Golden Lions’ next project: About Jinggoy, Chavit or FVR?

After the release of their latest project, Golden Lions Films’ NBI Files: The Cory Quirino Kidnap (still showing in Metro theaters), there’s a guessing game among people around Golden Lions couple Donna Villa and Carlo J. Caparas what their next movie will be. Or, to be specific, who their next movie will be about.

There are reports that Donna and Carlo might film the Jinggoy Estrada story. Or, if not Jinggoy’s story, that of former Ilocos Gov. Chavit Singson who happens to be the nemesis of Jinggoy’s father, former President Joseph Estrada.

But I have a hunch that Donna and Carlo might surprise everybody – including Jinggoy and Chavit? – by first doing a movie about former President Fidel V. Ramos – that is, if Funfare read right the body language of FVR and the Golden Lions couple at the recent Ruffa-Yilmaz wedding where Donna and FVR were among the sponsors.

The three were in a huddle, as if talking about "something serious."

Let’s leave it at that for the time being – until Donna makes a formal announcement of their next project.

Incidentally, did you know that Donna didn’t have a gown for the Ruffa-Yilmaz affair as late as 12 noon that day (March 25)? She rushed to Inno Sotto’s shop and got one at past noon and barely had time to drop by the beauty parlor because she was busy attending to the pre-opening of Cory Quirino movie the next day.

Just the same, Donna did look lovely that day. (See her photo on this page and judge for yourself.)

More Oscar comments

Here’s more about the Oscars 2003, one week after we watched it "live" on RPN 9 last Monday, March 24, this time from STAR contributor Jonathan Chua:

Dear Ricky,

It seems that almost everybody I know was glued to the television set last Monday to watch the 75th Academy Awards. People are still talking about the political speeches, the surprise wins of Roman Polanski and Adrien Brody (for The Pianist), Martin Scorcese’s loss (again), Elizabeth Taylor’s absence from the Oscar Family Album, etc.

But did you notice...

The misnomer moment: When Sean Connery announced the name of the Best Supporting Actress, all he said, almost like a sigh, was "Catherine." That was all very well and dramatic, except that fellow nominee Kathy Bates, judging from the expression on her face, thought that Connery had called her name. But then Catherine Zeta-Jones stood up and the band started playing the theme from Chicago.

A Miss Universe moment: You could tell that Salma Hayek was expecting El Crimen del Padre Amaro (from Mexico) to win the Best Foreign Language Film award. She looked radiant as she enumerated the nominated films – which only served to highlight how her face fell when she opened the envelope. The winner was the entry from Germany (Nowhere in Africa). The scene reminds you of that moment when a beauty pageant contestant hears herself declared the first runner-up. Watching Hayek, I was reminded in particular of another Latin American beauty – Minorca Mercado, Miss Venezuela 1994. When she was named second runner-up at the Miss Universe beauty pageant (held in Manila at the PICC), her plastered smile momentarily but visibly vanished – and as quickly reconstituted itself.

Another Miss Universe moment: We all love Nicole Kidman, especially after her divorce from Tom Cruise. She’s managed to comport herself with dignity and has even proved her mettle as an actress along the way. Her Best Actress Oscar (for The Hours) would have been a mere sympathy win were she only a pretty face. But just when you start to believe in perfection, she opens her mouth. True, that night she had the bearing of a winner, but when she spoke she rather resembled (again) those beauty queens at the Q&A portion of a pageant. Why am I at the Oscars, she asks, when there is a war going on? "Because art is important ... because we love what we do..." Wasn’t that an anticlimax after Adrien Brody? And wasn’t it all the more anticlimactic because she looked regal in her gown? Perhaps, since the Best Actress race has become more and more like a beauty contest, with the senior (i.e., older) actresses losing out to more "glamorous" nominees (Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, etc.), we should follow the tradition in beauty pageants of having candidates tackle a difficult question–difficult because it involves a false dilemma. In this case, the question would be – What would you rather do when you receive your award: (a) blubber like Halle Berry or (b) spout motherhood statements like Nicole Kidman?

A most "surreal" moment: Barbra Streisand, who, for once, kept her mouth shut about George W. Bush, presented the award for Best Song to Eminem. Before that moment, did anyone ever think that it was possible to put diva and rapper side by side on the same stage?

Why am I writing this when there’s a war in Iraq? Now it’s my turn to rattle off the motherhood statements: (1) because reality now is just as unbelievable as fiction – and fiction is safer; (2) because it’s psychologically more reassuring to listen to Meryl Streep complain about being defeated 11 times (since 1983) than to hear about who’s defeated whom at another war; (3) at the very least, it’s better than checking exams.

Not being tongue-in-cheek now: I’m glad you got me to write for you. It’s been therapeutic. I hope by next year’s Oscars (February 2004), we all will be talking and writing about it without that nagging feeling of being trivial – because by then (we hope) there won’t be anything more "relevant" (war, mystery flu, etc.) than the 76th Academy Awards.

Best,

– Jonathan Chua