Kris Aquino: Thai leader a good match for PNoy

Valenzuela Councilor Shalani Soledad and Pasig Congressman Roman Romulo were to tie the knot yesterday at the Saint Benedict Church in Silang, Cavite.

The couple scheduled their wedding on the eve of the Chinese New Year because they wanted to celebrate the start of the year of the Dragon with their wedding guests. The reception at the Lakeside Garden in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, was expected to last till midnight and climax with a fireworks display.

Among the 22 principal sponsors in the Romulo-Soledad nuptial were Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Ramon Ang, Ben Chan, business tycoon Manny Pangilinan, the former Las Piñas Representative Cynthia Villar, and Senator Ping Lacson.

The Best Man was Jun Cabangon, chairman and CEO of Fortune General Insurance. The Matron of Honor was Shalani’s childhood friend, Joy Marie Castellvi.

Included in the wedding invitation was the name of Shalani’s biological father, Adolfo Aguirre, a former top executive of Banco Filipino. Interestingly, it was only in 2010 that Shalani knew about her father.

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Kris Aquino couldn’t help but play matchmaker for her bachelor brother, President Aquino. Last week she tweeted that Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was a good match for Noynoy. “She’s tall slim attractive! 44 yrs old, bagay for PNoy!” Kris gushed. Yingluck made a six-hour visit to Manila last week and was the 55-year-old President’s official guest at Malacañang.

Yingluck is Thailand’s first woman prime minister and is that country’s youngest in 60 years. She is the sister of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Yingluck is a single mother; she has, according to Wikipedia, a common-law husband and they have a son.

Kris later explained she was not trying to match her brother with Yingluck. It’s just that the Thai leader’s beauty, elegance and bearing blew her away.

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Once again, the Philippines has been shut out of the Academy Awards.

Our official entry for the best foreign film Oscar, Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank, didn’t make the shortlist of nominees for that category.

The nominees are down to nine and it will be further trimmed to five.

The winner will be announced on Oscar night on February 26.

But don’t count Ang Babae out yet. Eugene Domingo has been nominated for the best actress award in the 6th Asian Film Awards and Chris Martinez for the screenwriter plum.

Eugene won best actress in the full length feature category of the Cinemalaya film festival last year for Ang Babae. The film was also a surprise big grosser during its commercial run.

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The kissing scene of Matteo Guidicelli and girlfriend Maja Salvador in the movie My Cactus Heart took two takes to complete. Matteo said he was uncomfortable because “there were too many people watching. I wasn’t sure if what I did during the first take was okay so I requested for a second take.”

My Cactus Heart will be the first time Matteo and Maja are paired in a movie.

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Mark Wahlberg drew a barrage of criticism for his recent comments about 9/11 in the Men’s Journal magazine.

The actor said that if he had been on one of the planes that a terrorist crashed into the World Trade Center, “it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first class cabin and then me saying ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

Wahlberg later apologized and said he did not mean to disrespect the people who died in the plane. “It was misunderstood. My only intention was to explain that I would do anything to protect my family,” he said.