Ruffa Gutierrez defends 'controversial' dialogue in latest film; Eugene Domingo steals the show anew in 'Working Girls'

Singer-balladeer Marco Sison is the latest artist who signed a contract with Star Records for a distribution deal for his album, which he recorded in the United States.

In the contract signing held last April 16 at Dulcinea Morato, Marco expressed excitement at the forthcoming launch of his new album entitled “Hindi Ko Akalain,” which took seven years to complete. He last recorded an album for Universal Records, although he had previously done recordings for Alpha Records and Viva Records as well.

As usual, Marco’s new album is composed of love songs, featuring compositions by Bodjie Dasig and Odette Quesada, the husband-and-wife tandem that gave us various OPM hits such as Sana Dalawa ang Puso Mo and Friend of Mine.

Despite not being that active in the local music scene, Marco was kept busy with his overseas concert tour with friends Rico J. Puno, Nonoy Zuñiga, and Rey Valera—otherwise known as the Greatest Hitmakers. They are set to do another show in the US this September and a European tour in December.

“I didn’t lose interest in recording but I somehow lost momentum because of piracy. The problem of piracy has a big effect on the recording scene. We worked hard on your album then it gets pirated,” the singer explained his long absence from the recording scene. “Besides, I really got busy with the tour together with the Greatest Hitmakers that’s why my recording career got sidelined.”

But of course, Marco is doubly excited with the forthcoming release of his album. For the first time, he was the one who produced, packaged, and marketed the album, with Star Records coming in as distributor.

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Ruffa Gutierrez defended herself from people who reacted negatively to her “controversial” dialogue in “Working Girls” where she questioned if there’s a Starbucks in Angono. In case you don’t know, Angono is a town in Rizal, which is the birthplace of two National Artists, namely composer Maestro Lucio San Pedro and painter Carlos “Botong” Francisco.

Ruffa’s dialogue, “May Starbucks ba roon?” was not meant to deride the people of Angono, who reportedly didn’t like the tone by which she delivered the line. “It was just a line in the film. And I was speaking it as the character that I play in the film, not as myself. I am aware that Angono is a beautiful place and is a haven for the arts and I didn’t mean to offend anybody with it,” stressed Ruffa.

Director Jose Javier Reyes took the cudgels for Ruffa, saying that if there’s someone to be blamed for the dialogue then it should be him, as he was the one who wrote the script and directed the film. But direk Joey also hastened to add that they didn’t mean to offend anybody or place with the dialogue in contention.

But in fairness to it, that dialogue had great impact and good recall, making it a conversation piece.

We had the chance to watch “Working Girls” on its premiere night last Sunday and we had fun and were immensely entertained by it as well.

Eugene Domingo stole most of the scenes she was involved in. She particularly had the most riotous scenes with Ricky Davao, where one ended in a kissing scene. They also had a dreamy goodbye sequence, which ended with a rain effect, an obvious parody of Star Cinema movies, which always had a rain effect in goodbye scenes.

Overall, the movie offers good performances from the entire cast. We believe, however, that the actresses who really stood out in the film were Eugene, Ruffa Gutierrez, Cristine Reyes (who didn’t attend the premiere night), Iza Calzado (who took care of the drama parts of the movie). It was Eugene though who nearly stole the show without really trying. We wouldn’t mind watching “Working Girls” again when it opens today in theaters nationwide.