Ladies of substance

The accomplished women of local show business were all over television the whole week and they made for very interesting viewing fare.

The biggest gathering was on Master Showman, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a two-part star-studded celebration (Part 2 airs tonight). Opening the show was no less than the Megastar Sharon Cuneta, who sang and later introduced the Master Showman, German Moreno. I thought that was so big of Sharon to have done all those chores.

Usually, a homecoming queen (Sharon is from German’s old turf, GMA Supershow) is the one given salutations and is never made to work. You save her for last, dump flowers on her and sing her praises.

But in the case of Sharon, she commandeered the show’s early portion and worked like she was one of the regular hosts — all because she wanted to give importance to the man of the hour, German Moreno. That was really so nice of her and here we see another one of show business’ good qualities being practiced: Gratitude. (Gratitude, however, is not necessarily good in politics.)

The following day, Sharon was again on GMA 7 — on SOP — to promote her concert at the Araneta Coliseum tonight. In one segment of the show, she was reunited with friend from way back, Joey de Leon (there to promote Volume 2 of his Joey to the World) and it was a riot.

Of course, that Sunday evening Sharon Cuneta was back on home ground — on her own show (Sharon) and official network, ABS-CBN. Her guest that night was another accomplished woman in show business, Lea Salonga, and there was so much to talk about between them. What I relished most, however, was their duet of Sana Maulit Muli at the end. Imagine two of the country’s (the world’s even) best voices blending together.

But going back to the gathering of accomplished women on Master Showman, we saw more of them because in one segment they put together two pop divas — Kuh Ledesma and Regine Velasquez, who, of course, are regulars of the competing Sunday noontime shows ASAP and SOP.

What fun it was to watch these two women — with Regine ribbing German Moreno no end about giving her P5,000 since the veteran host supposedly gives that amount to people who guest in that program. Hold it right there. How come I haven’t appeared as guest on Master Showman? Maybe I can collect P5,000 from Kuya Germs. Ha! Ha! Ha!

The truth is, there was a plan a couple of years ago for me to appear in his birthday special and grill him right there. For some reason, that never pushed through. I’m still open to it — for P5,000! Another round of Ha! Ha! Ha!

For Kuya Germs, I’m willing to do it for a gift pack of Hapee toothpaste, Pilita’s pizza and even shirts from Jewels (even if I already have a lot of that — being one of the three endorsers) — all those giveaways he hands over to his guests.

And speaking of giveaways, Judy Ann Santos, another one of showbiz’s accomplished ladies (so young and yet already so successful), got the best deal among the guest stars who showed up for the Master Showman anniversary program. As a pre-wedding present to her and fiancé Ryan Agoncillo, German Moreno gave them the couch where they conducted the on-cam interview. No, Judy Ann didn’t have to carry it all the way home. German promised to have it delivered to her house right after the show.

After that weekend with most of the entertainment world’s accomplished women making themselves visible on television, who do I see middle of the week, but another one of our successful ladies in show business: Maricel Soriano being interviewed by Ali Sotto in the latter’s ABC 5 show. Too bad, I only caught parts of the interview. But surely that was a ball.

It was a tell-all about herself. According to Maricel, she has an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For instance, she doesn’t sit on her bed in her street clothes and showers first and changes before going under the sheets. Frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with that because the bed has to be kept clean at all times and lying or sitting down on it in clothes that had gone around the very dirty and polluted Metro Manila isn’t exactly what I’d call good hygienic practice.

Maricel Soriano is also very particular about how the clothes in her closet are arranged (color coding — including the hangers). Again, I don’t find anything wrong with that. To me, that’s just being orderly. Oh no! Could it be possible that I also have OCD? It had to take that interview with Maricel Soriano for me to confirm what I have already suspected a long time ago about myself.

Actually viewers really learn a lot listening to these accomplished women of show business talk. After all, it’s the voice of experience that you hear.

These ladies weren’t always that articulate (maybe except for Lea Salonga). Neither were they all that feisty before (with Maricel Soriano as the exception). But all those years of ups and downs in the entertainment profession gave them the confidence and the eloquence to speak in public.

After paying their dues in show business, they’ve earned the right to say what they want to say and we’re here to listen to them.

Cheers to these accomplished ladies of show business!