Lessons from Kris and Joey

The Kris Aquino-Joey Marquez scandal will surely go down showbiz history as one of the ugliest quarrels in the entertainment industry. But as always, something good still comes out of something bad.

When the scandal first leaked out two weeks ago, I immediately sensed that this would be good business for television, radio and the newspapers. Well, that’s not really a good thing – media making money out of the misery of others. But then, both Joey and Kris decided to come out in media and media men, being media men, are no fools to ignore a spectacle that juicy.

Of course, some tabloids really went beyond the bounds of decency while dishing out every bit of morsel in this verbal war between Kris and Joey. Sadly, at the height of this Kris-Joey scandal, we saw journalism at its deepest shade of yellow.

Even television went overboard at times in its coverage of the Kris-Joey bloody breakup with the news programs devoting more time to Kris and Joey than to the bar exams scandal, the developments on the Jose Pidal case and the activities of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Oh, was she away? I didn’t notice.

Yes, television had a field day – with ratings soaring not only for the movie talk shows but for the public affairs programs as well. Every show just had to have a Kris-Joey story — except maybe for the Sunday Mass on TV.

After this is over, maybe media should start assessing once more its priorities and its responsibility to the public.

I’m just glad that I was wrong when I predicted that the Kris-Joey scandal would affect even the movie business because I presumed that people would just come home and watch TV for the latest updates on Kris and Joey rather than shell out hard-earned money to watch movies. The Aga Muhlach-Sharon Cuneta movie, Kung Ako na Lang Sana, you see, still did very well at the box office even if everyone was so engrossed with the Kris-Joey story.

Well, like a good movie, there are lessons to learn from the Kris-Joey verbal tussles on TV. Like what the Gabriela members said. Kris Aquino put a face on the growing battered women problem in this country. Most abusive husbands must now be thinking twice – and I sincerely hope so – about beating up their wives, which should never, never be allowed.

And thanks to Kris’ admission about the STD issue, everyone now seems to be so careful about hitting the sack and doing something else in the sack with just about anybody.

But until when are we all going to be careful? I bet that as soon as the Kris-Joey issue fades away (and it should fade away soon because Kris has already forgiven Joey), we’ll all forget about the STD and we’ll all be careless once more until some celebrity comes out again, this time with a more dreadful sexually transmitted infection.

The Kris-Joey affair must have also taught us to be more careful about jumping into illicit relationships because as Joey and Kris have proven, everyone gets burned here.

Kris Aquino’s revelations also served as a reminder to husbands and wives never to put down their respective spouses because this is also a form of abuse.

Other positive things that came out of the Kris-Joey controversy is the fact that it showed the fine traits of some celebrities whose names were dragged into the mess. I salute Vic Sotto for keeping quiet during the entire time that his name was unnecessarily being mentioned especially at the height of the scandal.

On the part of Robin Padilla and Phillip Salvador, I admire them all the more now for having kept their cool and not joining in the fray in spite of all the nasty things that were supposedly (stress on the supposedly) said against them by Joey.

Of course, a couple of starlets didn’t let this opportunity pass by without their getting their share of the limelight. However, I’m still glad that the spotlight had been focused on Stella L. because – for those who are not aware of this – she is a fine actress. Last year, I happened to see one of her films, Biglang-Liko, where she played a lesbian TV anchor and I must say that her performance was quite impressive – and I said so in my review of the film. Now that the public is already quite familiar with her (but what a way to get noticed), I hope she gets more television and film offers because she can be developed into a fine performer both on TV and on the big screen.

Finally, one good thing that came out of this Kris-Joey issue is the fact that they were able to prove that asking for forgiveness is always divine and more importantly – as we say in the vernacular – walang hindi nadadaan sa magandang usapan.

I just hope that we all learned something from the Kris-Joey affair – no matter how messy it was. After all, didn’t they both pay dearly for those little lessons in life?