MiG Ayesa not in the cast of Ages movie

First, the good news: Shooting of the movie version of the hit Broadway musical Rock of Ages has already started, with New Line Cinema as producer.

It’s the same musical in which Fil-Aussie singer-actor MiG Ayesa (cousin of celebrity lawyer Katrina Legarda) played the lead role as Stacee Jaxx in the musical’s US national tour. American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis (who visited the Philippines in 2005) was also on the tour, reprising his role as Drew which he originated on Broadway.

It was Funfare that broke the story filed by Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre who also wrote the follow-ups, with Raoul Tidalgo doing a glowing review of MiG’s performance during the musical’s kick-off show in Chicago last year.

Now, the sad news: MiG is not in the cast of the Hollywood version, with Tom Cruise leading the cast as Stacee Jaxx, according to a report from New Line Cinema publicists. Warner Bros. Pictures will distribute the movie worldwide. The cast also includes Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Mary J. Blige, Malin Akerman, Bryan Cranston, Julianne Hough and actor singer Diego Boneta.

As Funfare reported, Cruise watched Rock Of Ages in Los Angeles and even congratulated MiG on his performance.

Directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray, etc.), the movie is being shot entirely in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area.

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Now that he’s making a name as an actor and TV host (the TV5 early Sunday-evening show that reveals magic tricks), is Kean Cipriano cutting his ties with the band Callalilly and going solo?

In a way, yes, but actually he’s not. Confusing? Not really.

Kean is just doing the vocals for Ctrl+Alt+Delete+Restart Featuring Kean Cipriano of Callallily, the maiden venture of Big Band Syndicate (BBS), the company put up by Darwin Hernandez of Soupstar Entertainment and Rye Sarmiento of 6Cyclemind who also wrote all the songs on the album carrying an all-pop repertoire.

Without a permanent band to play the songs, Darwin and Rye handpicked the artists for the vocals, the bass guitars, the drums and other elements that would complete each song. They chose Kean for all the songs.

Among the other artists on the album: Raimund Marasigan of Sandwich on drums and keyboards (for Payong Kapatid), Buddy Zabala of the Dawn on bass (Payong Kapatid), and Jay Durias of South Border on keyboards and vocals (Pawiin).

Now playing is the album’s first single, Wala Na Tayo, which is currently No. 1 in the MYX music channel’s countdown, No. 1 on Energy FM; and No. 3 on Tugtugan 97.1, Monster Radio RX 93.1 and Tambayan 101.9 radio station countdown charts.

The song is being rotated on other radio stations such as Jam 88.3, Love Radio, YES FM 101.1, Star FM 102.7, Mellow 94.7 and provincial stations.

Yes, Kean is indeed going solo but only for the BBS album.

What’s up?

• Healing priest Fr. Joey Faller (photo) will celebrate his birthday with a dinner-concert entitled A Symphony of Blessing and Healing on Saturday, June 18, 7 p.m. at the Kamay ni Hesus Shrine in Lucban, Quezon, featuring Aiza Seguerra, with Fame Flores, Dax Martin, Fr. Angie Jaballa, maybe Dulce and Fr. Faller himself. Sponsored by families and friends of Kamay ni Hesus, the concert is intended to raise funds for the construction of the shrine’s healing and convention center.

Who’s this guy?

When he sang two songs (Beautiful in My Eyes and Your Body is a Wonderland) at the Hotmen show last June 4, the SRO audience was asking Gorgy Rula, the show producer: ‘Who’s that guy?’ He’s none other than John Vincent (turning 19 on Dec. 6), a discovery of Lolit Solis. He graduated high school at University of San Carlos in Cebu where he hails from. Now a varsity player (point guard) of UST’s Tigers, John Vincent is a Commerce sophomore at the Pontifical University. He’s the son of Jovie Sepe, a national sales marketing manager of San Miguel, and Bebot Suquillo who are good friends of philanthropist Pinky Tobiano. ‘It was Pinky who recommended John Vincent to me,’ said Lolit. ‘He can sing and dance.’ John Vincent auditioned for Party Pilipinas last Saturday.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare.)