Goodbye, Willie! Hello, Karen?

Curtain-raisers:

• Don’t look now but showbiz-watchers abroad (especially the US) sometimes learn about developments in local showbiz ahead of us natives. Funfare got this piece of "scoop" from my New York DPA: Karen Davila might replace Willie Revillame as host of the ABS-CBN Saturday show Willingly Yours (which is pitted against GMA 7’s Wish Ko Lang hosted by Bernadette Sembrano. As soon as Karen takes over, with Abner Mercado as the new director, the show will be retitled simply Kapamilya and not Karenly Yours (doesn’t sound good, does it?).

• Could it be true that a hunky actor is a two-timer? He doesn’t admit it but everybody knows he’s going steady with the pretty sister of a popular actor. The hunky actor said he’d marry the girl anytime she’d say she’s ready. But according to a Funfare DPA, the actor is having a rendezvous with a pretty noontime show co-host (romantically linked to a cager) at their favorite gym. "They even hold hands," said the DPA. "When he leaves, the actor tells the girl that he’s going to work when in fact he’s visiting his other – the real? – girlfriend." In Tagalog, they call it namamangka sa dalawang ilog. Is the hunky actor having his cake and eating it, too? But for how long?

• One more foreign act coming soon. Remember Gary Lewis and the Playboys (very popular in the ’60s)? Gary, son of comedian Jerry Lewis, married a Filipina, Jinky Suzara, but they later divorced. Gary Lewis and the Playboys will perform on Dec. 5 at the Music Museum and Dec. 6 at Hard Rock Café Makati. It will be a party complete with a contest on the "Best ’60s" attire (at stake is a cruise for two on Star Cruises). Opening both shows is Ramon "RJ" Jacinto. Baby Boomers are reminded to come and join the party. (For tickets, call 844-4553).

Francine Is Balik-Seiko

Did you know that Francine Prieto (formerly known as Ana Marie Falcon) is a balik-Seiko with her new film, Liberated, launching her as a bold star?

When Francine was eight years old, she played Gretchen Barretto’s little sister in Seiko’s Hindi Laruan ang Puso and at nine, the little Nanette Medved in another movie. From 1993 to 1996, Francine was a member of German Moreno’s That’s Entertainment, "alma mater" of some of today’s bold stars (including Patricia Javier, Ara Mina and Maricar de Mesa).

As a teenager, Francine was cast in another Seiko movie, Tukso, Layuan Mo Ako, where, she remembers, "nilandi-landi ko si Leandro (Baldemor)." In 1997, she was launched by Regal Films in Abuso (directed by Tata Esteban) which didn’t click. "No bold scenes kasi, e," admits Francine.

She was only 15 then and was not ready to go bold. There have been lots of offers for her to, well, "let go" but Francine begged off because she was joining the Bb. Pilipinas contest last summer. During the screening, Francine (and the other contestants) were asked, among other questions, if they would go bold if offered a fat sum, or if she would pose for Playboy. "I answered ‘no’ to both questions," smiles Francine. "But as you can see, I have eaten my words. What made me change my mind? Well, Seiko made a good offer; the company has a good record of building up bold stars (Rosanna Roces, etc.)."

In the movie, Francine plays one of the "liberated" girls (along with Diana Zubiri and Tuesday Vargas). She insists that every part of her 5’10"/36-26-36 body is original; nothing has been tampered with.

Before shooting the movie (directed by Mac Alejandre), Francine and her co-stars (also including Rodel Velayo, Christian Vasquez and Reggie Curly) underwent a "sensuality workshop" where they groped each other totally naked – oops! no malice! – to help them shed their inhibitions so they would be comfortable with their (naked bodies) and with each other especially during the love scenes.

"It worked," claims Francine.

There’s a price to pay. A B.S. Psychology sophomore at an exclusive girls’ school run by nuns, Francine was expelled because of her decision to go bold, branding it "lewd conduct." Next school year, Francine will transfer to another ("non-religious") school.

Did she have any regrets?

"No," says Francine who’s part-Chinese, part-Spanish and part-Filipino. "I decided to go bold with an open mind. Nobody has forced me into it."

Rodel Essays Gay Role

In Liberated, Rodel Velayo doesn’t have any love/kissing scene with either Diana Zubiri or Francine Prieto. Unusual for one of Seiko’s prized bold actors who has romanced on screen most of the Seiko bold actresses isn’t it?

The reason is that Rodel is playing a gay role.

"But I also don’t have any love or kissing scene with any guy," says Rodel. "Sayang nga, e," he adds, joking.

Part of his "conditioning," according to Rodel, was not dating guys but watching movies with actors playing gay, such as Rupert Everett, the chum of Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding. "I patterned my acting after his," says Rodel who has been out of circulation for more than a year.

Did he have any second thought about playing gay?

"None, I’m confident with myself, I’m secure with myself."

Because of Rodel’s performance in Liberated, director Jeffrey Jeturian included him in the cast of the other Seiko movie, Bridal Shower.

"At first," says Rodel, "ayaw sa akin ni Direk Jeffrey dahil hindi daw ako marunong umarte. But he changed his mind when he saw me in the trailer of Liberated."

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