Philippine movie biz off to a slow start plus Baron entering rehab to beat the booze monster

The Philippine entry “Noy” failed to make the cut in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Oscars. The film, which stars Coco Martin, follows the exploits of a wannabe video journalist who wants to break into the big time by covering the presidential campaign of Noynoy Aquino. It won an A rating from the Cinema Evaluation Board.

Last year’s Philippine entry, “Ded na si Lolo,” also didn’t make it.

Sixty-six films qualified, but will be further pared down in the next round of voting for the 83rd Academy Awards.

Things do not seem to bode well for the Philippine cinema. The entire January, there were no locally made films that made it to the theaters. In February only three are scheduled for release: “Bulong” starring Vhong Navarro and Angelica Panganiban, “My Valentine Girls” starring Richard Gutierrez with Eugene Domingo, Solenn Heussaff, Lovi Poe and Rhian Ramos, and “Who’s That Girl?” starring Anne Curtis and Luis Manzano.

In March there’s only one, the as-yet untitled project starring Sarah Geronimo and Gerald Anderson.

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Baron Geisler goes into rehab starting tomorrow to get rid of his drinking habit.

The treatment will last for three months, and I hope Baron comes out of it a new man. He is a young gifted actor and I hate to see his talent go to waste.

Baron has been in several drunken scrapes before, but somehow he has avoided censure from his peers. But when he touched Cherry Pie Picache’s breasts, the Professional Artists Managers, Inc. (PAMI) decided enough was enough.

Last week the group directed its members to ask their talents to refrain from working with Baron. That directive in effect makes Baron a pariah in the industry.

At first the actor made a feeble attempt to cover up his drunken affront to Cherry Pie, saying he was merely playing out his role as a monkey in the revived TV series, “Noah.” But when the actress filed a complaint with ABS-CBN and PAMI, Baron was forced to apologize. “If I touched her or grabbed her in any way that she felt violated or offended, I’m very sorry, Miss Pie. I was just doing my job. I have no intention to put you in that position or to make you feel that way that would offend you,” he said in a TV interview.

Baron also apologized to the entire industry “for my actions” and promised to “do my best to behave and just to be proper because I’d rather be addicted to my work ‘cause I love it. I love acting so much. It’s really my passion and sometimes when I do things differently.”

The episode with Cherry Pie is not the only major trouble Baron is facing. Last week he was arraigned in a court in Bocaue, Bulacan, on charges of acts of lasciviousness and unjust vexation filed by actress Yasmien Kurdi.

Yasmien alleges that the actor made “lewd gestures” at and “indecent proposals” to her while they were taping for a TV series in 2009.

Before that, Baron was also hauled to court on a similar complaint filed by Patricia Martinez, the daughter of William Martinez and Yayo Aguila.

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GMA-7 had to issue a statement to douse persistent rumors that the laugh show “Bubble Gang” is being yanked off the air.

Wilma Galvante, GMA Network’s senior vice president for Entertainment TV, scoffed at the rumors, saying the network “finds no reason to end Bubble Gang, one of its flagship programs, as it goes stronger and continues to deliver its unmatched brand of comedy to its loyal viewers every week as it did for the last 15 years.”

In fact, Ms. Galvante adds, the show “has been airing at an earlier time slot to cater to even more viewers since November 2010.”