Remembering Behn–and celebrating life’s unexpected bounties

MARA. Won Cinemalaya’s best supporting actress award for “Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching.”

Last Monday, Aug. 15, our “Behn Cervantes barkada” got together for dinner at our fave Rockwell resto to remember and celebrate our dear friend on the anniversary of his demise.

Lollie Mara, Au Cobarrubias, Norma Japitana, Lorna Kapunan and other close-in chums were all present and accounted for—and Behn must have been tickled pink to see and overhear that he was still the main topic of the conversation—and gossip!

Later, we found time for other celebrations, like belated birthday toasts to Lollie and Au. Since we were all senior citizens, there were many fruitful years to celebrate and remember, so we ended up closing the place!

Even better, since we all had “senior discount” cards, our hostess with the mostest, Norma J., didn’t have to sell her house and hacienda to pay for the anniversary feast!

Best of all, the dinner also turned out to be a victory celebration, because “our Lollie” had just won her first acting award, as best supporting actress for her performance in the recent Cinemalaya film, “Ang Bagong Pamilya ni Ponching” (tied with Elizabeth Oropesa in “I America”).

Last Saturday, our colleague, Rito Asilo, wrote glowingly of Lollie’s performance, so we weren’t completely surprised when the Cinemalaya jurors singled her out for the honor (yay, Lollie!).

Lollie’s unexpected triumph folded in beautifully with the principal “Behn’s night” tenor of the evening, because he was her earliest director and mentor, having cast her in TV and stage productions way  back when.

It really is quite heartening to see that Lollie may already be in her 70s, but she keeps getting offers to act, especially in teleseryes, where she’s become one of the fave choices when it comes to casting “beautiful mestiza doña”  roles.

Lollie would be the first to tell you that she’s no uppity doña “in real life”—but, onscreen, she’s the real deal!

In fact, two TV seasons ago, when she went “against type” and was cast as a “yaya-mayordoma” in the hit series, “Pangako sa ‘Yo,” Lollie had to work much harder to “live down” to that unlikely character assignment’s requirements.

Currently, Lollie is again playing it maturely lovely and rich as Joseph Marco’s grandmom in “Dolce Amore”—and we hope that her new acting award will result in even more offers to make 2016—her busiest year yet!