Malou Santos, Golden Girl

Until she hosted an exclusive party at the E’s Bar of EDSA Shangri-La on her 50th birthday last Feb. 3 for people really close to her, not many people knew that Malou Santos was an avid Noranian who, when she became the SVP of ABS-CBN TV Drama and managing director of Star Cinema and Star Records, turned into a Vilmanian overnight.

As teenagers growing up in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Malou and her Ate Charo (Santos-Concio, ABS-CBN executive vice president and head of Channel 2) watched every Nora Aunor movie shown in the town’s only movie house and collected in scrapbooks pictures of the so-called Brown Superstar they clipped from magazines. Even today, the sisters can rattle off the titles of Nora starrers (mostly with loveteam-mate Tirso Cruz "Pip" III).

Surprisingly, however, Nora has never done any movie for Star Cinema but her then arch rival (and, actually, kumare and friend), Vilma Santos, the so-called Star For All Seasons, has starred in a few, including the smash-hit and award-winning dramas Anak; Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa? and Dekada ’70 (her fourth, with John Lloyd Cruz as leading man, will be shot in New York anytime this year).

And that was how Malou became a Vilmanian (with part of her heart beating for her Ate Guy).

The intimate party was kicked off by a video presentation that chronicled the rise of Malou (who looked like a campus queen in her earlier photos) from a dreamy small-town girl to the hard-driving movie executive that she is today.

When she acknowledged the good-natured ribbing from her well-wishers, Malou didn’t shed a tear even she waxed sentimental about being a "slave driver" who, just the same, is well-loved by Star Cinema people.

Malou is a Golden Girl who wears all her 50 years in her sleeves with pride, standing tall even in the face of adversity.

Just a few weeks before her grand celebration, she crossed swords, so to speak, with the Metro Manila Film Festival people who, it turned out, prematurely declared the Vic Sotto starrer Enteng Kabisote as the top grosser when, after the Metrofest’s official run, the Star Cinema entry Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo emerged as the real No. 1 money-earner.

That Saturday night at E’s Bar, Malou wore a triumphant smile and it wasn’t just because she was plating her life in gold.

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