Chronicling Sharon's Mega years

Is there anything we still do not know about Sharon Cuneta? Fans that most of us are, we want to think, not much. Fans have come to believe that they are entitled to know everything about the personal lives of their idols ever since media brought into the open the private lives of celebrities. This privilege is what they get in exchange for all the time and money they spend idolizing the stars. And Sharon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest of them all. So we all want to know everything about Sharon.

But will we ever? There are always attempts to bring out the inner Sharon and there have been many over the past 30 years. Some worked and got a lot of things out, maybe because, Sharon gave them more than what she usually did. A lot of these didn’t, mostly because of preconceived perceptions about the Megastar that turned out to be wrong. At this point in her career, it really seems pointless to try again. What will another in depth interview bring out? Not that Mr. DJ was not actually her first recording again or that she once thought she was Japanese in a previous life. Fans already know those and more.

A book should be able to reveal more but that takes ages to finish. Now putting together a documentary should take less time and be the better choice. That is just what ABS-CBN did this time around and we will know the results this week. Sharon after all is an ABS-CBN star and what better way to celebrate her 30th year in show business than by giving her fans two television specials. One will be the telecast of her Mega Thirty Concert held at the Araneta Coliseum last Aug. 8 on Sunday, Sept. 28 at 8:45 p.m. The other one happens on Sunday, Sept. 21 at the same time. And this is the two-hour documentary Mega Tatlong Dekada.

ABS-CBN has lately had some success with similar projects like the Fernando Poe Jr. and Dolphy documentary. Now I agree that Sharon is so many years younger and her experiences are not quite as many or as colorful as those two cinema legends. But she is also an icon in her own right. She is so, as a singer for all those songs she originated and we have been listening to these past 30 years, for all those movies we watch again and again, for the commercials that urged us to go out and buy whatever she said we should, and just for simply being Sharon, crying over her heartbreaks, loving again, savoring success and a lot more.

Mega Tatlong Dekada chronicles Sharon’s journey across and her contributions to show business. It starts with the usual stuff like being Mayor Pablo Cuneta’s daughter, Mr. DJ, Dear Heart and Gabby Concepcion. Then came Kristina Cassandra and motherhood, the other successes and other leading men, reel, Robin Padilla and real, Francis Pangilinan and her darling little girls Frankie and Miel.

Those are the facts. Stringing those together will be interviews from over a hundred people who know the Megastar well, personally and professionally like her daughter KC who will talk about her Mom and Dad and close friend and “little sister” Judy Ann Santos. Of course, Sharon will also be around to talk about herself and to let loose some deep secret or little bits and pieces we never knew before.

And she did let out more than usual. She actually had no choice because she wanted to please “fan interviewers” Chokoleit and Kakai and because she was pretty much daunted by having three formidable ladies grill her about her private life. These were newscaster Karen Davila who interviewed her for the first time, Bibeth Orteza whom she has known since her Iskul Bukol days with Tito, Vic & Joey and Laurice Guillen, her director and co-star in several movies. Don’t miss this.

Meanwhile, Sharon fans would be glad to know that she is now getting two new albums ready for release. These are collections of her favorite lullabies and songs for children and her first ever covers of original Filipino pop compositions popularized by other artists.