Sharon’s unique entry point to Imelda’s heart of hearts

CUNETA. Diverting hour of reminiscences with former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

SHARON CUNETA’S new TV5 show had a field day weeks ago with its peppy feature on the loquacious, bodacious Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, but some of its subsequent telecasts have been rather standard and lacking in snap, crackle and pop!

So, the program tried to make up for lost zap and zing last Monday, July 2, with its focus on another iconically chatterbox guest, former First Lady Imelda Marcos. She just happened to be Sharon’s ninang, so the host had a unique entry point to her heart of hearts during their long talk.

It focused on personal matters like Ferdinand Marcos’ famous 11-day whirlwind courtship of the fair Rose of Tacloban, culminating in a fabulous wedding that made them the political power couple to beat—and all the controversial events that resulted from their decades-long “reign.”

As Sharon gushed over her special guest’s many breathless recollections, however, a perplexing, confounding pall of unreality fell on their cozy chatfest. With someone as controversial as Imelda, it’s highly unlikely that the private face can be separated from the public persona, and the show didn’t succeed in its attempt.

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Talking only about “light” topics like bringing up the kids in the presidential palace and glossing over “heavier” issues was like blithely, almost totally ignoring the humongous elephant in the room that was the Marcos’ conjugal dictatorship.

Be that as it may, Sharon and her most obliging guest did come up with quite a diverting hour of reminiscences, with Imelda dropping big names like Mao Tse Tung, complete with choice personal anecdotes about them.

Despite their best efforts, however, the interview didn’t measure up to the high energy level set by Sharon’s interview with Maid Miriam, which did snap!, crackle! and pop! something special, due to the sassy senator’s wicked way with words—and pick-up lines!

If the show wants to keep coming up with similarly peppy interviews, it should leave the standard, smorgasbord topics and minor-celebrity guest lists to other programs, and use Sharon’s unique clout to swing exclusive interviews with other special guests with the proven gift of gab—like Martin Nievera and Edu Manzano.

Effectivity

The fact that both gents have had successful talk shows of their own would serve to highlight Sharon’s own effectivity as a host—and challenge her to do her very best in her new stellar preoccupation and sideline!

Other loquacious celebrities for Sharon to productively and quotably shoot the breeze with should include Mitch Valdes, Gilda Cordero Fernando, Pilita Corrales, Nikki Ross, Willie Nepomuceno, Willie Revillame, Kris Aquino,Ali Sotto, Monique Wilson, Tirso Cruz III, Ronaldo Valdez and Fritz Infante.

The edge they have over the usual stars and starlets who guest on talk shows to promote themselves and their new productions is the fact that they’ve lived fascinating lives, have learned from the experience, and can talk about those unique life lessons with expressive “color” and verve.

That’s the stuff of which quotable and memorable TV interviews are made. The rest is just promotional fluff, puffs of hot air—and idle chatter.