Joyce can swing both ways

Curtain-raisers:

• First, the "bad" news: Could it be true that ABS-CBN has put a gag order on Kris Aquino where her affair (okay, okay, "romance") with Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez is concerned? What!?! Does it mean an abrupt end to the real-life telenovela followed with insatiable avidity by Pinoys not only here but abroad (thanks to The Filipino Channel)? Should we be left in a cliffhanger, desperately trying to make heads and tails on this modern-day "love story" which, according to a Funfare DPA, has been causing the poor heart of Kris’ mom, President Cory Aquino, to palpitate? And the "good" news? Yes: Joey will appear as guest on Kris’ new (yet untitled) ABS-CBN show (premiering Monday, July 22, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., replacing Talk TV) with Pops Fernandez and Zsa Zsa Padilla. Topic of the day? Exes! Kris’ "ex," Phillip Salvador, will also be there and Pops’ "ex" (Martin Nievera), too. Sorry, though, but Zsa Zsa’s ex (Modesto Tatlonghari) is too camera-shy to join the circus, er, the initial telecast.

• Do you need any healing, whether spiritual or physical? The Bethesda Springs of Hope Healing Ministry is holding a "Healing Life in the Spirit Seminar" tomorrow (July 20) and Sunday (July 21), 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the SOLCC Formation Center, Manila Seedling Compound, Quezon Avenue corner EDSA, Quezon City. Interested? Call 373-2384. Registration fee is only P250 (with lunch and snacks).

• Now, could it be true that Ryan Agoncillo (Tintin Bersola and Julius Babao’s co-host of the soon-to-fade-out Talk TV) will co-host (with Edu Manzano and Melanie Marquez?) an early-afternoon Saturday show on ABS-CBN, as panlaban for GMA’s Startalk?

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When Joyce Jimenez is wholesome, she can be very wholesome as she is in her recent movies (Star Cinema’s Narinig Mo na Ba ang L8est? with Aga Muhlach, and Regal Films’ Ano Bang Mayroon Ka? with Diether Ocampo and I Think I’m In Love with Piolo Pascual) and on TV (her recently defunct sitcom Da Pilya en Da Pilot with Aga and Whattamen).

But when Joyce is bold, she can be very, very bold, just as she is in her newest movie outing, Imus Productions’ Ang Galing Galing Mo, Babes, her reunion starrer with Albert Martinez after 1999’s Scorpio Nights 2 (Erik Matti’s directorial debut). Babes is said to be bolder and more daring than Scorpio Nights 2 that the trailer alone has been rated "X" by the MTRCB now headed by Marilen Dinglasan who, as usual when the MTRCB changes heads, seems to be bringing back the Board to the ultra-conservative extreme. Nagpapakitang-gilas is how many people perceive it – you know, try to impress President GMA by wielding a pair of newly-sharpened scissors.

If the trailer is that bold, could the whole movie, directed by Ed Palmos, be even bolder?

Interviewed by Funfare last week (before Babes was "X-ed"). Joyce said, "Basta, it’s bolder than Scorpio Nights 2." Then, it must be that bold. In the movie, second venture of newly-appointed Video Regulatory Board Chairman Bong Revilla’s company (with his siblings as co-owners), Joyce plays a woman for hire, so you can just imagine how she sets sex-hungry men on fire.

Joyce has sizzling-hot love scenes with Albert Martinez (as her husband) and Marcus Madrigal (her young lover). "I feel comfortable doing love scenes with Albert because we were together na in Scorpio Nights 2, so okay lang. Besides, we have the same manager (Shirley Kuan)."

Babes proves that, among others, Joyce can swing both ways – that is, be "wholesome" enough for kids to watch her in General Patronage movies (and TV shows) and be very bold exclusively for mature audiences’ eyes only in "X-rated" movies (as was some of her previous starrers, including, that’s it , Scorpio Nights 2 and Warat).

In Babes, you’ll see Joyce at her physical best, flaunting a bronze figure sculptured to near perfection by regular boxing workout which is, according to Joyce, "also my way of coping with stress and releasing pent-up emotions."

After Babes, Joyce will start work on her "reconcialition" film with former lover Jay Manalo, Regal Films’ Paraisong Parisukat (not a remake of the Elwood Perez early ’70s sex-drama topbilled by Alma Moreno). Joyce and Jay already did a movie last year, Viva Films’ Balahibong Pusa (which launched Rica Peralejo as a boldie), but they rarely met on the set because thay didn’t have scenes together.

Will sparks fly, will something be rekindled, now on the set of Paraiso?

In her usual naughty pa-intriga manner, Joyce said, "Jay and I never had any closure after we broke up (years ago). I can’t say that there’s no more chance for us to get back together again. Magkakabalikan ba kami ni Jay? Let me see... Ask me three weeks from now and I’ll give you the answer."