Meet the 7 Violett Belles

Learned that on the day (June 20) Funfare featured the four-boy group G-4, Regal producer Mother Lily Monteverde called up their manager Douglas Quijano early in the morning, finalizing a movie contract for G-4. Douglas, whose friendship with Mother Lily dates back to the ’70s, said yes, but asked that it be a short-term contract, something like three pictures within one or two years.

That same morning, June Torrejon, representing Viva’s big boss Vic del Rosario, also called up Douglas, also offering a movie contract. Needless to say, Douglas had to say no. A second call from Ms. Torrejon came a little later, this time offering a recording deal. He’s studying the offer, along with that of another recording company.

Another caller that day was Ben Chan of Bench, who asked Douglas if he’s interested in the G-4 boys – Jay Aquitania, Andrew Schimmer, Benj Besa, Kiel Rodriguez, whose ages range from 14 to 17 – appearing as models of the Bench fashion line. After all, Douglas’ other stars, Richard Gomez (along with wife Lucy Torres and daughter Juliana), Jomari Yllana, Wendell Ramos, Antonio Aquitania, are Bench models.

The G-4 (Guapo Forever) boys are regulars in the GMA sitcom Kool Ka Lang… Oo Naman.

Mother Lily plans to cast the boys in Gagamboy, topbilled by Vhong Navarro and meant for the December Metro Manila Film Festival.

The pretty G-4 boys may well be the country’s answer to the F4 of Taipei, the stars of ABS-CBN’s top-rating Meteor Garden.

By the way, it must be said that the Chinovela "pioneer" is IBC 13, whose Amazing Twins antedated Meteor Garden by several months. Not to be outrated, GMA came up with three Chinovelas, My MVP Valentine, The Poor Prince and Lavender.

New faces on Click

"Look at these beautiful faces, sila ang panlaban namin," director Mac Alejandre proudly said at the press luncheon introducing the new members of the GMA youth-oriented show Click. Agree. The four guys and four gals have, indeed, exceptional "face value" (the words of colleague Ernie Pecho).

The guys are led by Jolo Revilla, who took after the looks and charm of his parents, Bong Revilla and Lani Mercado. The three other Click guys are neophytes, JC de Vera, Mikel Campos and Jake Cuenca, commercial models all.

Of the Click gals, the most familiar name and face belong to Charina Scott, former child actress and now an attractive teener – with lots of talent to boot. She was a standout in GMA’s Magpakailanman as the mentally-challenged daughter of Susan Roces. The three other Click gals are Denise Laurel, Iya Villania and Valerie Concepcion.

Now, who have more "face value," the boys or the girls? Look at accompanying photos and judge for yourself.

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From the wholesome G-4 and Click, Funfare segues to the sexy Violett Belles, playing the lead roles in Sa Piling ng mga Bellas, written and directed by Joe Carreon and produced by Violett Films.

Joecar and the producer, Madam Violet Sevilla, gathered new and not-so-new-faces and figures for the drama with a period setting, the late ’60s and early ’70s, when the days of cabarets and bellas (or bailarinas) were numbered. The individual stories of the bellas are told amid the din of songs and laughter on the dancefloor, with male patrons buying a ticket worth 25 or 50 centavos, entitling them to a dance with a bella of their choice.

The seven bellas are Luigi Tuazon, Julia Lopez, Sophia Valdez, Jasmin Collins, Jaira Gomez, Sheena Sandoval and Ginger Smith. Supporting them are Mark Anthony Fernandez, Brando Legaspi, Emilio Garcia, Richard Quan and Mark Gil.

Direk Joecar said that Sa Piling ng mga Bellas was meant to be directed by the late Ishmael Bernal, for whom wrote the scripts of Broken Marriage and Ikaw Ay Akin, among many others. But in the early ’80s Bernie urged Joecar to direct the film himself. It took many years before Joecar finally said "action" and "cut" on the set of Bellas, but he’s glad to have found a most supportive producer in the person of Madam Violet Sevilla.