Gelli ready for the F2F challenge; Bianca's 10 unforgettable characters

By the first week of August, Gelli de Belen should be ready to replace the expectant Amy Perez as host of TV5’s top-rating mid-morning  show Face To Face. Amy will gradually fade out in the same manner that Gelli will fade in.

The question is: Can Gelli match Amy’s cool “refereeing” style and Amy’s genuine sympathy for the protagonists who oftentimes engage in a violent confrontation before they also often end up dissolving in each other’s arms in forgiveness?

“I guess I just have to be myself,” said Gelli, a Backroom artist who is not new to hosting a show (the Kapatid Sunday show Game ’N Go and SIS with sister Janice de Belen as co-host). “I don’t think I should copy Amy otherwise hindi natural ang labas,” added Gelli who will be known as Ateng Gelli (Amy is fondly called Tiyang Amy).

Giving unsolicited advice to friends is also not new to Gelli.

“I’m really Ateng Gelli in real life,” admitted Gelli. “Whether my friends like it or not, I meddle in their problems and it’s up to them whether to take it or leave it.”

Most of the time, Gelli’s friends leave it.

“That’s why they end up separating,” she said, mentioning three couples who didn’t heed her advice and split up, but without naming names.

One is an actress who broke up with her first and second husbands, and then her politician-lover. The other is an actress/TV-host who broke up with her husband (due to gender issues) and is now happily living with a partner with whom she has two children and whom she hopes to marry sooner than later. The third is also an actress, related to Gelli, who lost her husband to a beauty queen (now his second legal wife).

“It doesn’t mean that they broke up because I gave them advice,” Gelli hastened to add. “I like to think that they broke up dahil hindi sila nakinig sa akin.”

Gelli is happily married to Ariel Rivera by whom she has two sons.

“I also welcome advice from my friends,” said Gelli, “and it’s also up to me to listen to them or not.”

Like Tiyang Amy, Ateng Gelli can be feisty if necessary, so as Face To Face host she promises to be tough but sympathetic.

“But if I have to,” she warned, “I will use a little force to make pasaway protagonists toe the line.”

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Bianca Gonzalez

Also a Backroom artist, Bianca Gonzalez (“With a ‘z,’ at the end, ha, not an ‘s’,” she reminded) shared the lunch at Napa Resto with Gelli and a few movie writers. Bianca is basking in her recent double victory: “The One” Award at The Globe Tattoo Awards 2012 and Favorite Female TV Host at the OMG Yahoo! Awards.

Bianca writes the Sunday column 10 Things You Should Know About in this paper’s Life so I asked her to make a list of her “10 Unforgettable Characters.” Here it is:

1. My mom and my dad. They are opposites. My mom, Ofel Malasmas (from San Pablo, Laguna) is laking-probinsya while my dad, Chito Gonzalez, is laking-siyudad. You can just imagine what ribbings I got in school because of my middle name! My siblings (brother JC and sister Aissa) and I grew up in the city but my mom would bring us to Laguna for vacation.

2. Leo Garcia. He was my Philosophy professor in Ateneo where I graduated with a Communication Arts degree. Di ba all students have a teacher who kind of opened their minds? That was Prof. Leo to me.

3. Tito Boy Abunda. He was among the first I met in the industry and he became my manager. He’s one person I know na hindi yata nagkaroon ng kaaway. I always bear in mind what he told me, “To be interesting, you have to be interested.” That made an impression on me not only as a TV host but also as a person. I continue to learn from him.

4. The guy who first broke my heart. I don’t even remember his name now even if it happened only two years ago, kasi na-delete ko na sa aking memory, hehehehe!

5. Direk Lauren Dyogi. I was doing Magandang Umaga Pilipinas (MUP) when he recruited me to host Pinoy Big Brother (PBB). He was the one who gave me my first big break as a mainstream host.

6. Ryan Agoncillo. He was my first TV partner when I was fresh out of college, in Y Speak with a movie-review portion on ABS-CBN. Pia Guanio, Ryan’s co-host, moved to GMA 7, so I was taken in as her replacement. Feeling ko si Ryan ang nagtanggal ng training wheel ko. We were together on the show for four years.

7. My current boyfriend (non-showbiz). He’s the one who repaired my broken heart.

8. Rissa Mananquil-Trillo. It was Rissa who introduced me to her mom, Tita Millet, who let me write a column for her section. Tita Millet is strict na mabait.

9. My high school boyfriend. I was only 15 or 16, nasa La Salle Zobel pa ako noon. I wonder where he is now. Ang dami kong natutunan sa kanya.

10. My brother JC and my sister Aissa. JC is married and lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife and their two children. They migrated to the US four years ago. He works for a software company pero rumaraket pa rin siya sa TFC (The Filipino Channel). Aissa is an interior designer; she’s in London.

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