Friendship showbiz style - DIRECT LINE by Boy Abunda

The concept of friendship in showbiz is vilified, ridiculed and maligned by people inside and outside of showtown. They say you can’t find a friend here and if you do, they’re not permanent – you only have people with permanent interests – and you have ogres parading as friends – especially during heyday.

But this is not an exclusive showbiz brand. This happens everywhere. This is human frailty. True friends and ceramic friends are everywhere – they’re in the streets, offices, restaurants, churches, monasteries, gaybars, street rallies in Mendiola and Makati and they also abound in the upper, lower, lowest house of congress.

Showbiz is the business of show. It is a world of actors – bad and good ones. Actors who are bad and good people just like people who work in a bank or a brokerage office. But show business is an exciting world where people are bigger than life. They are in the big screen, on the boobtube and they are painted in big street billboards. They smile, cry and live for a public. And they get paid for this. Most of them are also talented and beautiful, others are painfully dumb but who are either lucky or overly persistent. Showbusiness is a wonderful world where night can be day, good can be bad, bad can be best, beauty can be ugliness, sunset can be sunrise. Even a man can be a woman. This is the magic and power of showbiz. This is why politicians want to invade showbusiness. They thrive in this climate. Most of them love fantasy. In showtown, they can be Rapunzel, or Darna or Dyesebel, and they love pork barrel.

Showtown is simply the cinematic version of everyone’s life. Bigger in both joy and malady.

But it is a myth that you can’t have friends in showbusiness. I have friends who respect my space, which is an expensive commodity in showtown. I have friends but admittedly there are not too many of them in the business, who are intellectually decadent. Some are true blue oligarchs in wit and style. These are people who demthologize the hackneyed notion that everyone in showtown is downright stupid. Nincompoops are everywhere. As a matter of truth, there’s a moron lurking inside all of us. I have also friends in the business who are generous and people who are there when the sailing is tough and rough.

I have friends whose faces and names I don’t know, but who are with me in every Buzz I do. Faces who eavesdrop on my Private Conversations. Faces who listen and talk back on The Boy Abunda Radio Show. I have friends who buy spots that allow these shows to go on air. I will not probably see their faces and know their names in this lifetime, but where is it written that they can’t be my friends.

As you read this, you have become one. Indeed my cup overflows and I’m truly blessed. I count my blessings as I celebrate my birthday. And I’m grateful especially to my friends who ask not how old I have become!

Miss Chinatown search on

In 1976, the first Miss Chinatown beauty pageant was organized by the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The contest did not only recognize the Filipino-Chinese beauty but also paid homage to a very progressive community that has helped shape our country’s trade and culture. There were only a few contestants then, comprised of young women who came from all over the country to represent various Filipino Chinese communities. Sadly though, the contest was phased out in 1980.

This year, Manila Chinatown Development Authority under the leadership of Mayor Lito Atienza, has revived the prestigious contest in order to further promote the progressive business district, and its rich culture. The CDA is a body created by the Mayor and composed of key people from both private and local government sectors and supported by four major Filipino-Chinese organizations, namely Chinese Filipino Business Club, Filipino Chinese General Chamber of Commerce Inc., Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. and the Philippine Chinese Charitable Association Inc.

The contest is open to single young girls (at least 18 years old but not over 25 by January 2001), at least 5‘5" in height, of Filipino-Chinese Ancestry, with pleasing personality and of good moral character and preferably can speak at least one of the following: Mandarin, Cantonese or Fukienese. You can submit your application forms (bio-data forms may be used) together with three photos (close-up, half body, and whole body) to the following drop-off centers: Office of Councilor Miles M. Roces – Rm. 223, Manila City Hall (tel. nos. 527-0959 or 527-5017) or at the JLF Organization office at Suite 1403 East Tektite Bldg., Ortigas Center, Pasig City (tel. nos. 634-7776 or 638-4243 to 44).

The coronation night will be held on Dec. 11, 2000 at the Centennial Ballroom of the Manila Hotel.