OMG! IT’S CAMILLE PRATS!

By Kristin de Scarpa

On the cover of FHM! Yes folks, former child star Camille Prats is no longer the Princess Sarah we remember her from the film Sarah Ang Munting Prinsesa and the TV show Ang TV. Because, esmyuskee, she’s the latest cover girl of the best-selling men’s magazine FHM for its February issue. Quite a shocker, if you’ve always thought of her as a child star—even after all these years.

This precisely was the reason Camille agreed to do the photo shoot, according to her interview in the magazine, to tell the world that she’s no longer a kid. She also maintains this in a recent interview on S-Files, where she said that if other young actresses choose to declare their maturity through a daring film, she, on the other hand, decided to proclaim her maturity through a magazine. Smart move, Camille!

In fact, Camille is already 20 years old. Moreover, she’s almost finished her college course already at Thames Business School. And most who have seen her transfer from ABS-CBN to GMA-7 have noticed how much she’s blossomed into a fine young lady in her afternoon TAPE Productions TV soap Kung Mamahalin Mo Lang Ako, with co-stars Oyo Boy Sotto and Keempee de Leon. She is also part of QTV 11’s sitcom Ganda Ng Lola Ko.

Actually, even before her stint in Ang TV way back when, she already joined Eat Bulaga’s “Little Miss Philippines” competition when she was six years old. Now, from “Little Miss Philippines” (which she didn’t even win), she’s walked home with the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a TV Drama Special at the recent 2nd Golden Screen Awards. Plus, of course, being on the cover of a men’s magazine.

Now, Camille is in the ranks of screen sirens Diana Zubiri, Aubrey Miles, Francine Prieto, and the Viva Hot Babes for having appeared on the cover of FHM. This probably raises the readers’ interest of how daring her pictorial with the magazine was. Maybe like some of the magazine’s latest cover girls—young stars Bianca King (September 2005), Angel Locsin (October 2005), Katrina Halili (December 2005), and Vanna Garcia (January 2006)—she didn’t bare her “assets.” From the cover, though, we see how sexy her shoot is even without the need to bare skin. On the cover she’s wearing a tight black corset and white panties—an outfit much more revealing than Angel Locsin’s cover.

For the FHM cover shoot, Camille was photographed by French photographer Darren Tieste. Darren’s credentials include having shot international celebrities Michelle Branch, Nicole Richie, and Rachel Bilson, among others. I wonder what Camille’s non-showbiz boyfriend of six months has to say about her girlfriend’s sexy shoot? I’ll not spoil the anticipation for all of you so I won’t say what Camille’s pictures look in the inside pages. Let’s just say that there’s more skin in the inside pages than the cover itself…

The Camille Prats FHM issue is in magazine stands this month of February. The magazine also includes a feature on Asia’s sexiest women, karate SEA Games gold medallist Gretchen Malalad, a Valentine’s Day guide, plus many other babes and features.

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

Gossip

By Mitchy De Dios

Every wondered what goes on in Colin Farrell's trousers? By that we mean, what his underwear is like. What were you thinking of?

The “Alexander” star has been sharing some need-to-know information about his choice of underwear with the US magazine Star. Apparently he has a lucky pair of underpants that, in true Irish style, are decorated with green shamrocks.However, should you ever be lucky enough to get Irish Colin in bed, you probably won't get a peek at these hallowed boxers.

It seems they're only lucky when it comes to work - not when it comes to attracting the ladies. I don't wear them to the discos and the clubs, he explains. They're only for the first day of filming (I’d be curious to know if anyone has footage of Alexander showing him in his green undies).Shamrock shorts - not very glamorous! I've worn the same pair for about seven films now.

Let's hope he washes them in between.

More men want Hollywood siren Jessica Alba as a girlfriend than any other hottie in Hollywood, according to a new survey. The 24-year-old Alba, who once dated Yankee star Derek Jeter, nudged out runners-up Sienna Miller and Angelina Jolie as the catch of all catches. More than 2.4 million men were quizzed, and the The Fantastic Four star scored No. 1 as potential marrying material, said James Bassil, editor-in-chief of AskMen.com.

We encouraged readers not to go on looks alone, Bassil said. I don't believe it's an entirely accurate reflection of what a reader strives for in their long-term relationships, but at the same time, it's not a merely surface appreciation.

But Alba, who has been romantically linked to actors Wilmer Valderrama and Mark Wahlberg, recently warned that she's high maintenance.

I do not need somebody who wants as much hair and makeup time as me, she told the Los Angeles Times. Wha? I understand why guys would wanna be her boyfriend, but marry her? That’s just stretching it a bit.

If you want to see Julia Roberts make her Broadway debut in Three Days of Rain, prepare to fight for your tickets. The Hollywood star’s move from the screen to the boards has sent fans scrambling for cash to the limited run of Tony winner Richard Greenberg's family mystery - which scored $7 million in advance sales in one day.

Weekend performance tickets are close to sold out for the 12-week run - with the exception of premium seats in the center of the first dozen rows, which go for $251.25 site server crashed shortly after tickets were made available Saturday.

Roberts' Broadway debut comes as the theater is experiencing a resurgence in public interest - with star power a major draw. The current limited run of The Odd Couple with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane drew a record $20 million in advance sales.

Overall, 12 million fans ignored the shockingly high ticket prices last year and bought tickets for Broadway shows, producing record revenues of a whopping $825 million.

By Kristin de Scarpa

Survivor: Panama – Exile Island, the 12th installment of the wildly successful reality TV series will hit high gear this week. Filled with new features (a castaway to be exiled in an island for days—alone, etc), this season will hopefully revitalize the ageing TV show. Headed by no less than host Jeff Probst (it is reported, though unconfirmed, that this will be his last season with the show), here are some tidbits on the program’s 16 contestants:

Dan Berry – A 52-year-old retired astronaut from South Hadley, Massachusetts. He flew three space shuttle missions and is now spending time building robots for his own company, Denbar Robotics.

Aras Baskauskas – This 24-year-old yoga instructor hails from Santa Monica, California. When he was studying in University of California, Irvine for his Philosophy degree, he was named by the University’s student publication as one of its “Most Eligible Bachelors.”

Austin Carty – An aspiring actor from High Point, North Carolina, this 24-year-old author has already published a novel, Somewhere Beyond Here. He is the brother of the current Miss Teen USA.

Terry Deitz – This 46-year-old retired Navy pilot is currently an airline pilot for American Airlines, piloting the Airbus 300. He resides in Simsbury Connecticut with his wife and two children.

Danielle DiLorenzo – At 24, this medical sales representative is from Pompano Beach, Florida. She’s earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business with a concentration on both finance and marketing.

Cirie Fields – This 35-year-old from Walterboro South Carolina currently works as an operating room nurse. She also has experience as a surgical technician, home health aid, working at a candy factory, and telemarketing. She is married and has three sons from a previous marriage.

Misty Giles – This 24-year-old engineer is a former Miss Texas Teen USA (in 1999) and is from Dallas, Texas. She is currently employed as an engineer as well as currently pursuing a master’s degree.

Bobby Mason – At 32, he’s an attorney from Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Stanford Law School in 2000. He was on the TV show Blind Date in 1998.

Bruce Kanegai – This 58-year-old man can remind one of Mr. Miyagi in more ways than one. He’s a Japanese American who teaches karate as well as art to high school students. He has taught over 10,000 high school teacher and even earned “Teacher of the Year”. As a karate instructor, he’s taught over 7,000 students.

Courtney Marit – From Los Angeles, California, this 31-year-old performance artist produces theatrical shows that merge music, fire, trapeze, stilts, plus a host of other circus arts. She also teaches fire dancing, working on her first screenplay, and creates films and documentaries.

Melinda Hyder – This 32-year-old professional singer from Sevierville, Tennessee had already been singing in church at the age of four. Additionally, she has worked as a real estate agent, private vocal coach, dance instructor, pageant coach, and model.

Nick Stanbury – This 25-year-old from Tempe, Arizona is engaged in financial sales. He is also currently working as a waiter as he waits for the results of his law school applications. In law school he wants to study international and natural resources law.

Ruth Marie Milliman – From Greenville, South Carolina, this 48-year-old mother of a teenage son and daughter works director of retail leasing for a shopping center. She runs competitively and holds many race records in South Carolina.

Sally Schumann – This 27-year-old social worker from Chicago, Illinois also works as a varsity girl’s soccer coach at Buffalo High School in Minnesota. She recently went through a divorce but is now dating her best friend.

Shane Powers – From Los Angeles, California, this 35-year-old owner of an entertainment marketing company, which focuses on branding products. He also takes time to coach his son’s football team.

Tina Scheer – At 45, this logging sports promoter and performer was already accepted into the cast Survivor: Guatamela. However, a week before she was about to leave for the show, her only son, Charlie (16), was killed in an auto accident.

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

3 February 2006

SURVIVOR: THE NTH EDITION

By Kristin de Scarpa

Survivor season 12 is about to hit the small screen once again—yet again—beginning this week. This Survivor installment this time is dubbed Survivor: Panama – Exile Island. The contest will be held at the Pearl Islands, off the coast of Panama. Yes, this location has already been used in Survivor: Pearl Islands and Survivor: All-Stars. The Pearl Islands is an archipelago the Gulf of Panama and is about 50 miles off the southeast portion of Panama City. The archipelago consists of 183 islands, of which 32 are sizable.

Filming for this 12th season began on October 31, 2005 and ended on December 9, 2005. The producers of the long-running reality series promises twists, turns, and innovations—as if they have any choice since the show’s premise has become too predictable and dull.

One of the shows most notable twists is when each episode will feature one castaway being sent away to another island—yes, exiled—for days at a time. This promises to be an interesting part of the show, guaranteeing more intrigue if not more excitement for the potential psychosis it may offer the exiled castaways. Another new feature is the show beginning with four different tribes, and not the customary two tribes.

Each tribe has four contestants, divided by age (ranging from 24 to 58) and sex. That means all the younger men, younger women, older men, and older women are put together in one tribe. However, this set-up will be only up to the first episode’s tribal challenges, as the second episode will include combining the four tribes into two through typical picking—you know, one person will choose whom he or she prefers to be included in his or her tribe. Picking out one’s tribe members may be a tough choice, though, as contestants for this season seem to all have good credentials. There’s a retired astronaut, a book author, a beauty queen turned engineer, registered nurses, a karate instructor, and a former Navy pilot, among others.

As early as the first episode, one contestant will already be deported to the so-called “exile island.” The routine Reward Challenge will require the losing tribe to decide which of their members will be sent away to the remote island situated miles away from their tribe’s base camp. The exiled, then, will not return to their camp until the next Immunity Challenge. The exiled, though, has one advantage: He or she is most likely to get hold of the Immunity Idol. See, the Immunity Idol will be hidden somewhere in the island, and as you know, getting one’s hands on it bails a castaway from being voted off the island during the Tribal Council.

Here are the tribes and the division of the 16 contestants:

La Mina (Orange) Tribe: Aras Baskauskas (24), Austin Carty (24), Bobby Mason (32), and Nick Stanbury (25).

Viveros (Green) Tribe: Dan Berry (52), Bruce Kanegai (58), Terry Deitz (46), and Shane Powers (35).

Bayoneta (Blue) Tribe: Courtney Marit (31), Danielle DiLorenzo (24), Misty Giles (24), and Sally Schumann (27).

Casaya (Purple) Tribe: Cirie Fields (35), Melinda Hyder (32), Ruth Marie Milliman (48), and Tina Scheer (45).

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

BIG TIME
By Mitchy Sulanday

If Mario Cornejo’s Film “Big Time” is any indication of where Filipino cinema is headed, then I’ll be the first to say that a golden age of Filipino cinema is just upon the horizon. The film, made entirely digitally, has a near perfect mix of Hollywood panache and style, a bit of satire, and genuinely funny Filipino flavored humor.

Digital film has created mixed feelings in the filmmaking community, just as digital photogrpahy once did. In the Philippines, it has been embraced by the local underground film making community as a means to bypass the big studios that have been releasing one formulaic movie after another. Digital films allow these budding film makers to create their movies on a shoestring budget, but with enough special effects to rival a typical low budget Hollywood film.

“Big Time”, starts off when Jonas (Nor Domingo) and Danny (Winston Elizalde), two petty crooks tired of the small time, hatch a plan to kidnap Melody (Joanne Miller) to make it to the big time by asking for the hilariously negotiable sum of 50,000 pesos (negotiable, of course). Things are going as planned until Melody’s rich suitor Wilson (Jamie Wilson) walks in on kidnapping, and makes the duo a proposition that they can’t refuse: Pretend to kidnap him so that his ultra rich crime boss father, Don Manolo (Michael de Mesa) wll pay a huge ransom that they can divide amongst themselves (Wilson needs the money for a huge drug buy, the two criminals want to make a lot of money, and Melody really just got caught up in the ride).

The film is chock full of hilarious scenes, and the timing and performances by the actors are tight. Not a single scene is wasted, and while some lines seem just a tad over the top and out of place, these are few and far between. The word most reviewers bandy about is “tarantinoesque”, and this is true especially in the way the scenes are cut and in the pacing of the movie, and the Reservoir Dog-ish ending. However, the movie is also blatantly borrowing from the classic (it’s even mentioned in the film) movie “The Godfather”. There’s lots of talk about joining the “family business” and giving respect to “the don”, who has built his reputation by being a merciless killer. But unlike typical Filipino films which try desperately to copy a Hollywood movie and pretend it’s original, this film makers Mario Cornejo and Coreen “Monster” Jimenez revel in it, and candidly admit to making fun of “the Godfather”.

Cameos by actors like Soxy Topacio, Jon Santos, and Ryan Eigenmann as the young Don Manolo make the film just that much more complete. Even Manilan mayor Lito Atienza gets in on the act, in what is one of the funniest moments of the movie.

The film, while being hilarious, is also a social commentary on the Filipino psyche, in that almost everyone, be they El Shaddai worshippers or Sharon Megastar wannabes or small time crooks or, wants to make it in the big time. Watch it and laugh yourself silly for an hour and a half.

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

Lone Star State of Mind

By Mitch Sulanday

Curiously enough, most of the reviews I read for backup research on this David Semel directed movie thoroughly detested it. Garnering ratings of 48% and 2 stars out of 5, I was thouroughly perplexed because frankly, I quite enjoyed it.

The movie stars former Dawson’s Creek idol Joshua Jackson as Earl Crest, a good natured, mild-mannered mechanic in a hick town somewhere in Texas who tries his best to stay out of trouble. Unfortonately, the way these things go is that no matter how much you try to stay out of trouble, trouble finds its way to you. In this case trouble comes in the form of Junior (DJ Qualls), Earl’s fiancee Baby (Jamie King)’s cousin who along with Tinker (Ryan Hurst) robs a pizza delivery van while wearing feminine napkins to hide their identities (you have to watch the movie to find out.) They barely manage the “heist”, but come away with a bag containing 20,000 dollars and 50,000 dollars’ worth of cocaine. This sets the stage that leads to all sorts of upheavals in Earl’s life, where he’s just trying to make a living and save up enough money so he can move with Baby to LA to fulfill her dream of becoming a soap opera star.

The story’s nothing we haven’t heard before, but it’s the humorous situations and quirky character portrayals that draw you in. Earl’s been going out with Baby since the eleventh grade, but his mom married Baby’s dad sometime ago and now they’re brother and sister. It’s a fact that Wayne (John Mellencamp), Baby’s father, doesn’t hesistate to point out, constantly poking fun at Earl for “kissing his sister”. Earl’s best friend Jimbo (Matthew Harris) is a fussily neat gay mechanic who hasn’t gone out with a single guy since he came out of the closet six years ago. Harris pulls off Jimbo’s role nicely, never going over the top to prove that Jimbo’s gay, and only forcing the issue when his aging grandfather tries to set him up with a girl. If anything, he’s the stereotypical cowboy with a shotgunin the back of his house, except when he gives you that steely gaze, he might be checking you out instead of trying to scare you. Ryan Hurst’s portyal of Tinker as a stupid ex con out to make it big is suitably over the top, just as DJ Hurst’s fumbling wannabe tough guy act is also convincing. Jamie King is surpisingly good as a feisty Texan girl who can be as sweet as sugar one moment but a wildcat once somebody messes with her fiancee.

That said, the movie does have its faults, like how Earl seems to have a history with a lot of ladies in the town (something that’s hinted at but never explained), the snail-like pacing, and the total lack of gravitas that makes the more serious moments painful to watch. The movie takes itself just a bit too lightly for its own good, and when Earl comes to a point where he’s about to die, there’s just no tension in the moment because you know it's not that kind of movie. Still, while it’ll never be a classic, rent it out sometime for a few good laughs.

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

31 January 2006

Tsismis!

By Mitchy Sulanday

Now on to the latest local showbiz news…

Angel Locsin has come out to defend herself against her manager, Becky Aguila who, for weeks now, has been coming out on tabloids regarding their current disagreements about the handling of the young actress’s finances. According to Angel, she is not anything like her manager, who has no qualms about airing private issues and dirty laundry in public. Angel’s appearance on Startalk is to defend herself and answer the issues brought up by Becky Aguila, not to bring her manager down.

While the young actress is still bound by her contract with Aguila, it is now GMA’s talent arm, Artist Center that fixes her schedules and handles her appearances.

Right now, Darna star, a self-confessed daddy’s girl, is turning to her dad for advise on her career. Daddy’s advise? For his little girl to keep mum and seek resolution of her current problem through the proper channels – not through tabloids, newspapers or entertainment talk shows.

The actress really should focus on activities that would help her career – like promoting her upcoming movie with Richard Gutierrez, “I Will Always Love You”, wherein most of its scenes where shot in San Francisco.

The GMA talent center is such huge gold mine of pretty boys and girls and inevitably intrigues are not very much far behind.

First off in our list is Zsa Zsa Padilla giving her blessing, so to speak, to her daughter and Encantadia star Karylle and long-time boyfriend Dingdong Dantes. According to the Divine Diva, the two can get married if they want to, despite their “youth” as she herself eloped and married young. Well, let’s just wait and see if the two lovebirds take mother’s advice and take the plunge soon.

After admitting that he has a serious crush on teen star Pauleen Luna, Keempee de Leon is told to wait. According to Pauleen, if he [Keempee] is willing to wait, then she can consider him. Her parents are not keen on her having a boyfriend yet, but who knows if they will change their mind once she hits 18 this year? It’s up to Keempee if he would like to wait around and see if Pauleen will be allowed to have a relationship this year…

Are Angelica Jones and Bobby Yan back together?!

We’ve all heard that they did not have the best of break-ups but the winds may have changed for the two erstwhile lovers as Bobby dropped by Angelica’s birthday bash to greet her. According to sources, Angelica was pleasantly surprised.

Bobby is quoted having said, “It was her birthday and I wanted to surprise her [Angelica]. It wasn’t a hard decision to make.”

Comments? Questions? E-mail us at editor@mypad.net

30 January 2006