The F Girls

Cher Calvin’s eyes light up with mischief as she declares what F! means to her: "Fffffffrrrrrrriiiiisssk-y!" Three successful seasons of the ABS-CBN lifestyle magazine show later, that best describes the kind of excitement perpetuated by its hosts. What makes for good television is the natural chemistry between an actress/commercial model, a New York-bred broadcaster and a classy urban planner from Canada. But if you ask the network, F! actually stands for generic themes such as fun, fashion, furniture, food and fantasy. Of course, loyal viewers would probably prefer frisky. So let us assume that the mysterious letter stands for just that.

The afternoon’s interview is set at 9501, the impressive fine dining restaurant on the 14th floor of the swank new building in the ABS-CBN compound. First to walk in through the glass doors is tall and dusky Cher Calvin. She warmly waves at the two strangers sitting on the other side of the room, oblivious to the fact that there have been no formal introductions. She daintily sits on the chair near us and begins a candid conversation.

Number one on her list of questions (fired so effortlessly that we realize what it is that makes her a good broadcaster) is exactly what the interview would be about. Eventually, she reveals that she is on a tight schedule. The deed is done without the air of a diva. Instead, the request for a separate interview (minus her absent co-hosts Daphne Oseña and Angel Aquino) is delivered with just the right amount of charm.

"Daphne is on her way and Angel has this shoot in Makati," Cher explains. "But don’t worry. I’m always strangely prompt even for my gender. It takes me no more than a few minutes to get ready to leave the house. All I need to do is get up and take a shower. Even my boyfriend complains because I usually tease him for his tardiness. It takes him longer to fix his hair. All I need to do is shampoo mine."

Her get-up-and-go (taken too literally in this case) attitude made adjusting to Manila easier. You can bet only a handful of balikbayans born and raised in New York have done this well in such a short time. After landing a job at GMA-7, her fresh face caught the eye of the rival station which offered her not only a slot in the news department but two other shows as well–Points of View and F!.

"Doing a feature show was a welcome change. Fashion, travel and eating at restaurants are things that I enjoy. I feel that I could give a lot of input because all these are a part of my lifestyle. I love to go out and wine and dine and shop. I’m blessed that ABS-CBN recognizes the different facets of my personality. The network acknowledges my background in hard news from having worked with Time Magazine and CNN. At the same time, they know that I’m kikay," she adds.

Despite the cool and collected image she displays on the small screen, Cher had a real scare during the 9-11 tragedy which left her no choice but to abnormally extend her US visit with her parents. If there were fears that she was no longer interested in a broadcasting career so far from home (that she is an only child must mean something), these were set straight by her return.

Cher’s wholesome image has not been fertile ground for intrigues. However, she recalls a time when people suspected that the F! Girls were not as friendly as they appeared. All three hosts dispel the strange rumor and insist that whatever awkwardness they showed around each other was due more to being complete strangers than to personality conflicts.

"I’m the type who is open to learning from other people. Daphne is very, very bright. She spent her formative years in Canada but she’s a Filipina at heart. She can be very conservative. I admire that. She’s very much a lady. Angel, on the other hand, helped me a lot to become a texturized Filipina. I ask her to explain to me what this and that means. I’d like to say that my Tagalog has improved. But I do get frustrated often. You know that in F! we speak Tagalog now. As everyone knows, it isn’t my first language," Cher says sweetly.

It was actually jitters from adapting to the Philippines that broke the ice between the equally attractive and accomplished F! Girls. Curious looks are exchanged by the three minutes into the pictorial. Immediately after I asked what particular moment made them fast friends, Daphne and Angel chorus: "Cher cried!"

The culprit flashes a you-got-me smile and explains: "Yeah. I cried on the second day of taping. You see, I had a fight with the first Filipino guy I dated. I was totally clueless! So I asked Angel and Daphne for advice."

After that, everyone relaxed. They started sharing personal stories and makeup and clothes and shoes. The camaraderie is captured on camera. None of that is fake.

"The show has become second nature to the three of us. We know each other very well. In terms of doing the opening and closing spiels, we know how to adlib. What makes the show a success is that we’re able to bring out our own personalities. The secret to any success is simply being yourself. That’s what people wanna see. Unless you’re expected to act out a character, people will wanna see the real you. It was difficult in the beginning since we had to find our own niche. Eventually, we found our fortes. I used to be simply a food lover. Now, I’m a food queen. I gained a lot of weight doing the show. I’ve gained about 20 pounds because I love to eat," Cher confesses.

A while later, Daphne Oseña breezes through the glass doors with her then fiancé and now husband Patrick Paez following right behind her. She makes a quick hello gesture to Cher and disappears into one of the rooms with the makeup artist. Patrick makes for the doors again after an unceremonious goodbye to his soon-to-be bride (the interview takes place two short weeks before the Day).

With 2/3 of the F! Team finally sitting in front of us, the conversation turns to a favorite topic: Fashion. Daphne dabs on lipstick (right after asking Cher if she could borrow hers) while casually describing how different yet similar their tastes are.

"Angel loves casuals. She’s always wearing jeans and shirts. But now she’s into this romantic-retro look. Angel is so proud of her Ukay-Ukay finds," Daphne reports.

Cher follows that up with a flattering description of Daphne’s fashions sense. "She’s our Jackie O. She’s a dress girl."

Not quite done with her makeup, Daphne adds: "I’m into simple lines. I also like jeans though. But when I don’t know what to wear, I wear a dress."

Cher jumps in: "I don’t like wearing dresses. I prefer skirts or pants. There are times though that we coincidentally have the same kinds of clothes."

Proof of that comes just before the pictorial when Daphne and Cher have a short discussion of what to wear. They realize that they brought the same kind of slacks in different colors. There is also the case of having gone to the same designer and thus having similar tops.

Fashion conferences for F! are done after the fact–when they’ve brought what they felt like wearing on taping day. Actually, that means anything goes. "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Last week, we were so off," shares Daphne, the harassed yet blooming bride-to-be.

By the time Angel bursts through the glass doors of 9501, it has been said that she wasn’t first choice for the show. Someone else was supposed to be the third F! Girl. But, as fate would have it, her guesting on a segment was so impressive that she was given a shot at becoming a permanent part of the program.

You must’ve been stuck on a mountain for the last couple of years if you aren’t familiar with the waif-like Angel Aquino. She has done commercials for everything from shampoo to credit cards. She first graced the movie screen in 1996 in Mumbaki where she was a cast as an Ifugao woman. The role earned her a nomination as New Actress of the Year in the 1996 Star Awards. She has since starred in films with the likes of Sharon Cuneta, Vilma Santos and Nida Blanca. Currently, Angel is in the cast of ABS-CBN’s afternoon soap opera Recuerdo de Amor.

"The traffic was horrible," says the girl-woman looking so frail she seemed ready to collapse. In the same breath she admits that she actually enjoys the perils of driving. "It makes me feel independent. Despite my schedule, I also take my kids to school no matter what time I come in from work."

While Angel finally orders her first meal of the day (it is a little past 3 p.m. by now), Daphne remembers a driving misadventure that happened only the day before. "Oh my God! I bumped someone yesterday. But it was only a minor bump. My cell phone rang and, when I picked it up, I accidentally hit someone’s fender. I immediately got down from my car to apologize. Good thing the other driver only told me to be careful next time."

Such, I am told, is usually the kind of conversations they have between takes. "Before taping, we sit around and talk. We rant about the traffic. And we ask what the others are wearing," Angel says. "We’re independent women. We have our own lives separate from each other but when we get together..."

"We’re like sounding boards," Cher continues.

Daphne suggests that, since taping day is Friday, they have lots to talk about by then–a good ending to a work week.

The F! Girls get together for what they call "Mare Days" when they do things together like go to the beauty parlor or, would you believe, get their cars tuned up.

"We do a lot of silly-girl things. There was one day we spent a total of 12 hours together. We went to Megamall and had manicures. Then, we had lunch and ended up having dinner together. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the time to do that lately because of our schedules. It’s been a while and I miss it," says Cher.

The Power of Three (conceptualized that way by Patrick Paez though Daphne vehemently denies he thought up the show with her in mind) has a mystique of its own. "Because there are three of us, we also have different kinds of friendships. It could be all three of us or just me and them separately. There are different dynamics in those friendships. With Cher, I can talk about having grown up in North America. There was a time when I was really lonely because my family was living in another country. We both shared the homesickness," she admits.

As the story goes, Patrick did think up a lifestyle show to be hosted by three young, hip and fashionable women. Daphne was already doing feature segments for the news so her eventual inclusion in F! had nothing to do with her closeness to him. As a broadcaster, her record speaks for itself. Her now defunct Guide to Urban Living on Studio 23 made its mark by garnering two awards. The sorely-missed program was cancelled due to 23’s change of image.

"Aside from doing F!, I’ve been working on my private life," confirms the busy bride who single-handedly planned her wedding (Patrick’s main task was to distribute invitations). "But I don’t think being married would affect my work as a TV host. It may even help the show. We bring a lot of ourselves into the segments that we do. Sometimes, we underestimate the power of the show. In news and current affairs, we’re just babies. We’re light lang. But we actually affect people’s lives–the food they eat and the clothes they wear. These are things that affect the day-to-day lives of people."

F! has become an authority on what’s new and hip and worth checking out. In fact, viewers inquire about shops and restaurants which have been featured several episodes ago. One of the restaurants they’ve featured has enjoyed double its regular earnings since its appearance on the show some four months ago.

"Our staff (the core group of which has remained intact through three seasons) already knows us well enough. They know which one of us would do well hosting this or that segment. Of course, now, we’re more involved in conceptualizing stories. I love doing features on restaurants and interviewing people. Angel has the people charisma. She’s well known all over the country. Then, we’ve got Daphne who does historical and architectural stuff. She’s a very elegant woman. Art is her thing since she’s an urban planner," explains Cher.