Sharon Cuneta leaving ABS-CBN

CUNETA: Goodbye after 23 years photo by ARNOLD ALMACEN

Sharon Cuneta is leaving her longtime home studio, ABS-CBN, after 23 years to transfer to the aggressive and revitalized TV5.

The singer/actress/TV host, known as the Megastar, whose contract as a Kapamilya talent expires this year, will officially move to the Kapatid network in January 2012, according to highly placed sources.

On November 5, she taped the final episode of her show, “Sharon at Home,” which airs on the Lifestyle Network on SkyCable, an ABS-CBN subsidiary.

Last October, Star Cinema announced that Cuneta was in the cast of the movie “Call Center” which stars Gerald Anderson and Maja Salvador, but the project was allegedly shelved.

Cuneta is not in ABS-CBN’s Christmas season station ID this year.

No confirmation is immediately forthcoming from executives of either ABS-CBN or TV5. ABS-CBN corporate communications head Bong Osorio explained that the network bosses have yet to give him the go-signal to talk about Cuneta’s exit.

GABBY Concepcion

TV5 creative and entertainment production head Perci Intalan was tentative at best: “We can’t say anything yet. We’d gladly announce it, if ever it happens … There were a lot of questions and comments [from the public], especially on Twitter, after we launched the TV adaptation of one of Sharon’s most popular films, ‘P.S. I love You.’ We would love to work with Sharon, but … we all have to wait and see.”

In an earlier interview, Intalan admitted that there had been exploratory talks between TV5 and Cuneta, adding that Viva Entertainment’s boss Vic del Rosario was helping broker a deal. “Sharon is managed by Vic and is related to MVP (TV5 honcho Manny V. Pangilinan is a cousin of Senator Francis Pangilinan, Cuneta’s husband),” said Intalan. “We’re not surprised when we heard they were talking.”

Actress Judy Ann Santos, another ABS-CBN talent and Cuneta’s close friend, said she had yet to talk to the Megastar about the issue. “Whatever she decides to do, I’ll support her fully. I want my ate to be happy,” Santos said during a press conference for her reality show “Junior Master Chef” on ABS-CBN. “She should go where she thinks she will be taken better care of. She deserves it. She worked hard to be where she is.”

PERCI Intalan

Supporting ‘ate’

Santos added: “I think more people are now open to the idea of artists transferring to other networks to get the projects they want. Even I thought of leaving my home network in the past. If that were the case for Ate, let’s all respect her decision.”

At the recent 22nd Philippine Advertising Congress in Camarines Sur, TV5 news head Luchi Cruz-Valdes asked ABS-CBN chair and CEO Eugenio Lopez III if Cuneta was indeed set to leave her mother network. “I don’t know,” said Lopez. “Maybe we should ask the other network.”

At the press launch of TV5 and Viva Entertainment’s series adaptation of “P.S. I Love You,” Cuneta’s ex-husband Gabby Concepcion let slip what he knew about the issue. Asked if daughter KC had told him anything about her mother’s career moves, Concepcion said: “Meron akong nababalitaan, pero wala naman ako doon nang magpirmahan. I cannot confirm or deny anything.”

Concepcion added that Sharon’s transfer, once it becomes official, would be “a good thing … everybody likes change.”

According to a source, Sharon will do a talk show on TV5.

Also in the works are two movies under Viva Films – first with Concepcion, then with Santos, said Vic del Rosario, Cuneta’s manager.

With a report from Marinel R. Cruz