Still able to shock and awe

She turned 43 last Jan. 6 and, at her age, Dina Bonnevie manages to maintain a shapely figure through a strict regimen of diet and exercise.

Dina shocked a lot of people when she posed as cover girl of FHM Magazine and did some very daring poses. That particular issue was sold out, showing that male readers still find Ms. D irresistibly alluring. Didn’t she have any reluctance doing that pictorial?

"None at all since I can still be proud of my waistline and my bust naman is still standing tall," she says. "It’s also my way of showing that women over 40 can still be very fit if they know how to take good care of their body. If you’re in good shape, you don’t have to feel any insecurities about your age."

Is it true her son, Oyoboy Sotto, chided her for doing that sexy pictorial? "That was before he saw the pictures on the magazine. When he did, he saw it was tastefully done and he didn’t complain anymore."

Dina was told not to let her kids Danica, 22, and Oyoboy Sotto, 20, join show business because it might have a negative effect on her own career.

"But I think it would be selfish of me to do that. I think my kids are both talented enough and if they’d succeed on their own, then I’d be very happy for them. Danica has just launched her own album for Dyna Records while Oyo won as Best New Movie Actor in the Star Awards so I’m really proud of them."

Dina feels so blessed that she continues to get plenty of movie offers and good roles. Some actresses failed to do a single movie last year, but she did three: Noon at Ngayon where she was paired with the much younger Jericho Rosales, Chavit with Cesar Montano, and the Metro Manila Filmfest entry, Bridal Shower for which she is now a strong contender as Best Actress in the Entertainment Press Society’s First Golden Screen Awards to be held at the Meralco Theatre tomorrow.

"I also got nominations for past filmfest entries like Tanging Yaman and Tatarin, but they’re dramatic films, so Bridal Shower is really something different because it’s a comedy. My role as Tates, an ad agency executive who knows she’s about to become an old maid and desperately wants to get married, made me realize it’s really harder to make people laugh than to make them cry."

She now plays another hilarious role in Regal Entertainment’s Mother’s Day presentation, I Will Survive, directed by Joel Lamangan.

"I’m really thankful to Mother Lily and Direk Joel as I play a good role as a former beauty queen with an overly adoring husband. This is very different from my role in Bridal Shower where I’m the one chasing my groom. Here, my husband, Tonton Gutierrez, worships the ground I walk on. My friends in the story, Maricel Soriano and Judy Ann Santos, both have unfaithful husbands. Sa akin, sinasamba ako. My conflict here is with my only daughter, Serena Dalrymple, my exact opposite. I’m a glamorous businesswoman who exports silver craft abroad, also a vain and fastidious dresser, while my daughter is a sloppy one. When I finally convinced her na mag-ayos naman, she came out like a punk rocker with spiked hair."

How come she’s doing a film with Regal? Didn’t she have a tiff with Mother Lily after she was junked from the cast of Mano Po 2? "When I lost my role to Lorna Tolentino, I felt really bad because Mother Lily herself told me she and director Erik Matti want me to play the role of the third wife," she replies. "But that’s water under the bridge now and I consider it a blessing in disguise since my role in Bridal Shower proved to be more challenging. What happened made me realize that God really knows what’s best for us. When I saw Mother Lily, I congratulated her for Mano Po 2. I said I saw it and it’s well -made. She was surprised because she thought I’m sore at her. But at this point, I’ve realized life is short and we should try to be in good terms with everyone. I think Mother Lily was touched by my gesture and hosted a party for my birthday last January then offered me I Will Survive. We started shooting the film two days after my birthday."

In I Will Survive, Dina, Maricel, Juday and Eric Quizon are all members of their school’s glee club. "But we belong to different batches," explains Dina. "We became friends because we always meet at the wedding of our vocal coach, Pilita Corrales, who got married five times."

Maricel is married to Jay Manalo, who no longer makes love to her. They have a naughty and oversexed teenage son, Richard Gutierrez. Juday is married to TJ Trinidad and they have a little daughter. Eric has a lover in Reggie Curley and has an adopted son, Jay Aquitania, who is shocked when he learns that Eric is gay.

If you notice, the cast members are taken from four entries in the Metro Manila Filmfest last December. Dina is from Bridal Shower, Maricel is from Filipinas, Eric is from Crying Ladies, while Judy Ann, Jay and Richard are from Mano Po 2.

Dina is one of the original Regal Babies, launched in Katorse in 1980. She met Vic Sotto while doing Age Doesn’t Matter in 1981 and they fell in love. Her career took backseat for a while but she made a successful comeback in the mid-’80s in Tinik Sa Dibdib, Palimos ng Pag-ibig and Magdusa Ka, for which she won several Best Actress awards. She’s been active ever since, continuing to do lead roles, hosting her own TV talk show, and doing soap operas. She’s glad to be reunited with Maricel in I Will Survive.

"We’ve done several films before, like Underage, Schoolgirls, Age Doesn’t Matter, Ride On Baby and Abot Kamay ang Langit. While shooting I Will Survive, Maricel and I did a lot of reminiscing. Imagine, our first film together, Underage was made in 1980, 24 years ago na. And since then, we have both mellowed. Si Maricel, hindi na siya masyadong babaeng bakla at hindi na mataray. We’ve both become very devout Christians so we talked a lot about spirituality."

Of her own kids, Dina admits daughter Danica is going steady with drummer Mark Escueta of RiverMaya while son Oyoboy is dating his Ikaw Sa Puso Ko leading lady, Nadine Samonte.

Has she met Nadine? "Yes, dinala ni Oyo sa house last week and my hair stood on end because she looks like me when I was younger. Oyo himself told me, di ba kamukha mo, Mama?"

She delivered Danica when she was only 20. Now that her kids are also in showbiz, what advice does she give them? "I’m grateful that they’re basically good kids," she says. "But what I usually tell them is not to hurry to get old. When I became a mom myself, that’s when I realized that your mom truly knows best what’s good for you and this is what I try to convey to them, that I’m an ally, not an enemy. I tell them not to be too serious about love as they’re both still so young. Besides, Danica is even leaving to pursue her studies in Switzerland this July and Oyo also wants to enroll in college. I’m praying that they will be able to finish college because showbiz can be so unstable it’s always best for them to have another career to fall back on."