Pinay actress shines in Hollywood movie

The roster of Filipino talents breaking into Hollywood is growing longer and longer.

Among those in the honor roll: Rosa del Rosario who appeared in Border Bandit and Anna & The King (starring Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne) as one of the king’s wives, (and American Guerilla in the Philippines, shot in the Philippines), Rogelio dela Rosa as the title role in The Avenger, Billy Crawford in Exorcist The Prequel, David Zorro in Reflections in a Golden Eye (starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor), Dante Basco in Take the Lead (topbilled by Antonio Banderas), Donita Rose in Legacy (with David Hasselhoff and Rod Steiger), and Tetchie Agbayani in Emerald Forest and The Money Pit, all shot in Hollywood; Barbara Perez (with Pancho Magalona) in No Man is an Island, Luz Valdez in Merrill’s Marauders and FPJ (with Jack Mahoney) in Walls of Hell, Tita Muñoz in (among other movies) Flight of the Sparrow, Ronald Remy in Bus to Bataan (also starring Katherine Ross of The Graduate fame), and Alma Concepcion/Nanette Medved/Angel Aquino in Goodbye America (with James Brolin), all Hollywood movies shot in the Philippines; Cesar Montano in The Great Raid; Lea Salonga who sang the theme songs of the hit animated features Mulan and Aladdin, and co-starred with Jeff Daniels and John Lithgow in Redwood Curtain). (Hollywood stars who have Filipino blood include Rob Schneider, Tia Carrere, Lou Diamond Phillips, Paolo Montalban and Reggie Lee who appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.)

Add to the list T.V. Carpio, daughter of singer Teresa Carpio (who is still a household name in Hong Kong and the Philippines), who stars in Columbia Pictures’ Across the Universe.

Nominated for Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) at the recent Golden Globe Awards, Across the Universe is a groundbreaking movie musical, springing from the imagination of renowned writer-director Julie Taymor (Frida, Broadway’s The Lion King) that brings together an original story and 33 revolutionary Beatles songs — including Hey Jude and All You Need is Love — that defined a generation. The film will be shown exclusively at Glorietta 4 and Greenbelt starting March 5.

In the film, T.V. (for Teresa Victoria) plays the pivotal role of Prudence, a young, lesbian cheerleader who finds herself, along with a small group of friends and musicians, swept into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements of the ’60s.

Quoting from the film’s production notes, director Julie Taylor says casting T.V. was a “lucky discovery.” “Along with having a beautiful singing voice, T.V. is a dancer and former ice skater. So I had Prudence become a skater in the circus scenes because T.V. could ice skate. Then, I thought, ‘Well, she’ll be the cheerleader because she’s so good physically.’ As you get to know the actors, you create more and more for them.” 

The feeling was mutual as Carpio recalls, “I wanted so much to make Julie’s vision come alive. When she would tell us what she saw, it would never be just what’s written on a piece of paper — it would be something just completely out of this world... we were so honored to be a part of that. We couldn’t even believe that this is our job.”

T.V. Carpio was born in Oklahoma City but grew up in Hong Kong with her mother. By junior high, her family had moved back to the States, where T.V.’s promising ice-skating career was curtailed by injury. Upon graduation from high school, she took time out to become fluent in Spanish before enrolling herself in  the jazz program at the New School University in New York City.

Carpio appeared as a dancer in music videos for Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston, among others, which led to small parts on the television series Law & Order and The Jury.  As an alto soprano, she sang with the Hong Kong Philharmonic in her mother’s acclaimed Diva concerts, playing and singing the part of her mother as an 18-year-old.

From there, Carpio landed the role of Gail in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me, followed by the role of Angela in Lee’s Sucker Free City for Showtime.

She now lives in New York City and just finished a stint in Rent on Broadway.

Is there a ‘smear’ drive vs Earth, Wind & Fire?

The Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) will be back in a series of shows (produced by Danee Samonte a.k.a. Steve O’Neal who was also behind the recent concerts of Connie Francis and Rex Smith) on March 4 at the Manila Hotel’s Tent City, March 5 at Cebu Sports Center in Cebu City, March 11 at the Araneta Coliseum and March 12 at the Clark Expo in Angeles City.

EWF fans may not know it but there are actually two groups of EWF on tour in various parts of the world. The one that’s performing here is the Al McKay group which has two, while the other group has three, of the original members.

It’s a long story, but not unusual since old groups like EWF give birth to a few similar groups along the way, so it’s common to have, for example, five different Temptations or 20 different Platters performing in various places. But suffice it to say that both EWF groups sound alike when performing such hit, enduring EWF songs as Devotion, Stairway to Heaven, Fantasy, Magic Mind, Got to Get You Into My Life, Can’t Let Go, Lookin’ for You, Side by Side, Revolution and After the Love Has Gone.

“Al McKay’s group performs ‘live’ but did you know that the other group (the one who’s not coming) is actually lip-synching?” revealed Bruce Conte who, for several years, was a guitarist with the Al McKay group, before he joined the Tower of Power band and, later, the Blue Note band. “They pre-recorded the songs and they just play along with them during their gigs. It’s very much like the Milli Vanilli which was revealed to have been lip-synching all the while.”

Conte has been living in Cebu since August last year. For a while, he also lived in Davao.

“I just fell in love with the Philippines so I decided to stay,” said Conte who is performing with the EWF but only in the Cebu show.

Why is Conte making this clarification?

“Well, you see,” he explained over dinner at the Manila Hotel with Funfare and Danee/Steve, “there’s a smear campaign circulating in the Internet, I don’t know coming from where or from whom, that the EWF coming to Manila is a hoax, fake. It’s not true. You see, there’s an inevitable rivalry between the two bands, so things like this happens. As I said, I don’t know who’s behind the smear campaign. We could only guess. There are some legal issues, so Al McKay calls his group the Earth, Wind & Fire Experience.”

But fans of Earth, Wind & Fire know better, I’m sure.

Anyway, if it sounds like Earth, Wind & Fire, then it must be Earth, Wind & Fire.

All together now, after the love has gone...

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