WARD. Relentlessly cute, chatty, viva and determinedly “entertaining.” INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Right after we asked aloud in print, “Whatever happened to Jillian Ward?,” a GMA 7 trailer informed us that a new teleserye with the now relatively recondite child star in its cast was making its debut on the Kapuso channel weekdays, before “24 Oras.”
The new show, “Home Sweet Home” also topbills Raymart Santiago, Roxanne Guinoo and Lorna Tolentino.
It’s good to see that Jillian is back in action again, and here’s hoping that she will do well in her new series, so that she can continue to be a stellar contender, even as GMA is now clearly focused on building up Ryzza Mae Dizon as its “flavor of the year.”
On TV5, the big disappointment is that “Never Say Goodbye,” the series supposed to topbill the Nora Aunor, has been making-do without her for many weeks now.
A Noranian intimates that the thespic icon is contending with some health issues, but we fervently hope and pray that she can surmount them, so her drama series can still recover before it (imminently) ends!
We thought that, after the success of “Thy Womb,” Nora’s career would be able to sustain its upward ascendancy, but the film fates clearly want to give us a hard time before we can truly savor our favorite screen icon’s latest successful comeback and apotheosis.
—Well, it isn’t the first time that Nora has been declared down and out, but she has ultimately proven the doom-and-gloom prognosticators dead wrong!
Concern
By no means is Billy Crawford down and out for the show biz count, but our concern for him is over the fact that his career appears to be going nowhere really eventful this season.
Oh, he’s on the daily noontime program, “Showtime,” and he cohosts “Pilipinas Got Talent,” but he looks like he’s really just marking time on them.
Whatever happened to his plan to revive his performing career in Europe? We don’t necessarily want him to do that, but if he stays here, he has to fight the understandable tendency to be pulled down by the local entertainment scene’s relatively low standards and expectations.
There was a time, right after his European interlude, when Billy came across as a really exciting and creative performer. But, his long “staycation” here appears to have dampened his passion for doing good, outstanding work—and that’s a real pity.
We hope that he doesn’t settle for being just one of the “goony” guys on local TV, making good money but pretty much just going through the motions of looking eager and “excited.” He’s too good to suffer that numbing fate!