Highlights and low blows in the biz
VELASQUEZ. Vivified the biz’s “show must go on” tradition.
After more than 12 years as a live-in couple, Zoren Legaspi and Carmina Villaroel belatedly tied the knot last week, making not just their twins but many other people really happy.
Some parents found it quite hard to explain to their kids why the couple were such a coosome twosome on TV despite their lack of official, marital ties that bind. Well, the integrity of the Filipino family has been upheld once more, so we hope that other “unofficial” stellar unions will soon follow suit.
In addition, we note that some prodigiously pregnant unwed mothers-to-be are appearing quite frequently on TV these days, eliciting similarly confused reactions and questions from young viewers! So, we trust that they too will belatedly realize that their “perplexing” example could have negative effects on immature viewers.
For her part, Regine Velasquez recently found herself in an unexpected “breaking news” situation when she lost her voice before the big show that was intended to celebrate her 25th anniversary in show business.
Condition
Despite the major bummer, Regine vivified show biz’s “the show must go on” tradition by pushing through with the concert. To make up for her not being in tip-top musical condition, she pledged that she would soon gift her fans with a free show, hopefully with a more tuneful outcome!
The listening and viewing public understood Regine’s predicament, of course, and people’s hearts went out to her. But, when she appeared on TV after the show and croaked her apologies for many minutes on end, we felt that she carried on too much and too far, and all that apologetic yakking made her problems worse, not better!
On the international scene, Jacky Chan hit the headlines when he announced that he was putting his action film career to rest next year with his last cinematic caper.
Unlike other action heroes who hang on for dear life until they have to be dragged away, Chan knows that vim, vigor and vitality are nonnegotiable essentials in the action-film biz, so he’s making his exit voluntarily, which is not to say that we won’t be seeing him on the movie screen ever again!
He could still have quite a good career as a comedic actor, with possibly a drama thrown in once in a while for versatile effect. So, Chan’s fans should just bide their time for a while before they’re pleasantly surprised by his “alternative” screen persona.
Finally, Lindsay Lohan’s much-awaited portrayal of the young Elizabeth Taylor has finally been completed, and previewers are weighing in on the production’s quality, or lack of it. Thus far, critical comment has been decidedly mixed, so we’ll have to watch the show for ourselves to figure out what’s really what.
Our hope is that Lohan at least passes muster, because she needs a success at this low point in her career—and life. Yes, it’s hard to measure up to Liz Taylor’s celebrated beauty and “passionate” persona, but if Lohan gives it her level best, that should be good enough for us.
