a Gloria Romero fan). Gloria got wind of it only at the movie’s presscon when a movie reporter, tipped off by the movie’s drumbeater (the brand-new lola, Lolit Solis), asked Violetta about it during the open forum.

"Kaya siya nag-produce dahil sa kanyang pagiging Gloria Romero fan," according to Lola Lolit.

It’s true, said Violetta who has been given the monicker "Madam Violett" by Lola Lolit. "Marami na kasing ‘Mother’ at ‘Mommy’ sa showbiz, kaya ‘Madam’ na lang siya," added Lola Lolit.

"Ever since I was a teenager back in my hometown (Guagua, Pampanga)," recalled Madam Violett (she added an extra "t" to her name and her company’s name, Violett Films, so they would end on "oro" – you know, oro, plata, mata, with oro signifying "gold" or good luck). "I like Gloria because of her enduring beauty, walang kakupas-kupas, and her being a queenly lady, mabait at kagalang-galang. Uliran sa lahat ng bagay."

Like a typical movie fan, Madam Violett collected photos of Gloria and clippings on write-ups about her, keeping them in a neat scrapbook she has been treasuring until now. She can even rattle off the titles of Gloria’s movies, from Miss Tilapia and Dalagang Ilocana during Gloria’s Sampaguita days to Star Cinema’s Tanging Yaman which won for Gloria a Best Actress trophy. "I used to go to Sampaguita just to catch a glimpse of Gloria," said Madam Violett.

In Cass & Cary, directed by Jose Carreon, Gloria plays the long-lost wealthy lola of Bayani and Vhong who are plucked out of extreme poverty with the unexpected inheritance from their lola. As called for by her role, Gloria has to wear expensive clothes and blinding jewelry. Madam Violett, the eternal fan, very gladly offered her jewelry to Gloria as "props", and her beautiful house at Don Jose Subdivision in Quezon City as set for most of the scenes, passed off as Gloria’s house in the story.

Asked why her neophyte company decided to do a comedy as initial offering, Madam Violett said, "There are already a lot of drama on TV which people can watch for free. Besides, in times like this, we need to relax and forget our problems even for a while. What better way to do it than to watch a comedy film!"

Now, if movie fans later become rich and decide, like Mother Lily and Madam Violett, to invest in movie production, they could help a lot in pumping new blood into the ailing industry, don’t you think?

Let’s welcome more of their tribe.

HBO Sex and the City promo

Here’s the fourth in a series of 10 sets of questions in the continuing tie-up promo between HBO and Funfare for Sex and the City, airing tonight at 10 (with a replay on Saturday, June 8, same time). The six questions are for tonight’s episode entitled Ghost Town:

• What is the name of Steve and Adrian’s new bar?

• Who opens the bar Scout?

• What’s the new bar named after?

• How much do Miranda’s morning coffee and muffin cost?

• What’s the name of Steve’s new girlfriend?

• Which designer does Carrie model for at the fashion show?

Send entries with your name and address, indicating the title of the episode, to: SATC-Funfare Promo, c/o Virtusio PR, P.O. Box 512, Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila. Or e-mail them to: [email protected].

Senders of the first seven sets of correct answers will each get SATC notebooks and posters.

Meanwhile, here are the winners for the first two episodes aired on May 14 and 21:

• May 14 episodes The Agony and the ‘Ex’-tasy/The Real Me – Nonoy Reyes, Ebel dela Cruz, Rebecca Rodriguez, Abigail Serrano, Ma-belle Bautista, Johanna Liza Ong and Norman Vincent Baguisa.

• May 21 episode Defining Moments – Jeco Supastah, Karla Ng, Tony Fabe, Leo Evangelista Edralin, Bryan Ayroso, Raymond Rojas and Jose Rolando Luis Rojas.

Reader’s reaction

The following reaction letter (from Federico Ferrer Dinampo, Pembo, Makati City) was addressed to Danny Dolor (Remember When? columnist) but I’m putting it out in Funfare, anyway:

This is rejoinder to Danny Dolor in his column, Remember When? published in The STAR March 24, 2002 issue.

In that column, he mentioned that Diomedes Maturan won the grand prize in the 1958 Tawag Ng Tanghalan national finals. His winning song was The Rose Tattoo. Mr. Dolor went on to say that the song The Rose Tattoo was the theme song of the Hollywood Movie of the same title starring Anthony Quinn and Italian actress, Anna Magnani. While it is true that Ms Magnani was the lead star of the Rose Tattoo, Quinn was definitely not in the picture.

It was in 1957 that Magnani and Quinn made a picture entitled, Wild Is The Wind. The only other picture they made together was The Secrets of Santa Vittoria much later in 1966. From the movie the Rose Tattoo Magnani won the Oscar Award for Best Actress, besting American favorite, Susan Hayward in 1953.

Anna Magnani died of cancer in her native Italy in 1969. When her casket was lowered for burial, she received wild applause from her cheering countrymen, a rare tribute to the great Roman actress.

I wish Mr. Dolor will continue and expand his Remember When? series. Thank you.