A 'first' at the URIAN Awards

At the precise moment Allan K. was regaling guests with his one-man staging of a Miss Universe "pageant" at the MTRCB appreciation dinner Saturday night at Via Mare (Greenbelt) and while Jose Mari Chan was treating well-chosen guests to a sumptuous dinner at the poolside of the family-owned Hyatt Hotel to celebrate his fiftysomething birthday (with wife Maryann Ansaldo and their children helping him entertain well-wishers), Eddie Rocha was dropping (oops, purely accidental!) the Best Picture trophy (for Bayaning 3rd World) at the stage of the University of the Philippines Theater at the 23rd Urian Awards, making his co-acceptors Ricky Davao, Joel Torre and Cris Villanueva - and the SRO audience as well - gasp in surprised amusement.

Like in a scene in Bayaning 3rd World where the character of Ricky Davao drops a statue of Dr. Jose Rizal which breaks not into smithereens but into just a few pieces, the "dropping" accident provided one of the highlights (comic relief?) of the expectedly long-drawn affair punctuated with the usual song-dance numbers (but thank God Amanda Page didn't dance again - or did she? Wasn't it a big relief I missed Amanda's "aerobics/stretching" choreography?).

In past awards ceremonies, winners and/or nominees would crack jokes about the 1994 filmfest scam before the precious envelopes were opened. But that Saturday night, Eddie Rocha's slip provided the winners a new twist to their thank-you speeches, like when Ricky Davao cried a river while delivering his kilometric (almost 10 minutes) speech and promised, "Hindi ko ibabagsak ito!", and held his Best Actor trophy to his tear-drenched face; and when Elizabeth Oropesa, euphoric over her winning the Best Actress plum (for Bulaklak ng Maynila, which won for her the same honor at last December's Metro Filmfest), exclaiming in the middle of her speech (while clutching the spaghetti strap of her "lucky" gown by Fanny Serrano), "Ay, muntik ng malaglag!"

Eddie Rocha didn't win as Best Supporting Actor (Bayaning 3rd World), losing to Joel Torre (for the same movie), but he scored a "first" (hopefully, Eddie had the trophy repaired on his way home from the UP Theater), something that had never, never happened in any awards night, whether in Cairo or in Moscow or in Cannes or in these 7,100 islands (low tide).

Meanwhile at the Via Mare, Allan K. was changing personalities every minute, now doing Miss Venezuela, and then Miss Colombia and then Miss Vietnam and then Miss Mongolia and then Miss Philippines and then Miss Puerto Rico, bodily interpreting the distinct characteristics of the women from each country and wittily articulating the differences between them, accent and all. And the winner was... Allan K., of course!

At the Hyatt poolside, Jose Mari and his guests (including Johnny Litton and the STAR executive vice president Grace Glory Go), mostly classmates from good old Ateneo days, were reminiscing about campus crushes, youthful (mis)adventures and the joys of, ehem, now being grandparents and of surviving midlife crisis.

Before Allan K.'s hilarious number (watch for his forthcoming shows for more of it), Cris Villonco, fresh from a performance at the Urian Awards, sang three songs (the third one being On My Own which she sang in her first theater outing, Les Miserables) to the delight of her Mahal (not Lola) Armida Siguion-Reyna (who said her sixteener apo doesn't call her, hayyy, Lola) and guests that included Teddy Boy Locsin, Eric Quizon, Gil Portes, Joel Lamangan, Mel Chionglo, Tatus Aldana, Kris Aquino (son Joshua waited for her in the car; they just had Japanese dinner somewhere), Peque Gallaga, June Rufino, Ronald Constantino, Giselle Toengi, Lore Reyes, Ina Raymundo, Paul Daza, Joanne Maglipon and husband Ding Marcelo Emil Jurado and many others.

While Ali Sotto, Richard Merck, Jessa Zaragoza, Keempee de Leon, Roselle Nava and Ralion Alonso were doing a medley of "courtship, Filipino style" songs at the UP Theater. Priscilla Almeda, also coming straight from the Urian Awards, was singing a sexy song, complete with sexy movements, teasing male guests by touching their faces, holding their hands, moving her bare-midriff-clad figure closer to some blushing men before making a "stopover" beside Tita Midz's husband, lawyer Leonardo Siguion-Reyna.

Commented Joel Lamangan, "Kanina, 'yung number ni Cris (Villonco) was For General Patronage. Ngayon, 'yung kay Priscilla ay definitely For Adults Only."

Luckily, the MTRCB members around were not in a "review" mood or they could have "censored" Priscilla on the spot and rated her "X." Instead, everybody, censors and guests alike, gave Priscilla an approving applause, uncensored.

I'm not sure how Jose Mari's poolside party ended because I left earlier than I should but the MTRCB dinner, culminating before midnight, signed off with everybody feeling light and breezy, with Carlitos Siguion-Reyna and wife Bibeth Orteza wishing everybody well.

June Rufino was on her cellphone all the time, monitoring the goings-on at the UP Theater every minute on the minute, now talking to talent coordinator Angge, then calling up her Boy Friday Lester at home for updates, barely hearing Bibeth say, "Tell Ricky (Davao) to rush here to Via Mare. There's still more than enough food for him to treat his friends to a victory blowout." (No, Ricky didn't show up.)

Back home, I caught the last two hours of the Urian Awards (delayed telecast, you know) and I was a bit disappointed that the boldies (except for Elizabeth Oropesa who's a "former" bold actress and Glydel Mercado, Best Supporting Actress for Sidhi, an "on-and-off" bold actress) didn't dominate the awards, but thanks anyway that they figured prominently in the preliminaries (better luck next time!).

A "surprise," though: Unlike in post Urian Awards, there were no "ties" this time.

A word of caution to future winners of the Urian or any other award: Hold on to that trophy. Don't drop it!