Aga ready for the ‘big day’

There’s no mistaking it. The glint in his eye, the lilt in his voice says Aga Muhlach is in love.

He describes bride-to-be Charlene Gonzales as "my queen" and "my destiny." Those winsome dimples disappear as he threatens anyone who so much as badmouths her ("never mind me, I can take it") with hellfire.

"God is good to me," he tells everyone at the presscon for his new sitcom with Joyce Jimenez, Da Body en Da Guard (to premiere tonight at 8 on ABS-CBN 2).

Three months before he gets married (on May 28 at an undisclosed place in Baguio), Aga is bristling with excitement about his future life as devoted family man.

"Settling down is what I’ve been dreaming of ever since," he gushes.

That’s what he’s been working so hard for all these years he’s been doing movies, sitcoms, commercials, concerts here and abroad, etc. While making moviegoers and televiewers laugh and cry, Aga was dreaming of the good life he’ll offer his future bride.

By the "good life," he not only had in mind his impressive mansion in Alabang, but all the loving and care he’s capable of.

"Our honeymoon need not be dependent on place and time. Charlene and I can just stay in one corner and that’s our honeymoon," the eager groom relates.

Settling down, Aga adds, is a matter of right timing. The stage was set. Everything happened at the right time, at the right place.

Fate brought them together – in movie functions, TV shows, and that corned beef TV commercial they did shortly before they went steady.

And no one had to tell Aga he has finally found his lifelong match. He felt it in his bones.

"I was very fond of her the first time we met," he recalls. But sparks didn’t fly that fast. The two put up a wall between them, and Aga was the first to bring it out in the open.

Charlene must have read his mind. She retorted, "You’re the one who’s putting up that wall!"

Since then, the ice melted and they were like children sharing stories, laughing and having fun together. Aga and Charlene meant to tell the movie press, but they soon found out on their own. The news about their wedding, which first came out at STAR, came as a surprise, and people were at first incredulous.

"We’re getting married, that’s for sure," Aga confirms. He’s not just divulging the exact venue of the wedding, fearing that this most solemn moment in his and Charlene’s life turn out to be a circus.

"Our guest list has increased from 300 to 400 people," Aga reveals.

The danger of the wedding turning into a circus is there, with bride and groom being celebrities. And Aga is hoping (against hope?) that it won’t.

"I’m not getting married for show, but because. I love Charlene. And our wedding is a celebration of two people becoming one," says Aga. After he settles down, Aga plans to be more choosy with his roles, veering away from those matinee idol projects people have become accustomed seeing him in.

This time, Aga wants to tackle more serious roles, those that will, in his own words, "make me feel I’m really working."

Da Body en Da Guard, although not a dramatic role, is a big challenge to Aga since much of the responsibility of making people laugh falls squarely on his shoulders.

Unlike in his defunct sitcom Okidokidoc, where the laughter machinery consisted of himself, Agot Isidro, Roderick Paulate, the late Babalu, Camille Pratts and Carmina Villaroel among others, Aga is practically on his own in Da Body en Da Guard (he gets a lot of help, of course, from Joyce Jimenez as Da Body, Roderick Paulate, Gina Parreno, Anita Linda and others).

In the sitcom, Aga plays Edgardo Flores, a newly-minted security guard hired to safeguard the family of notoriously picky millionaire Don Ramon Dragon (Richard Loves Lucy’s Bonggoy Manahan).

Joyce, in her first assignment for the Star Network, plays Don Ramon’s eldest daughter Robbie, a balikbayan from the US.

The chemistry betweem Aga and Joyce is palpable, as they take turns ribbing each other at the presscon. Joyce admits Aga can charm her completely if, and only if, he’s not about to get hitched.

Aga just smiles. It’s the smile of a man contented and happy that at last, has found someone he can offer the world – to: sweet, charming Charlene.