Rudy is on the road to recovery

Glad to know from Lorna Tolentino herself that her husband, Rudy Fernandez, is not sick of something more serious than, well, cancer.

"It’s not cancer," said Lorna in a phone patch with hosts Lolit Solis and Butch Francisco on last Saturday’s edition of Startalk.

Lorna has begged off from co-hosting the show for two Saturdays now so she could be by Rudy’s side at the ICU of the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in San Juan, Metro Manila, where Rudy underwent a surgery for a cyst in his liver (and stones left over in his bile duct from a gall bladder surgery two years ago).

By this time, Rudy should be in a private room where a "Strictly No Visitors Allowed" sign hangs at the door.

As I did for STAR photographer Richard Chen (who has been moved from the ICU to a private room at the Manila Doctors Hospital where he’s fast recovering from a stroke), I’m asking readers to say a prayer for Rudy’s speedy recovery.

Reader "Marilen" (a Vilmanian Forever from Australia) wants to share the following healing prayer with Richard and Rudy and Funfare readers as well:

Thy name is my healing, oh my God.
And remembrance of Thee
Is my remedy.
Nearness to Thee is my hope
And love for Thee is my companion.
Thy mercy to me is my healing,
And my succor in both this world
And the world to come.
Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful,
The All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Miss Canada-International coming for a visit

Did you know that the Miss Canada who competed with Precious Lara Quigaman at last September’s Miss International contest (won by Precious) in Japan is half-Filipina?

She’s Micaela Jane Oblepias Weston Smith whose mother, Evelyn Oblepias, hails from Luisiana, Laguna. Micaela was born on May 6, 1985 in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, Canada, but was raised until age 18 in Boyle, Alberta. She took piano lessons at age four and received awards in music festivals. She’s also active in athletics (basketball, volleyball, soccer, track-and-field, etc.) and she graduated a valedictorian in 2003, a scholar in both athletic (from the University of Manitoba) and academic (University of Alberta).

Micaela is coming for a visit. On April 4, she’ll be honored in Luisiana during the town’s foundation anniversary.

Pinoy actor steals scene from Antonio Banderas

Here’s another interesting item from Funfare’s New York correspondent Edmund Silvestre (news editor of The Filipino Reporter):

Watch Fil-Am actor Dante Basco (Hook, The Debut) steal the Antonio Banderas movie Take The Lead in one of cinema’s hottest dance sequences.

That’s according to New Line Cinema’s PR girl Stephanie Yang, who’s promoting the movie that was inspired by a true story.

The film (to be shown in the US on April 7) revolves around an internationally-acclaimed dancer, Pierre Dulane (Banderas), who volunteers to teach ballroom dancing in New York City’s public school system, where Dante is one of the misfit detention kids.

But when the teacher’s classic methods clash with his students’ hip- hop instincts, he teams up with them to create a new style of dance and becomes their mentor in the process.

Dante, a break-dance-cum-actor, says the Latin hunk "has a great tango scene in the movie that’s to die for."

"We had about a month of straight training on ballroom dancing," says Dante, "...the waltz, the fox trot, the merengue, the tango. We worked from 10 to 5 every day. It was intense."

He says Banderas was already "a really good dancer to begin with. But he came in and learned the ballroom dances just like us and fell in love with them like we did."

"I have a big tango number at the end of the movie, too, and I give Antonio a run for his money," Dante shares. "There’s a competition, and my dance partner and I rock it!"

"I think all Filipinos will love this film, since all Filipinos love to dance and are great dancers," he says.

Dante – the lead voice in Nickelodeon’s animated Avatar: The Last Airbender and Disney’s American Dragon: Jake Long – says both TV networks accommodated his "Take the Lead" filming. "We shot in Toronto, and they let me record my stuff out of town."

The movie also stars Alfre Woodard (Desperate Housewives) and marks the feature directing debut of veteran music video helmer Liz Friedlander (Us, Blink 182, Simple Plan).

For more info, check out the film’s official web site at www.taketheleadmovie.com

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