Royal treatment at the FAP

And they said it couldn’t be done. But Albert Martinez and company did it. At the 22nd Film Academy Awards, they literally rolled out the red carpet and treated members of the local movie industry like royalty.

I really wasn’t planning to attend this affair, but Albert Martinez requested GMA 7 lady boss Wilma Galvante for media coverage and Startalk was immediately dispatched to cover the red carpet walk live from the Cultural Center of the Philippines. As expected, I was going to anchor it and I showed no resistance. But wait. The FAP invitation sent to me by Lima Dugtong of the Academy secretariat clearly indicated the dress code: black tuxedo or black barong Tagalog for men.

The last time I had a tuxedo made was 10 years ago and I doubt very much if I could still slip into it (I didn’t even try) because my body shape had changed (not necessarily for the better) in the last decade. Black barong? No way am I dyeing my one and only piña barong black. Sure, there must be a black barong I can buy off-the-rack, but isn’t black barong horribly ugly?

Startalk executive producer Reylie Manalo said she would ask our associate producer Agnes Suriaga to take care of my FAP attire, but with everyone making clothes for the guests and the guests of the guests of President Arroyo during her oath-taking last June 30, no one was willing to rush a tuxedo for me.

With only two days before the FAP Awards, I decided to get the outfit myself. It was then that I went to the Tango/Merger shop in Megamall and with the help of the very amiable Fernan who calls the shots in the store, I had my tuxedo coat and pants in a record time of three minutes. The only problem was that T & M doesn’t sell tuxedo shirts and so off I went to each and every store in Megamall – from building A to B – in search of that white shirt with wing tips. I finally found one in the department store that had one last remaining stock in my size and I grabbed it immediately even if it didn’t fit well. I was going to bury it under the coat anyway.

On the day of the Academy Awards, I left the house early enough to go to CCP for the 2 p.m. red carpet walk. Unfortunately, the red carpet had to be rolled on the side of the CCP because the concrete ramp in front had weakened and could no longer accommodate vehicles.

So wait by the side of the CCP building we did. By 2:15, the red carpet was still unsoiled. Startalk went on the air at 2:30 p.m., with Lolit Solis and guests co-host Ruffa Gutierrez in the GMA 7 EDSA studio. At one point during the opening segment, Ruffa asked me for a list of the stars who had arrived. I paused for a while and took a long breath before I was able to say the one and only star arrival at that moment Vincent Daffalong – in coat.

And then, I saw Boy Abunda who was anchoring for another station and I grabbed him by the arm and pushed him in front of the camera. To hell with the networks war! We had a happy reunion (even only for a few minutes) with one of Startalk’s original hosts.

By 3 p.m. there was still nothing going on at the CCP and I still had no report — except for the arrival of Marissa del Mar. Mercifully, at around close to 4 (which is closing time for Startalk), the stars – ferried in luxury cars from the Philippine Plaza – started arriving in small batches. FAP Director-General Leo Martinez and wife Gina Valenciano, the Starstruck teens, Bella Flores, German Moreno, Luz Valdez, Delia Razon, Nita Javier, Eddie Garcia, Snooky Serna, Cherie Gil, Maricel Laxa, Martin Nievera, Pilar Pilapil, Gary Valenciano, Lloyd Samartino, Christopher de Leon, Pops Fernandez, Regine Velasquez, Gretchen Barretto, the children of Albert and Liezl Martinez, who came with talent manager Shirley Kuan – until I lost count because even I had to be ushered in (Startalk was over by then) because the awards show was supposed to start at 5 p.m.

At the CCP main theater lobby, Tequila Joe and California Pizza Kitchen were serving cocktails to mostly celebrity guests. It was where I had a most delicious discovery: Tequila Joe’s tuna barbecue, which I swear tastes like pork barbecue, but minus the guilt because it is actually fish.

Then it was time to go inside the theater for the awards proper. Originally, they had planned to close the gate at exactly 5 p.m. But the show itself didn’t start until almost 6. Anchoring the affair were Pops Fernandez and Ogie Alcasid, who did a fantastic job of running the show that lasted for about four hours. Except for some technical fumbles, the show was smooth and orderly. Gerard Salonga also kept the proceedings alive with his full Orchestra. Bravo Maestro!

After the awards show, most of the guests proceeded to the director-general’s ball, which was held under an air-conditioned tent at the back of the PICC. Here, we were allowed to mingle and banter with the other guests and I hopped to the table of Madame Violet Sevilla to congratulate her for the grand-slam win of Magnifico. She was with actress-daughter Girlie and the pretty Clara Galvante, who was once part of the Startalk family – having done her on-the-job-training with us last year. For a while, I also said hello to Pops and kidded her about running off with the more than P3-million worth of jewelry lent to her by Bvlgari. It’s not going to be worth it, of course, since she’s bound to leave behind far more precious jewels here: sons Robin and Ram.

In my table were top-notch directors Joel Lamangan, Mel Chionglo and Gil Portes, chef Veanna Fores of Cibo, Mrs. Lily Monteverde and FAP Best Actress winner Maricel Soriano who looked very lovely in her white Filipiniana dress. With Maricel were sister Beck, niece Meryl Soriano (now called Luna by everyone because of Marina) and son Marron, who is on vacation from military school in North Carolina. (The well-mannered boy is finishing his secondary education soon and is proceeding to college also in the US.)

After the delicious dinner came the awarding of the fun awards like Best in Tuxedo (which went to Joel Lamangan, who beat all the hunks present in the party for this prize), Best in Filipiniana (Pops Fernandez – although the first choice was Gretchen Barretto, except that she went home early), Best in Barong (Ricardo Cepeda), etc. It was a clever idea to give these prizes at the ball and not during the awards proper because that would have trivialized the Academy Awards and what it stands for.

I left immediately after dessert and driving on my way home, I felt glad I went to the FAP Awards and had a sampling of its frills and glamour (which I don’t get to experience very often). But, then I also realized that all that was really just icing on the cake. What really mattered was the list of winners (Best Picture all the way down to Best Sound) because that would test once more the credibility of this award-giving body that had been hounded for many years by controversy.

Going over the list of winners, I have to say that I agree with most of the choices. Nothing embarrassing like Lapu-Lapu of last year. With the FAP finally regaining its credibility, I have to say that yes, the 22nd annual Film Academy Awards was a success.