MMFF aftermath: Will Fernando please speak up?

Curtain-raisers:

• After going through the dozens of New Year messages I received, I found this one (forwarded by Nap Gutierrez) the cutest: My wish for you is to be continuously reincarnated as an egg. This way, you’ll get laid every morning, get eaten every day and get hard in three minutes. (Forwarded to Balikbayan New York journalist Raoul Tidalgo, he texted back, "Yes, and get beaten, too!")

• Here’s one more from Ruffa Gutierrez-Bektas: Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don’t, and believe that everything happens for a reason. Know a good thing when you see it, and don’t let it slip away. If you get a chance, take it; if it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it would be easy; they just said it’s worth it.

• From Alfie Lorenzo (referring to item on Lito Lapid published Christmas): Rey Lapid (vice mayor of Porac, Pampanga) and Efren are the brothers, not cousins, of Lito. Efren is now in Las Vegas looking after Manuelito, Lito’s son with Melanie Marquez.

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So you thought that the 32nd Metro Filmfest brouhaha has died down? Think again.

In a letter received yesterday by Funfare, Malou N. Santos, managing director of ABS-CBN Film Productions, Inc., producer of Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo (starring Judy Ann Santos, named Best Actress, and boyfriend Ryan Agoncillo), is appealing to Bayani Fernando (chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, MMDA, which is behind the annual filmfest) "to make a clean breast of the entire process; explain the deliberations and decision-making that went into this year’s awards, rectify whatever dubious decision that might have occurred, and institute reforms that prevent and (will) prevent any future anomaly."

Kasal was chosen Second Best Picture (Gatpuno Antonio Villegas Cultural Award) after first-placer Enteng Kabisote (M-ZET Films/OctoArts Films); third-placer was Regal Films’ Shake, Rattle & Roll 8.

In yesterday’s Funfare, Enteng star and co-producer Vic Sotto said that he craved only to be a top-grosser and having been given the Best Picture award as a "bonus," joking that he would not let anybody take away his trophy.

Here are salient portions of Malou’s open letter:

For several years, we have refrained from joining the Metro Manila Film Festival. This season, out of sheer love for the industry, we decided to be a part of the festival again, with the hope that it would be a celebration of the film community and a Christmas gift of values and qualities that Filipinos admire.

The recent MMFF awards once again compel us to critical self-examination.

After the festival, we still ask ourselves: Were we able to give the public the film festival that they deserved?

We leave our film festival experience with painful questions:

1. According to the MMFF executive committee, they implemented three-pronged criteria for judgment: Commercial viability (as translated into film gross) 40 percent, creative and technical excellence 40 percent and cultural values 20 percent.

How can film gross comprise 40 percent of the awards criteria when the awards were given only on the fourth day of the film showing, with at least 10 more days of screenings to go? Isn’t this criterion unfair to the producer and deceptive to the public?

In the case of Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, if it overtakes Enteng Kabisote in gross receipts, will the awards then be remanded and handed to Kasal? We doubt that as much as we doubt the integrity of this criterion.

2. Assuming that the four-day gross was enough valid basis, Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo did gross second highest in those four days (therefore high on commercial viability, 40 percent), garnered eight awards (creative and technical excellence, 40 percent) and went on to win the Gatpuno Cultural (cultural value, 20 percent). That should have summed up as an indisputably high score in the Best Picture category.

In contrast, Enteng Kasibote won zero awards.

How could Enteng Kabisote have scored on commercial viability high enough to surmount the other criteria when commercial viability was pegged at maximum 40 percent? Simple arithmetic and logic leads us to question the decision.

Okay now, Chairman Bayani, it’s your turn to speak up.

(Note: The total grosses so far of the nine Metro Filmfest entries are: 1. Enteng Kabisote, P104.8-M; 2. Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, P91.7-M; 3. Shake, Rattle & Roll 8, P43.7-M; 4. Matakot Ka sa Karma, P18.5-M; 5. Mano Po 5 (Gua Ai Di), P17.6-M; 6. Super Noypi, P16.2-M; 7. ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Zee Mooveh, P9.9-M; 8. Ligalig, P6-M; and 9. Tatlong Baraha, P3.4-M.)

Piolo turning 30, counting blessings

As usual, I was tuned in to Wow, Ang Showbiz! (RMN DZXL, 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon, Monday through Friday) and, while stuck in traffic, enjoyed listening to the interview of host Ogie Diaz (co-hosts are Fernan "Miss F" de Guzman, with Jun Lalin as guest host) with Piolo Pascual who called in to greet Ogie a belated happy birthday (Jan. 2).

Piolo himself is celebrating his (30th) birthday on Jan. 12 and he said he has so much to be thankful for. His family is doing all right and his career is going great. He has a new soap, Walang Kapalit (with Claudine Barretto), which starts airing on ABS-CBN anytime now and is shooting a movie (untitled just yet) with Regine Velasquez for a May playdate. He’s also busy rehearsing for his concert with bosom buddy Sam Milby at the Music Museum first week of February. (I heard from Daisy Romualdez, who guested on yesterday’s MISMO program on DZMM, in an interview with host Jobert Sucaldito that she’s producing a Valentine show slated for Feb. 13 and 14 at the Manila Hotel with Piolo as topbiller, together with, among others, Ara Mina.)

Last Christmas, Piolo said that he spent five days with his love child somewhere in Palawan. On his birthday, he expects his US-based sisters and his mom to fly in for a celebration.

See. Despite efforts of detractors (yes, he also has some!), Piolo stands tall. No, you can’t put a good man down! Yes, it’s good karma for him.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])