Megastar Sharon Cuneta returns from concert scene to the big screen

After three successful concerts in Canada last month, megastar Sharon Cuneta is back to big screen work. She has started her new movie titled “Caregiver” for Star Cinema under the direction of Chito Roño.

This is Sharon’s first movie since “Crying Ladies” and her pregnancy and delivery of her youngest daughter, Miel. But Sharon corrected the impression that this was the movie she was supposed to do with Aga Muhlach in London. She had to mention this because a lot of people thought this was the long-delayed project she was supposed to do with Aga.

But she had long wanted to do a film with Chito Roño, ever since her beloved “Ate” Lorna Tolentino won a grand slam in 1992 for “Narito ang Puso Ko” under Direk Chito’s guidance. The movie “Caregiver” will bring Sharon and Direk Chito to London and Prague for a good two to three weeks of filming. They will, however, be shooting in Manila and Pampanga first for a few weeks before flying off to Europe.

Sharon had not been feeling too well lately (probably because of fatigue) that’s why whenever she sends text messages to her friends to update them on her activities, she asks for prayer requests.

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ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation’s “Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” has been selected as finalist in the 2007 Asia Pacific PR Awards for making Filipinos reporters and election watchers patrol their votes and fight electoral fraud using their mobile phones.

Launched early this year, ABS-CBN made history globally by harnessing the power of mainstream media and new media to bring voter empowerment to new, high-tech levels through its “Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” (BMPM) campaign in the 2007 elections.

ABS-CBN Head of Corporate Communications Bong Osorio said the campaign received 2,000 messages a day or one message per minute during the four-month period, mostly complaints about unfulfilled election promises ranging from unfinished highways, hospitals, sewerage systems, and public markets, and the failure to clean dumpsites.

“About 75 percent of messages consisted of reports on vote buying and the incumbents’ use of government resources for their candidacies. The BMPM public affairs campaign helped level the playing field where incumbents were running,” he said.

ABS-CBN news teams verified and investigated messages, pictures, or video sent to BMPM by Filipinos via SMS, MMS, and Internet before airing reports on its top news programs. Some of the most compelling and important election stories came from the citizens.

The company recently launched the Barangay/SK Halalan “Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” campaign with celebrity KC Concepcion encouraging the public to be vigilant and send their complaints via SMS or MMS.

The “Boto Mo, iPatrol Mo” will be competing with other entries from the Asia Pacific Region for Public Affairs Campaign of the Year. Winners of the 2007 Asia Pacific PR Awards will be announced in Hong Kong at a presentation dinner on Wednesday, November 14. The BMPM campaign is also entered in this year’s Philippine Quill Awards and the 43rd Anvil Awards, which recognize excellent public relations programs.

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Ai Ai de las Alas still dreams of getting married in church. But this time, she wants it for good. Her previous marriage with singer Miguel Vera was legal but it was bigamous because Miguel was already married when she tied the knot with the comedienne.

“I want to have a fabulous church wedding,” said the comedy concert queen at the presscon of “Pasukob” of OctoArts Films directed by Wenn Deramas. Her marriage with Miguel had been annulled and she joked that she doesn’t want to go through another annulment because it’s very costly.

Ai Ai is holding a pre-birthday concert at Araneta Coliseum on November 16 titled “Ai Ai: The Greatest Performance of My Life.” She says it’s going to be her biggest concert ever. “I will give my all, todo na talaga ito kasi my next concert will happen in three years,” said the comedy concert queen.

She said the producer of Beyonce’s concert reacted when Ai Ai joked that Beyonce backed out of her scheduled Manila concert because Ai Ai said so. “It was meant as a joke but the producer got mad and called up TV Patrol to correct the news.”

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Raymond Lauchengco starts a new phase in his career with the release of the album “Full Circle.” The CD has the “Bagets” star going down memory lane twice over. First, “Full Circle” is released by Viva Records, the music arm of Viva Productions, where he started out as a teen actor. Then he is singing songs of the 80’s era, a most memorable time for him. It was then when he made his first hits like “So It’s You” and “Farewell” and starred in trend-setting movies like “Bagets,” “Hotshots” and “Saan Darating ang Umaga.”

“Full Circle” though is no ordinary album of old songs. Raymond sings them with swinging big band arrangements. “The recent years have seen me fall in love with standards,” said Raymond. “I’ve also seen many talented artists perform them in their own way. so I asked myself, what could I do to tweak things a bit? Make things a little more interesting. What if I took a risk? What if I combined the music I have truly grown to love, the standards, with the unforgettable musical era that was the 80s that lots of people associate me with?”

Raymond answered those questions with “Full Circle,” which is produced by Alwyn Cruz and Mia Lauchengco with Vic Oria as musical director and supervising producer.

Included in the album are “Head Over Heels” by Go-Gos, “Walking On Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, “Just Got Lucky” by Joe Boxer which is best remembered for its use in the “Bagets” soundtrack, “Let’s Go” by Wang Chung, “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, “Together in Electric Dreams” by Human League, among others.