Regal won't do Manero Movie

Curtain-raisers:

* If you see somebody who looks like Geneva Cruz driving a brand-new Ford Lynx, then it's her all right. Is the car Geneva's Valentine gift to herself?

* Angel Aquino and Paco Arespacochaga (Geneva's estranged husband) deny to death that there's something deeper than friendship between them, never mind if a Funfare DPA saw them "smooching" at the Smoking Area of Starbucks (Greenhills). If they're "just friends" as they insist, what then are Angel and Paco trying to prove (or disprove?) by doing such a private act in a public place? Oh, well, there are kissin' cousins so there must be "smoochin' pals."

* Was it starlet K seen at the Virgin Cafe (Timog-Morato Rotunda) seemingly getting drunk? Why? What's bugging her? Any family problem or, uh, kinks in affairs of the heart?

Yes, it's true that sometime in 1990, Regal Films bought the rights (for P500,000) to the life story of Norberto Manero, Jr., convicted and later conditionally-pardoned murderer of Italian priest Tullio Favali.

With the ongoing media to-do about Manero, many people (this one included) are hoping against hope that Regal won't push through with the long-delayed Manero movie because it would just surely glorify the dreaded and despicable convict, especially if, as some reports have it, somebody like Manero's former Muntinlupa "classmate" Robin Padilla would play the title role (or Cesar Montano who, like Robin, is also sporting a clean-shaven head).

The word from Regal is that -- heave a sigh of relief -- Mother Lily is not doing the Manero movie, never mind if she has to list down the P500,000 paid to Manero under "losses." Yes. It's better than losing the trust and confidence, not to say patronage, of the moviegoing public and in the process even incur the ire of the whole world.

Incidentally, a Funfare reader corrected an item about the late Lino Brocka's Orapronobis having been banned during the Marcos Regime. The reader is right: Orapronobis was banned during the Aquino Administration when the MTRCB Chief was Manoling Morato. In that movie, Bembol Roco (as bald as Manero is) played a kumander obviously inspired by Manero. In one scene, Bembol the kumander and his men feast on the brains -- and innards? -- of a priest they have just butchered.

Cheers to Monique Wilson who made waves last January at the Star Alliance Hong Kong City Festival, an international gathering of some of the world's most prestigious theater groups. Monique starred in Classical Monique, a one-woman dramatic and musical collage which was a production of her own group, The New Voice Company.

The South China Morning Post (Jan. 26, 2000 issue) gave Monique a glowing review, written by David Phair. Funfare is printing the review in full:

Monique Wilson led her audience on an emotional roller-coaster. This was an evening of the tortuous ups and downs of falling in -- and ultimately out of -- love.

Her repertoire was both brave and diverse. It embraced music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marvin Hamlisch, and verse by the likes of William Shakespeare and Christina Rossetti.

Given the eclectic nature of the material, it meshed together surprisingly well. That was, in large part, due to Wilson, one of the Philippines' foremost actresses.

She managed to move effortlessly from song to spoken word.

Props, which initially were fairly districting, helped to move the production through the stages of love. Wilson pulled off the wraps from various objects just as you might peel away the layers of a relationship.

Perhaps the most compelling section was near the start, when she performed Shakespeare's sonnet Shall I Compare Thee and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's How Do I Love Thee, written by the poet during her courtship with Robert Browning. Powerful, moving and provocative, they seemed to perfectly capture the mood of falling in love.

Romance moved to recrimination and George Bernard Shaw's St. Joan was the French heroine pleading to be heard yet riven by self doubt.

Tell Me On A Sunday, even for those with reservations about Lloyd Webber music, managed to convey that acceptance of fate when a relationship finally dies.

Wilson chose the popular Love Changes Everything from Lloyd Webber's Aspects Of Love to add to this new dawn.

Her music was bright, bouncy, filled with a sense of indomitable optimism.

There was an abrupt change of mood and it was time to start life afresh: the inclusion of Mrs. Allonby from Oscar Wilde's A Woman Of No Importance offered a needed, well-timed interlude.

Brazen and haughty, she raised a laugh with her assertion that "the ideal man should entertain us!"

The same could be said of the ideal woman and, rest assured, Wilson's audience came away with a smile on their faces.

It's the season of break-ups between managers and talents (Dolor Guevarra and Wowie de Guzman, Vera Isberto and Jao Mapa, Shirley Kuan and Geneva Cruz). The newest "un-couple" on the list are Sandra "Lumen" Gomez and Norma Alvero, head of the Profiles in Motion talent agency.

The split-up between Sandra and Norma would happen just when Sandra's career was really taking off with her playing the title role in the recently-shown Burador (Ang Babaing Sugo). Sandra is also in the cast of Doomsdayer, with Brigitte Nielsen as female lead, which is now being shot in Subic by an international group for ABS-CBN/Star Cinema's international arm; and in the return team-up of Richard Gomez and Sharon Cuneta, Star Cinema's Minsan, Minahal Kita.

Norma Alvero is accusing Sandra of "breach of contract" after Sandra notified her by letter that she (Sandra) is no longer honoring their five-year contract (good until Oct. 2003). Now managed by her parents, Sandra has reportedly not been fulfilling commitments (such as promos for her movies, etc.) despite reminders from Norma.

Oh, well, isn't that how the showbiz cookie crumbles?

Sandra is mum on the matter.