By Ruben V. Nepales
J.J. Abrams is doing what no man has done before— jump from directing “Star Trek Into Darkness” to “Star Wars: Episode VII.” Asked for his mindset going from one big project to an even grander film, one that has been raising a lot of expectations since it was announced, J.J. said in a recent interview, “Every project that I’ve been lucky to be involved in felt like an opportunity that was more exciting than it was intimidating.
Posted: May 18th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—Ken Jeong is back naked in “The Hangover Part III.” He claimed that this time it was not his idea. “In the first movie, that was my idea,” Ken said of the scene in which he jumps buck naked from a car trunk, landing right in front of Bradley Cooper. “I think Todd Phillips [...]
Posted: May 16th, 2013 | in Columnists | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
“I don’t know why it hasn’t been told,” actor-director Diego Luna said of Cesar Chavez who, along with Filipino and Mexican migrant workers, organized the first successful farm workers union in American history. Diego grabbed the chance to tell the saga of the farm labor leader and civic rights activist in “Chavez,” which he directs and stars in, with Richard Peña in the title role.
Posted: May 11th, 2013 | in Columnists,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
Taking a break from preparing his latest production, “The Great Gatsby,” which opens the 66th Cannes Film Festival this Wednesday, May 15, director Baz Luhrmann sat down with us to look back at his relationship with the famed fest on the Croisette.
Posted: May 11th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—Vogue raved about him as being “terrific.” The New York Times found him “very good.” Conrad Ricamora, Filipino-American actor currently generating acclaim as the late Ninoy Aquino in David Byrne’s hit off-Broadway musical on Imelda Marcos, “Here Lies Love,” exclaimed about the pressure of playing the national hero: “If I thought about playing Ninoy [...]
Posted: May 9th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
Thank God for Filipinos! Salamat!” Michael Bublé exclaimed and then made the sign of the cross. The Grammy-winning crooner, who was raised as a Catholic, was telling me one unusually dark and rainy morning in Los Angeles, why he was grateful to Filipinos. A lit fireplace kept Michael’s two-story private villa at Sunset Marquis warm but it was his easygoing, humorous personality that sparked our conversation.
Posted: May 4th, 2013 | in Columnists,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
“I looked at this skinny kid throwing karate kicks down the hall, and I went, ‘He definitely doesn’t have a chance,’” Tobey Maguire described one of his first encounters with Leo DiCaprio when they were about 14 years old and auditioning for the same part in a pilot for the TV version of Steve Martin’s film, “Parenthood.”
Posted: May 3rd, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
“I am not a person who can sit around and [wallow in] regret because everything that you do, every bad experience… that you have, there is, weirdly, something good that comes from it,” Winona Ryder said in our first interview with her after many years. Sitting in a meeting room at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the actress was answering a question regarding her thoughts in retrospect about her shoplifting incident in Beverly Hills’ Saks Fifth Avenue store in 2001.
Posted: May 2nd, 2013 | in Columnists,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Photos & Videos | Read More »
Freddie Highmore, lead child actor in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Finding Neverland,” has grown up and become a “Psycho” or Norman Bates in the TV series “Bates Motel,” a prequel to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film.
Posted: April 27th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
Lea Salonga’s BFF of 20 years and “gay of honor” at her wedding to Robert Chien, Victor Lirio, directs her in a show that runs for three weeks at New York’s landmark cabaret, Café Carlyle.
Posted: April 26th, 2013 | in Columnists,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—We recently caught up with Lea Salonga, whose career is taking very interesting twists and turns. The Philippines’ pride answered our questions via e-mail on the latest developments in her ever-evolving career. She told us about a coming intimate show in New York in which she will pay tribute to Barbra Streisand, Ella Fitzgerald, [...]
Posted: April 25th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Photos & Videos | Read More »
By Ruben V. Nepales
Just when Dwayne Johnson is about to finally realize his dream to star in a Hercules movie, a competing project comes along with “Twilight” star Kellan Lutz as the Greek god.
Posted: April 20th, 2013 | in Columnists,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Gallery,Headlines,Latest Entertainment Stories,Photos & Videos | Read More »
