Lovi Poe: "What more can a 17-year-old girl ask for?"

It seems that Lovi Poe is getting everything she has ever wanted, and even more. The Bakekang star and Sony-BMG recording artist says: "I am very happy and blessed at this point that I am achieving my dreams." Lovi Poe has started taping for "Bakekang" where she plays the grown-up Krystal. During her first taping day, she immediately went into action, that is, being subjected to a "sampalan" (slapping) scene with Sunshine Dizon, who plays her mom.

Sunshine was worried that she might have hit Lovi too hard in the scene. But Lovi told her that to make the scene more realistic, she ought to hit her real hard. Sunshine, who calls Lovi her "anak" (after all, Sunshine plays mother to her in the series although she is just a few years older than Lovi), dotes on FPJ's daughter. And Lovi is so pleased with the attention being given to her by "Mommy" Sunshine.

This Sunday, Lovi will launch her new song titled "Everything You Wanted" in GMA 7's top-rating Sunday noontime variety show "S.O.P." The dance song, accompanied by a glossy MTV, is the third single culled from Lovi's debut album "The Best of My Heart."

The song follows her debut single "I Love You" which went to No. 1 at RX 93.1 and the ballad "I Never Knew," a favorite in top FM radio stations all over the country.

"Everything You Wanted" is a bouncy tune that is very different from Lovi's previous singles. The song is accompanied by a glossy music video, which shows another side of Lovi-dancing and singing on top of the world.

Does it speak of the current status of Lovi's career because it seems that she's getting everything she has ever wanted, and even more?

"I am very happy and blessed at this point that I am achieving my dreams. What more can a seventeen-year-old girl ask for?" confesses the lovely teenager who is a senior high school student at the Colegio San Agustin.

Indeed, Lovi is on the rise and she's very thankful to everyone who has supported her endeavors, most especially GMA 7 and Sony-BMG. Another boost to Lovi's career is her nomination in the forthcoming SOP Music Awards wherein she has been nominated in the Solo Breakthrough Artist category. She hopes that other girls her age will continue to do their best and achieve their dreams because, according to her, "anything is possible if you set your heart and mind to it."

For those who would like to subscribe to Lovi's Fanatext and receive messages from her, just send Lovi to 4627. You can also email Lovi at [email protected].

No offer for Jericho, Heart from GMA 7

A lot of people, including top GMA executive, Ms. Wilma Galvante, were surprised when the issue came out that GMA 7 was pirating Heart Evangelista and Jericho Rosales, but that the two Kapamilya stars chose to be loyal to Channel 2.

We had the chance to talk with Ma'am Wilma at the blowout party given by GMA Films and Viva Films for Robin Padilla and Regine Velasquez to celebrate the box-office success of "Till I Met You," and there she voiced out her concern regarding the issue.

According to Ma'am Wilma, it's not true that GMA 7 has had dangled a "lucrative" offer for Heart and Echo because there was no project to speak of in the first place. Ma'am Wilma says she received a text message from Ms. Angeli Valenciano, saying that Manila Genesis is now handling the careers of the two stars.

Since Angeli announced that Echo and Heart have joined Manila Genesis, then it is safe to presume, Ma'am Wilma says, that Angeli is "offering" the services of Echo and Heart to GMA 7.

So the next question Ma'am Wilma asked was "Are Echo and Heart free to accept any offer from GMA 7 just in case the network would be interested in the services of either of them? Is there no legal impediment in any way? Wala na ba talagang kontrata sina Heart at Echo sa Channel 2?"

In Ma'am Wilma's recollection the text messages of Angeli, the manager of Heart and Echo, were rather vague on the matter of the two stars being free to accept any offer (if there is such an offer but there was none as of the time they exchanged text messages, or even at this point in time).

According to Ma'am Wilma, Ms. Angeli's last text message to her was "I will pray about it." Then all of a sudden, a few days later, write-ups surfaced that Echo and Heart decided not to accept the offer of GMA 7 and opted to stay loyal to ABS-CBN. Angeli, when she got back to Wilma again, even said she even consulted her husband Gary Valenciano who, in turn told her, to consult the Bible. And in the verse Angeli supposedly opened, she read "Be loyal", so she took it as a sign that Heart and Echo should remain loyal to ABS-CBN and not transfer to GMA 7 even to the extent of giving up the alleged "lucrative offer."

"I was really wondering why there were write-ups saying that Heart and Echo decided to be loyal to ABS-CBN and stayed with the network instead of transferring to GMA 7 and accept the offer we had for them. We didn't offer them anything because we don't have anything to offer them. Besides, Angeli was not able to provide a definite answer with regards to the contract that Echo and Heart have with ABS-CBN. Angeli and I didn't talk about any offer kasi hindi niya masagot kung may legal impediment ba o wala kung sakaling we offer anything to her two new talents," says Ma'am Wilma.

Ma'am Wilma adds that she's clueless about the agenda of those people who wrote the articles. She maintains her stand that GMA 7 didn't offer any project to Echo and Heart. And neither do they have any intentions of "pirating" the two.

After all, says Ma'am Wilma, GMA 7 has no history of "pirating" talents from other networks. What happens is that the stars from other networks who joined GMA did it on their own volition after their contracts with their former networks expired. We can cite, as examples, Richard Gomez, Anjo Yllana, Jolina Magdangal, Marvin Agustin, Patrick Garcia, among others.

Ma'am Wilma feels Heart, Echo and Angeli are using GMA 7 to gain some sort of leverage or bargaining power with ABS-CBN by making it appear they decided to stay with ABS-CBN. But there was no offer to speak of in the first place so why the overkill of write-ups professing their loyalty to the Kapamilya network? Publicity gimmick?

Robin, Angel to team up

As of Sunday, the nationwide gross of "Till I Met You" has reached more than P40 million, hence the victory party given by GMA Films and Viva Films for the success of the Robin Padilla-Regine Velasquez starrer at the box-office.

But it might take some time before Robin and Regine would team up again for a new movie since the two box-office stars are starting solo projects. Robin is set to start taping for an action-adventure TV series titled "Asian Adventures" that pairs him with Angel Locsin.

Regine, on the other hand, is set to do another movie but with another leading man.

For its Valentine's Day offering, GMA Films is doing "Suddenly It's Magic" with Angel Locsin, Richard Gutierrez and Rhian Ramos as stars. This was announced by Ms. Annette Gozon-Abrogar, head of GMA Films. She also added that GMA Films is not joining the Metro Manila Film Festival this year. "Masyadong maintriga ang pagsali sa festival," says the soft-spoken head of GMA Films.

Not pregnant

No, teenstar Iwa Moto is not pregnant and this was not the reason why she collapsed at the taping of the youth-oriented "Posh" in Antipolo last week. After being rushed to the hospital after she collapsed, the doctor who examined Iwa says she ought to be confined because she's suffering from pneumonia. She was asked to take complete bed rest or else her pneumonia could lead to a more serious ailment, probably tuberculosis.

Prior to her collapse on the set of "Posh" a week earlier, Iwa had to shoot a scene where she had to lie down on the pavement as the scene called for her being bumped by a car. When the scene was being shot, it suddenly rained but the director decided to continue with the shoot, with Iwa exposed to the rain while lying down on the road. This probably made her sick but she continued working during the succeeding days.

"Bumigay na ang katawan niya sa sobrang pagod," says an insider on the set of "Posh." Iwa didn't report for work on the taping last Wednesday as she has yet to be discharged from the hospital. Besides, she was advised to take a rest to allow her to recuperate.