• Could it be true that Angelique Lazo is – finally, finally! – getting married? Who could be the lucky guy this time?
• If and when Star Cinema’s Anak makes it to the finals in the Best Foreign Language Film category of next year’s Oscars, it will be pitted with the critically-acclaimed In the Mood for Love, directed by Hong Kong’s Wong kar-Wai and starring Tony Leung who won as Best Actor at last May’s Cannes Film Festival.
• One of the most imaginative text messages Funfare has received lately goes, Watch the new show tonight. It’s called Dong Puno Lied! The sender was "anonymous." See what one letter can do or what happens when letters in a word (from "live" to "lied") are jumbled.
Somebody sent Funfare the controversial photos (currently the hottest item on the Internet) showing Tonton Gutierrez and Priscilla Almeda in three of their sizzling-hot love scenes, done in a top-down car, from their starrer, Syota ng Bayan, produced by Solar Films with Romy Suzara directing (yes, he was the one behind the "hot" skin flick Sutla which created a controversy that reverberated in the halls of the Senate last year).
The first photo shows Priscilla wearing a pair of bikinis, about to embrace a fully-dressed Tonton. The second photo shows Tonton’s face buried between Priscilla’s bare breasts, with Priscilla’s head bent backward, eyes closed in ecstacy. The third photo is the most daring, showing Tonton’s face buried between Priscilla’s legs, her bikini pulled down to her knees.
It’s the Sutla "syndrome" all over again. The photos are so sexually-graphic that no wonder Tonton’s girlfriend Glyâ€â€del Mercado flew into a jealous rage when she saw them. "Kahit sino naman," said Glydel in a TV interview, "magseselos din if she sees her boyfriend with another woman in photos like those."
If ever the MTRCB okays Syota ng Bayan, I’m sure it would be a smash-hit.
Maybe it’s the kind of movie that would save the industry from the doldrums?
Ask the guardians of public morality.
A Pharmacy graduate, Laling Talti was a comedienne during the heyday of Sampaguita Pictures, starting her career on the stage during the Japanese occupation. Her real name is Pilar Ilagan and she’s the eldest daughter of Hermogenes Ilagan, the Father of Zarzuela. Laling celebrated her 90th birthday recently and she said she doesn’t feel like 90 at all, thanks to her positive outlook in life and happy disposition.
She spoke highly of her brother’s achievements during her party. Gerry de Leon, the late National Artist for Film, was a much-awarded film director and was a doctor of medicine. Angel Esmeralda, a lawyer, was a handsome leading man to cinema’s beautiful women; he settled down in Guam as a businessman when he retired.
Conrado Conde, a dentist, decided to be a musician, musical director and a film actor. Eustacio, better known as Tito Arevalo, also a lawyer, was a musical director for films and composer. They are just some the Hermogenes’ 14 children.
Liberty Ilagan started at a very young age at Sampaguita Pictures. She’s the daughter of Gerry de Leon. Robert Arevalo is the son of Tito Arevalo. Also from the clan are the late Jay Ilagan and radio man Ruben Ilagan.
"The count doesn’t stop there," said Laling.
Robert Arevalo married Barbara Perez while Liberty’s sister Maria Fe married Ronald Valdez. (The late Jay married Hilda Koronel from whom he separated and then lived-in with Amy Austria.) The third-generation Ilagans include Janno Gibbs (Ronaldo and Maria Fe’s son) who’s married to Bing Loyzaga (the couple’s daughter Alyssa is now also in showiz; their other child is Gabby) and Janno’s sister Melissa.
Laling’s party, hosted by Liberty and her daughters (Love, Happy and Soen) at their remodelled family residence in Mandaluyong City, was a happy get-together. Among her well-wishers were relatives Robert and Barbara, Cora Ilagan Evangelista, Honor Ilagan Royo (wife of the late actor Fernando Royo) Carmen Royo Nicolas, Ruben Ilagan, Angel Esmeralda’s daughter Angel Reoca and her daughter Joy (who just returned from her studies in Boston), Maria Fe and Fely Ilagan.
Also present were close friends Delia Razon, Minda Morena, Pempe Rodrigo, Amalia Fuentes, Joey Stevens, Maryann Salcedo, Myrna Panlilio-Borromeo, Boy and Monette Guevarra and Susan Roces (who came all the way from a fiesta in Nasugbu, Batangas).