OGIE Alcasid
Ogie Alcasid is the latest star to add his luster to TV5’s diadem of contract luminaries, after major draws like Nora Aunor, Aga Muhlach and Sharon Cuneta.
Naturally, hopes are high that this new chapter in Ogie’s professional life will lead to even more noteworthy achievements than those that he chalked during his long tenure at GMA 7. This appears to be a likely outcome, especially because Ogie’s TV5 package is reported to include “executive” responsibilities, which could mean that he can initiate his own projects, as he sees fit.
TV5’s latest “move-over” contract star has his work cut out for him to make an even bigger mark on the show biz scene, because the major draws who signed up before him have generally come up with less than triumphant starrers, too many of which have sunk without a trace.
Turn the tide
Can Ogie turn back the tide for TV5, at least as far as his first projects for his new home studio are concerned? If he’s able to swing it, he can light an empathetic fire under the channel’s other contract talents, whose so-so showing to date hasn’t mitigated the huge talent fees that TV5 is paying them.
Speaking of Sharon, she’s doing her best to bounce back with her new drama-comedy series, “Madam Chairman,” where her role as a barangay chairman should enable her character to deal with all sorts of situations—and give her new show the “masa” hook it needs to end up as a hit.
As for Aga, the new season of his “Pinoy Explorer” show for TV has just been announced, and we trust that it’ll do much more than reedit footage shot for foreign documentaries—which is not the way to go for a program that promises physical adventures and challenges for the armchair traveler and explorer to get all excited about.
What about Nora Aunor? In her case, the well-honed talent is still there, and the spirit is willing—but her health concerns appear to be getting in the way of her shows’ dynamic success. Perhaps she too could get inspired by the success of (more hardworking) Ogie’s new projects for their mother network?
Another TV5 talent, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, has been given good showcases on the TV channel, but has yet to catch fire as a young performer.
Recently, she similarly failed to click as the host of the Philippine Popular Music Festival (Philpop), where her lethargic emceeing made her come off as decidedly underwhelming. To make things worse, the gown she wore had such a strong design that it upstaged her—and effectively swallowed her up!
It’s a good thing that Jasmine has done much better in her first indie film outing, Hannah Espia’s “Transit,” where she won best supporting actress in the New Breed section of the Cinemalaya festival. Let’s hope that this is the start of the young comer’s real as opposed to concocted or hoped-for progress from starlet-hood—to authentic stardom!