Doing a love scene, Derek Ramsay style

If ever a poll is done on who the movie world’s reigning Kissing Bandit is, I would bet my, as the song Carmelita puts it, “bottom peso” that Derek Ramsay will emerge the winner hands (rather, pants?) down. Thanks to his derring-do in passionate scenes, Derek can also handily run away with another title…The Love Machine.

In TVCs, billboards and advertisements, Derek blithely and unapologetically displays his to-die-for body, so every-inch perfect that he personifies a present-day Adonis. Ask the actresses who have had onscreen close encounters with Derek, including Anne Curtis and Cristine Reyes (No Other Woman), Heart Evangelista (Trophy Wife), Jennylyn Mercado (English Only Please), his ex-girlfriend Solenn Heussaff (Love is Blind) and even Kiray (also in Love is Blind).

Add Lovi Poe to the fast-growing roster of Derek’s…conquests?

In Regal Films’ The Escort, directed by Enzo Williams (the Robin Padilla starrer Bonifacio, etc.), Derek plays an ex-escort abandoned by his mom at a tender age and dumped by her fiancée a few days before their wedding; while Lovi plays the woman who makes Derek’s heart beat (faster!) again.

During their love scenes (you must have seen the trailer, haven’t you?), Derek and Lovi “threw caution to the wind” in pursuit of realism, for the “sake of art.” Opening nationwide on Nov. 2, The Escort could be the two stars’ boldest movie so far.

You wonder, how does Derek handle those love scenes with ease (and finesse)?

Let Derek count the ways…

• He brushes his teeth thoroughly and gargles mouthwash.

• He takes a good bath and sprays his body with his favorite cologne.

• He chews gum before the take.

These stills show the chronology of Derek and Lovi’s choreographed love scene in The Escort, while director Enzo Williams plays ‘turn-on’ music as background

• He protects his love-scene partner by shielding her crucial parts.

• He doesn’t take advantage of his partner.

• He assures his partner, “Okey ka lang? I guarantee you that you will be safe.”

• He makes sure that he doesn’t get carried away. (“How can you when there are so many people watching during the shoot?,” said Derek.) He thanked direk Enzo for playing a (turn-on?) song to put him and Lovi in the mood.

• He internalizes his character so that when the director yells, “Lights, camera, action!”, he is not Derek Ramsay anymore.

• He respects his partner before, during and after the shoot.

• He doesn’t fake it. (“Otherwise, the audience will feel cheated.”)

Abi Prieto, director of Lola Divas

Lola Divas showing in LA

Abi Prieto’s thesis film Lola Divas is showing this month in Los Angeles at a film festival called “Filipinos on Film.” The documentary film features the oldest drag queens in Manila and their journey — finding love and family on stage and aging with humor and grace despite facing discrimination in a conservative Filipino culture.

Abi graduated with honors from New York Film Academy Los Angeles’ Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Filmmaking in 2015. She has since worked for an impressive array of production companies and projects, such as the distribution company Good Docs, and volunteered for the International Documentary Association. She was associate producer for a short film, Piece of Cake, by Riot Life Films which partnered with the non-profit organization Free2Luv.

She has three independent documentary projects in the works and has just joined the team of a documentary feature titled Moving Portraits Project, directed by lifestyle photographer Bryan Alano.

Said Abi, “This project is very close to my heart because it was shot in my home country, the Philippines, and follows the story of a photographer and a prosthetist (a person who designs, fabricates, fits or services a prosthesis) as they travel to Cagayan de Oro to help amputees who cannot afford proper health treatment. I am very excited about this project as a video editor and am looking forward to giving a voice and identity to Filipinos when it comes to documentary films by telling a story that will touch hearts across all cultures.”

A poem by a teenager battling with cancer

My good friend Joseph Chua asked me to share with Funfare readers the following poem he said was written by a teenager with cancer at a New York hospital. “It was sent by a medical doctor,” said Joseph, adding, “make sure to read what is in the closing statement.”

Here it is:

Slow Dance

Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short. The music won’t last.

Do you run through each day on the fly?

When you ask, “How are you?”

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed,

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short. The music won’t last.

Ever told your child, “We’ll do it tomorrow?”

And in your haste not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, let a good Friendship die? ‘Cause you

Never had time to call and say, “Hi!”?

You’d better slow down. Don’t dance so fast.

Time is short. The music won’t last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere,

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day

It is like an unopened gift thrown away.

Life is not a race. Do take it slower.

Hear the music before the song is over.

A reminder from Joseph:

“Please pass this poem to people you know. It is a request of a special girl who will soon leave this world. This young girl has six months left to live, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to live his life to the fullest, since she never will. She’ll never make it to the prom or graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own.

“By sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her family a little hope because every name that this is sent to, the American Cancer Society will donate three cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan.”

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