Will the AlDub Fever spread into the big screen?
That, so far, is the big guessing game as word circulated that AlDub pair Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza have been tapped as additional member of Romcom-Min Mo Ako, Ai-Ai delas Alas and Vic Sotto’s 2015 Metro Manila Film festival (MMFF) entry.
The plan is a well-kept secret that even Ai-Ai is neither denying nor confirming it.
“Ewan ko,” she told her close movie writer friends during a thanksgiving lunch (for the success of her new GMA noontime show Sunday PINASaya) she hosted last week at Victorino’s (at the corner of Scout Rallos and 11th Jamboree Sts., Quezon City), three days before she left Monday (Aug. 31) for the US. But she made a Freudian slip, “Ayoko magsalita baka pagalitan na naman ako. Ayaw nila ipasabi.”
Alden and Yaya Dub haven’t spoken yet, only lipsynching lines from songs and movies fed to them by the creative team behind the phenomenal kalyeserye hit of Eat, Bulaga! If ever they appear in the Ai-Ai/Vic movie, will Alden and Yaya Dub finally find their own voice(s)? Stay tuned.
On Sept. 5 (Saturday), Ai-Ai will grace the 10th-anniversary GMA Pinoy TV celebration dubbed #Sampuso With Kapusong Pinoy in New York with Dingdong Dantes, Christian Bautista, Julie Anne San Jose and Betong Sumaya. Before that, she will be in California for three days to check on the house in Chino Hills that she bought during her last US trip and also for the graduation of her son Niccolo (“He will be a machinist,” said Ai-Ai). Niccolo and sister Sophia are taken care of by their father, Miguel Vera (a US resident with his new family). Ai-Ai’s boyfriend Gerald Sibayan is also graduating (Sports Management) from De La Salle University.
“Uy,” Ai-Ai clarified, addressing Gerald, “sabihin mo sa kanila na ikaw ang nagpa-graduate sa sarili mo ha. Baka akalain nila ako ang nagpa-aral sa’yo.”
Ai-Ai will be back on Monday, Sept. 7 (eve of the birthday of Mama Mary, celebrated as fiesta in Las Navas, Northern Samar; Calbayog City, Western Samar; and Borongan City in Eastern Samar) and will sponsor a Marian Mass (Ai-Ai is a Marian devotee). Then, she will start shooting for Romcom-Min Mo Ako and that means she will have to be celibate as is her practice when she shoots a movie.
How long will she stay, uhm, celibate (actually, the right term for that abstention is “being chaste,” according to Kris Aquino)?
“Until the end of the shoot,” said Ai-Ai.
Will Gerald, ehem, understand?
“Oo naman!” said Ai-Ai, “alam na n’ya ‘yon.” The ever-shy, ever-quiet Gerald blushed and nodded.
After the shoot, Ai-Ai will take a quick trip to Japan to look for the Japanese father of Jiro Manio whom Ai-Ai has adopted. Jiro is at a rehab center and will hopefully be recovered in December when Ai-Ai plans to bring him to Japan for his long-delayed meeting with the father that he hasn’t met since he was born.
“But first,” said Ai-Ai, “I will have to inform his father para hindi naman mabigla. I have already found his address with the help of my friends in Japan.”
Incidentally, Ai-Ai will have another GMA show which will premiere on Sept. 19. Her personal magazine, aptly called Ailabyu, is out and it carries everything (well, almost!) that you’ve must have wanted to ask Ai-Ai but didn’t have the chance to. Two more issues are coming out in November and December.
Pinoy short film wins second prize in Moscow Video Fest
Junilyn Has, a short film by Carlo Francisco Manatad (photo), won second prize in the 14th International Kansk Video Festival in Kansk, Moscow.
The 15-minute film about a “moody portrait of the routine domestic life and quiet escape planning of a nightclub dancer,” had its world premiere in the Pardi di domani, Concorso internazionale of the 68th Festival del film Locarno, in Switzerland, Aug. 5 to 10.
It is now competing in the 14th Silhouette Film Festival in Paris, France, until today and in the International Shorts Competition of the 20th Split International Festival of New Film, Sept. 12 to 15, in Split, Croatia, and Wide Angle Short Film Showcase of the 20th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 1 to 10, in Busan, South Korea.
A native of Tacloban City who is promoting Waray-Waray Cinema, Manatad obtained his degree in Film from the University of the Philippines Film Institute and is currently a faculty member at the Digital Filmmaking Program in De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. — Reported by Celso de Guzman Caparas
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com.)