He’s had it with Jules

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(Conclusion)

Buy out the contract for P10-M. That’s the price Manny Valera is asking Assunta de Rossi in exchange for the dissolution of the five-year managerial contract that binds them.

Call him greedy, but he can slap you with a study of the actress’ projected income for the next five years. As per his computation, Assunta can earn as much as P31.8 M a year under his management – from which he’ll get 25 percent as his commission. (It used to be 30 percent, but when Assunta and her mother renewed the contract last year, they asked for a five percent discount – which Manny granted.)

Per annum, Valera is bound to get as much as P7.9-M in terms of commission from Assunta’s earnings. Multiply that by five years and he should be getting roughly between P39 to 40M. "The P10-M I’m asking from them, nakatawad pa sila nun," points out Valera.

Now, before all of you drop your respective careers and turn to managing talents in the hope of earning oodles of money, let me warn you that talent managing is not as easy as ABC. It requires a lot of wheeling and dealing and the kissing of assess – big and small. And there are the heartaches, disappointments and betrayal (the talent you built up may turn against you and even drag you to court which is what’s happening to Valera now). Sure, there is a lot of money in it – but only if you’re lucky to invest in the right talent who will eventually lay the proverbial golden egg.

But Valera insists the fight with Assunta is not just all about money. "We’re talking about a contract here," he stresses. "What’s a contract for if we are not going to honor it anyway?"

To prove his point, Valera tells me that Assunta is only getting P300 to P350 per picture – which is a pittance – considering her status now in the entertainment profession. But then, this is part of the eight-picture deal he and Assunta had with Regal – a contract that was forged when the actress was not yet the big star that she is now in the business.

When she became a box office sensation, a lot of independent producers came up with offers of as much as P1-M per picture. But Manny didn’t bite because he had to honor first their earlier commitments with the producers who were willing to gamble with the then-untested box office draw of Assunta. Never mind if that meant lost income for him in terms of commissions.

But the shrewd businessman that he is, Valera’s plan was to look for as many out-of-town and overseas personal appearances as possible for Assunta – because these pay a lot – to make up for the actress’ rather low income from the movies. These – plus her income from television and product endorsements would still make Assunta de Rossi a goldmine for any talent manager.

And now that Assunta wants out, Manny insists that it is only but fair that the actress cough up a certain amount for freedom. After all, he also invested in her in terms of time and money when Assunta was just starting out in the business.

During her meeting with Assunta at Mario’s restaurant in Tomas Morano Avenue, Valera gave the actress three options if she wants to maintain peace and harmony between them:

1) "You just buy out my contract."

2) "You lead a normal life, get pregnant and live happily ever after away from showbiz because if things were such, there would be nothing to represent."

3) "Para walang gulo, just honor our contract."

Unfortunately, Assunta chose to ignore all three options. Last Tuesday, she went to a Pasig court to file an annulment of their contract. Now expect Manay to file a counter suit from his end.

Before talks finally broke down between the two parties. Assunta and Rep. Jules Ledesma offered Valera two forms of compromise settlement in exchange for the actress’ freedom. One was for Valera to get half of the P1.2-M payment, which Assunta is supposed to receive for endorsing a line of leather goods. Unfortunately, after Ledesma called it "the most stupid contract I’ve ever seen in my whole life," Valera felt it was best to just call off negotiations for the endorsement of the line of leather goods.

Assunta and Jules then offered to give part of the income from the Smart date Assunta promo of the cell phone company. Too bad, even this deal had to be flushed down the drain because after Assunta went public with her relationship with Ledesma, it would be in bad taste to put her up on dates with Smart male subscribers – especially if it’s true that they had indeed gotten married.

Actually, not even Manny Valera is 100 percent sure that Jules and Assunta had already married in civil rites. But as a married woman, would Assunta’s star shine just as brightly? The luster may diminish, so says Manny, but Assunta will still have a career. "After all, she has talent," he points out.

After all that happened between them, Valera is still willing to take back Assunta into his fold – that is if the actress decides to do so. Valera swears he loves Assunta and is willing to iron out things with her.

The presence of Jules Ledesma in the actress’ life, however, is another issue. At this point, Valera just throws up his hands as if to say "Enough!" After six months – which is the period the congressman and the actress had been together – Manny Valera swears he’s had it up to here with Ledesma.