JLC loses hair for Honor Thy Father

For John Lloyd Cruz (JLC) who values his hair as much as he does his face (he and Angel Locsin are endorsing Head & Shoulders shampoo), there must have been a good reason for him to agree to lose it for a movie, Reality Entertainment’s Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry Honor Thy Father (formerly titled Conman) directed by Erik Matti.

“It was an act of courage,” said John Lloyd. “Mas mahirap magpakalbo kaysa pumatay,” without giving away his character (for the benefit of those who haven’t watched the movie).

Besides being his first time ever to join MMFF, John Lloyd considers the movie (graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board) a “brand-new experience, a dream project come true,” echoed by Regal Matriarch Mother Lily Monteverde who revealed that making a movie with John Lloyd was a long-time dream. (HTF took over the slot vacated by Gil Portes’ Hermano Puli.)

HTF premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival where it received good reviews from The Hollywood Reporter which described it as “a strong portrait of inequality and vigilante justice in modern Philippines.” It’s the latest collaboration of Reality producers Erik and Dondon Monteverde (Mother Lily’s son), after Prosti, Pa-Siyam, Exodus, Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles, Rigodon, Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2 and the critically-acclaimed action-thriller On The Job (OTJ) for which Piolo Pascual (as a cop) and Gerald Anderson (as a hired killer) were widely praised. John Lloyd is co-producer of HTF. He has worked with Erik on a TV commercial.

John Lloyd with child actress Krystal Brimmer (as his daughter) and Meryll Soriano (as his wife) in the scenes calculated to make the audience cry…and cry

“After OTJ,” said Erik, “I wanted to do a family drama. I think the movie will make even Popoy’s fans cry,” referring to John Lloyd’s character in A Second Chance (with Bea Alonzo as his girlfriend Basha) which is turning out to be the Philippines’ all-time box-office hit with a staggering P450M-plus gross so far (and counting).

Written by Michiko Yamamoto, HTF is the saga of a father named Edgar (John Lloyd). The investment business run by Edgar’s wife Kaye (Meryll Soriano) collapses, prompting co-financiers to pressure the couple to return their money. Kaye turns to her formalist church to borrow their past donations. The church’s bishop (played by Tirso Cruz III whose performance is said to be “pang-award”) turns down the request and simply gives them prayers. Edgar is forced to resort to extreme measures to keep his wife and their daughter Angel (played by Krystal Brimmer) safe and alive.

Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez, who with Kahlil Ramos play John Lloyd’s brothers, confirmed what Erik said.

“No actor has ever made me cry,” Dan confessed, “only John Lloyd. I watched A Second Chance twice and I cried. I cried again when I watched the ending of Honor Thy Father,” adding as he turned to John Lloyd during the presscon, “ikaw, ha, pinaiiyak mo ako.”

Like Erik, Dondon is all praises for Krystal who, against her parents’ wishes, readily parted with her curly and wavy locks, saying, “maski ayaw ng mommy at daddy ko, ginawa ko ‘yon dahil ‘yon po ang dapat sa isang tunay na artista,” drawing applause from those at the presscon.

“It was needed in the scene,” explained Dondon. “In the story, a bad couple (played by Yayo Aguila and Lander Vera-Perez), who lost their investment, shaves the head of Krystal. The girl is so embarrassed that she refuses to go out of the house. To console his daughter, John Lloyd shaves his head and assures Krystal that there’s nothing wrong with being bald.”

John Lloyd is so proud of HTF that, he said, he wouldn’t have any other film as his MMFF “debut.”

“Ito ang gusto kong entry,” John Lloyd reiterated.

There’s no way of telling whether or not HTF will or can equal the box-office gross of A Second Chance, but the fearless forecast is that John Lloyd will, knock on wood, run away with the Best Actor plum.

Asked about his reaction, John Lloyd said, “I’m not good at predicting. But more than the awards, I’m more concerned about how the audience will receive the movie,” adding that he’s excited to join the Parade of Stars on Wednesday, Dec. 23, that ushers in the 10-day MMFF (Dec. 25 to Jan. 3, 2016).

The New York Times features Loida Nicolas Lewis

Fil-Am philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis on the Food Section of The New York Times’ Dec. 9, 2015 issue

Fil-Am philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis shares her pride in her native Sorsogon and her love for lobsters in a story in the The New York Times’ online Lifestytle & Food Section. Author Ligaya Mishan wrote a little about Lewis’ history, from her birthplace in Sorsogon City and her father’s plans for her to run for public office to the first time she ate lobster during a night out with her future husband, Reginald F. Lewis.

Excerpt:

“The philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis grew up by the sea, in Sorsogon, in the Philippines, listening to her father bargain with fishermen for sapsap (ponyfish) and “fresh shrimp, still jumping.” But the first time she tasted lobster was at Max’s Kansas City, the artist and punk refuge in downtown Manhattan.

This was in 1969. Andy Warhol may have been in the back room. No matter: Ms. Lewis had eyes only for her date and soon-to-be husband, Reginald F. Lewis, and the lobster. It cost $4.95. She ate it down to the shells.

Mr. Lewis, a corporate lawyer who would go on to be hailed as the first African-American to head a billion-dollar company, watched her, mesmerized. (His life is chronicled in the book “Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?”) He didn’t fancy lobster himself. “Too much work,” recalled Ms. Lewis, now 72.

A former immigration lawyer, Ms. Lewis helped found the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and multiplied the profits of her husband’s business, TLC Beatrice International, after his death, at age 50, in 1993.

She has never prepared a lobster. For this she relies on Delia Juarez, a native of Iloilo City in the Philippines, who presents it simply broiled, with a finger bowl’s worth of melted butter and half a lemon, carved into a flower.

Ms. Lewis did cook for her husband and their two daughters when they were little. “I had three dishes,” she said. “Fried chicken, pork chop, sinigang” (the last one a distinctively sour Filipino soup). For her grandchildren, she occasionally slips a tablespoon of brown sugar into spaghetti sauce or bastes ribs in hoisin and sautés broccoli with lobster sauce (which contains no lobster).

“I cook pretty good,” she said. “They eat it all.”

A version of Mishan’s article also appeared in print on Dec. 9, 2015, on page D6 of the New York edition with the headline From First Blush, a Love of Lobster.

A Christmas story, sort of

A ceiling-high Christmas Tree serves as backdrop for a ‘family picture’ with Pinky Tobiano and her husband Juancho Robles (fourth and fifth from left) and their friends (from left) Salve Asis, Jojo Gabinete, Shirley Pizarro, Ricky Lo, Gorgy Rula, Lolit Solis and Jun Lalin during a Christmas lunch the couple hosted at their new home at a posh Quezon City subdivision

Here’s a heart-warming (untitled) story perfect for the Yuletide season, contributed by philanthropist Pinky Tobiano:

A lovely little girl was holding two apples in both hands.

Her mum came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile, “My sweetie, could you give your mum one of your two apples?”

The girl looked up at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple and then quickly on the other.

The mum felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.

Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mum, and said, “Mummy, here you are. This is the sweeter one.”

Moral of the story?

Pinky: “No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay judgment. Give others the privilege to explain themselves. What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others.

“Which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.”

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