Did Piolo Pascual snub fans in LA?

It seems that there's an addendum to that "snubbing" incident that happened in Barcelona, involving Piolo Pascual and Rica Peralejo. But this time it happened in LA. We received an email from our friend Tony Vizmonte (a former entertainment writer now based in California and publisher of Celebrity Chronicle) regarding the "snubbing" incident.

The forwarded email from Tony was sent to him by a certain Lydia V. Solis, a retired correspondent-columnist of Philippine News who also writes a column titled "Overview" for a paper called "Ang Peryodiko." According to the e-mail, Piolo and his handlers had a similar problem of "snubbing" when they had a show in California last June. The email says:

It seems that Piolo, surrounded by people with less than desirable people skills, ignored the Governor of the United Batanguenos of Southern California when she introduced herself, even extending her hand in friendship.

If you need first hand info, you can reach Zenny Sulit-Zoleta at [email protected]. Here's the email from the Zoleta family in California sent to the Customer Service Center, ABS-CBN International, dated June 21, 2006: Sir:

We are TFC subscribers from Los Angeles, California.

We just want to express our concern about the attitude shown by your two male stars specially Mr. Piolo Pascual during their stay at the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel.

We really decided to just ignore the bad attitude we have seen from your two male stars, however, while watching your station this morning (June 21, 2006) "Magandang Umaga Pilipinas," my family's embarrassing experience with your two stars just kept coming back to my mind. "Ogie," one of your commentators did mention that "Pinoys sa Spain, galit ki Piolo Pascual". I was surprised that not only us experienced the bad attitude of Mr. Piolo Pascual.

Considering that we are happy that our local boys here in California are doing good in the Philippines. We are proud of them, however, based on the mentioned Spain incident by Ogie in the Magandang Umaga Pilipinas, it seems that somebody should seriously talk to them to consider changing their attitude.

We are members of the largest Batangas Province organization here in California, the "United Batanguenos of Southern California, Inc."

We hope to hear from your management regarding this matter.

Gus Zoleta [email protected]
Zenny Sulit-Zoleta [email protected]
Samanta Zoleta [email protected]

ABS-CBN'S Answer:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for writing. We appreciate hearing from our customers. I will forward your concern to the proper department.

Rest assured that your concern has been noted and will be reviewed so as the appropriate actions may be taken. We apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused. Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Sincerely,
Customer Service Center
ABS-CBN International

We only received the email from Tony last Saturday, the same day the email reached him. It seems that even if ABS-CBN International has sent their apologies to the Zoleta family, as far as they (Zoletas) are concerned, the issue is far from over. Otherwise, why would they bother to send the email to the press? They probably would like to get the attention of the ABS-CBN broadcasting network here in Manila.

We sent an email to the Zoletas to get more info regarding the matter but as we write this, we had yet to get a response. But once we get something, we'd share it with the readers of The FREEMAN. We hope that ABS-CBN would bother to ask Piolo regarding this alleged "snubbing" incident.

* * *

"Kubrador," the latest movie of Jeffrey Jeturian, continues its winning streak. In a text message he sent to producer Atty. Joji Alonso, direk Jeffrey reports "Kubrador" won the FIPRESCI Award from the Osian's Cinefan 8th Festival of Asia. It was a unanimous choice by the jury composed of Max Tessier from France, Lucy Virgen from Mexico and Rwitta Dutta from India.

In an email, Atty. Joji says the rules in awarding the FIPRESCI Award has been changed. Now a film can win the FIPRESCI award several times. The award that "Kubrador" received is its second, having won the same accolade at the Moscow International Film Festival.

The international jury that composed the Osian's Cinefan 8th Festival of Asia also chose veteran actress Ms. Gina Pareño, the lead star of "Kubrador," as best actress. No award was given for best actor as the jurors said no actor deserved an award for performance. The Special Jury Prize went to the movie "Two Girls" from Turkey directed by Iki Genc Kiz. The award for Best Asian Film in Competition also went to "Kubrador."

The jury for the Asian Competition who chose the winners was composed of Ryuichi Hiroki of Japan, Stanley Kwan of Hongkong, Xie Fei of China, Adoor Gopalakrishnan of India and Jajang Noer of Indonesia.

Incidentally, "Kubrador" was the opening film of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival which ended Sunday at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, with the awards night. The film "Tulad ng Dati" a semi-documentary type of film based on the story of The Dawn, was named Best Picture.

Young actor Alchris Galura won Best Actor for "Batad" where he played an Igorot boy who wanted so much to own a rubber shoes while the Best Actress trophy went to Angel Aquino for her role of the mysterious woman who visits "Donsol," the movie inspired by the whale sharks of Donsol. The Special Jury Prize was also won by "Batad."

* * *

Senator Kiko Pangilinan was unable to attend the press launch of the restaurant Lamesa Grill located at the Mall of Asia last week. We had wanted to get his reaction on Charter Change that the supporters of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo are spearheading, in the same manner that the opposition bloc both in the Senate and in the Lower are making a pitch for the impeachment complaint against Pres. Arroyo.

If the planned Charter Change pushes through, the first one to be affected would be the Senate since the shift from the presidential form into the parliamentary system of government would lead to the abolition of the Senate. We are sure that Enrico Dee, Sen. Kiko's partner in Lamesa Grill, was only joking when he said that the reason why the senator decided to put up a restaurant is because he want to have a source of income in case the Senate is abolished.

According to Enrico, the senators would certainly not allow the abolition of the Upper Chamber. Kiko's business partner (who's also Lamesa Grill's operations manager) is quite confident the Senate would still be around next year and that the elections would push through.

We had the chance to sample the food served in Lamesa Grill, which were presented differently. Aside from offering Filipino food, the restaurant also plays OPM music. What makes Lamesa Grill unique is that you can boil your food such as fish, meat or pork right in your table. The restaurant opened last July 14, and business had been good since then.

According to Mike Sicat, marketing and promotions manager, they are already thinking of putting two new branches of Lamesa Grill, one of them would be probably in Quezon City.

* * *

Ai Ai delas Alas and Allan K are two of the featured stars in the week-long celebration of Klownz Araneta which is marking its third year anniversary this month. The fun started Monday with Allan K doing the first show, then Ai Ai followed suit with a show last night, with Sam Milby as guest.

Allan K returns to Klownz tonight with a show featuring Ogie Alcasid and Ara Mina as guest performers. Tomorrow, it's Ai Ai's turn anew as she teams up with Rustom Padilla and Keanna Reeves. The whole cast of the ABS-CBN teleserye "Bituing Walang Ningning" takes center stage on Friday, with Ai Ai, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Angelika dela Cruz and Carlo Aquino, among others, gracing the show. On the 29th, Allan grabs back the spotlight with the "Eat Bulaga" cast.

Ai Ai is also busy preparing for her new movie under Viva Films titled "Cute Ang Ina Mo" to be directed by Wenn Deramas. This will co-star Anne Curtis and marks the return of Viva Films to making movies again. Ai Ai is excited that she was picked by Viva to headline their return to active filmmaking.

She's not saying she will resurrect Viva's lost glory as a film giant, but she hopes that she will be successful with this assignment. After all, her last movie, "Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice)" under Imus Productions made money.