What Jolina found in The Big Apple

For more than three weeks last month during the shooting of the GMA soap I Luv NY in New York, Jolina Magdangal had a good bite of The Big Apple and she liked it.

"I found many things in New York," said Jolina who is reunited with loveteam-mate Marvin Agustin, with Mark Herras and Jennylyn Mercado as co-topbillers in what is touted as "the first Philippine primetime TV soap to use a world-class location as its backdrop" (which premieres tonight after Majika).

First, of course, was the discovery that even after years of separation, she and Marvin (now father of twins with his non-showbiz girlfriend) still clicked as a loveteam, doing their scenes (especially the aso’t-pusa, away-bati parts) with the same fluid facility they used to do.

"We have remained friends," said Jolina who got a "bonus" when her boyfriend, lawyer Bebong Muñoz, flew to New York from Minnesota to be with her from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. "We felt as if we didn’t stop working together at all."

Secure with himself, Bebong (who once admitted in a STAR interview that he found Jolina and Marvin a perfect loveteam) had a chance to exchange stories – and, ehem, compare notes? – with Marvin.

During her free time, Jolina (who traveled with her parents) had the rare chance of exploring The Big Apple on her own, sight-seeing in Manhattan and shopping.

When Bebong arrived, familiar as he was with The Big Apple where he studied and worked before moving to Minnesota, he acted as tour guide for Jolina. They strolled around Times Square, took souvenir photos at the Rockefeller Center, dropped by the Liberty Island, and shivered in the biting winter chill at the rooftop of the Empire State Building, feeling like Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant (in An Affair to Remember), Warren Beatty and Annette Bening (in Love Affair), and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (in Sleepless in Seattle) who, as ill-fated lovers, never made it together to the same spot where Jolina and Bebong enjoyed shooting the breeze.

"We ended up at a bar in Soho and guess who we bumped into," said Jolina. Yes, Emilio Estevez who told Jolina and Bebong that he had been to the Philippines, mentioning the former Smokey Mountain (now earmarked for a low-income housing project) as one of the places he visited.

It was also during the I Luv NY shoot that Jolina found out that, as of now, she couldn’t turn her back on her career and settle down as Mrs. Bebong Muñoz in the States.

"For a starter," she mused, "maybe I would have to find a non-showbiz job. Could I adjust to a laidback life as plain housewife?"

That’s the little dilemma confronting the sweethearts who are both career-driven, with Bebong doing pretty well on his job with a big law firm. "I found out that I wasn’t ready for that kind of life yet."

The good news is that Bebong seemed to be giving in. A few days ago, he came home for an indefinite vacation, his first since he was here briefly during the recent Christmas holidays.

Is he staying for good? Will the long-delayed wedding bells finally ring for them? Will he, according to rumors, run in next year’s elections?

"We still have to discuss these and other things," said Jolina who came back from the New York shoot enlightened with many things.

And what else did she find in The Big Apple?

Jolina smiled.

"Myself," she said.

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