ZEROING IN ON movie press, is a regular invite to presscons, premiere nights, set visits and other events the real gauge that one is in and indeed on the go?
Or if one isn’t invited to any showbiz affairs, if only rarely, or completely not at all, does it mean that an entertainment journalist is out, a has been, dead meat, irrelevant, down, useless and all possible negative or unsavory comments one can get?
When I was just starting my movie reporting career in the mid-70s, I was on solo flight looking for news and its platforms (usually in komiks magazines or tabloids but mostly fanzines like Modern Romances and True Confessions Magazine (MRTC), the very outlet where my first showbiz article came out—meaning, when I was already graduated from college because during my high school days I was already contributing entertainment stories as an amateur scribe or field contributor from section editors encouraging young writers to tinker on any idea, specifically about Nora Aunor, the most buyable and hottest copy, in komiks pages).
Of course, I wouldn’t be recognized, much less get invited to gatherings, just by one article alone even if there were only a handful of print publications or radio and TV broadcasts which didn’t have much space for movie news.
I was still all by myself searching for stories, one I bumped into was 1975 Miss RP Suzanne Gonzales buying out her title from beauty pageant organizer Ferdie Villar of Spotlight Promotions for allegedly failing to send prizes allotted to her.
However, the scoop was frozen, placed in the backburner by my editor Ninoy Sofranes.
It was frustrating, saddening. To think it was hot news.
Back then, it was no mean feat to get published even in mass-consumed reading matters as kitschy as they say as komiks.
It took a community to be a movie reporter, believe you me, not even thinking it was the most maligned beat in the hierarchy of journalism kinds at all times—pambalot ng tinapa (smoked fish wrapper) or panulat sa pader (writing on the walls, pun intended).
LHAR, OBETTE AND ROLAND
Anyway, after years and tears of regularly and painstakingly writing popular pieces for tabloids and fanzines, I begun to associate myself with other scribes like Lhar Santiago, now a retired GMA Network entertainment broadcaster; Obette Serrano, a former ABS-CBN showbiz reporter and Roland Lerum who would be baptized wittingly or unwittingly if not condescendingly by bitchy senior columnists and komiks writers Alfie Lorenzo and Rino Fernan Silverio as Shoulder Bag Beauties (a story by itself when we were gifted identical shoulder bags by the controversial Dr. Rey de la Cruz, talent manager at the time of Rio Locsin and Yehlen Catral, now a lawyer).
The Shoulder Bag Beauties were everywhere along with my association with Special People, a group composed of crisscrossing me and Lhar, Pilar Mateo, Ronald Mendoza, Josie Manago, Carol Matias and the late Andy Garcia and Danny T. Vibas, formed by the still missing entertainment columnist, star builder, talent manager and TV host Boy C. de Guia.
We were like “pavo real” or peacocks, conspicuous if not ubiquitous anywhere flapping our wings with many perks on the side.
Then came my broadcast stint which started by guesting as reporter-panelist in Inday Badiday’s juicy entertainment talk TV show “See-True” onto Kuya (a term of endearment to an older man by affinity or brother by blood) Boy de Guia and Lolit Solis’ “Scoop” that replaced Inday’s show after she crossed the border from Broadcast City to GMA Network.
I remember when I was doing field reports, gathering star news, writing audiovisual materials for anchor Angelique Lazo, segment producing and rendering my Voice-Over (VO) scripts for the daily grind of “TV Patrol”‘s “Star News.”
My broadcast files of controversies, apparently independent and interesting subjects, seemingly equal treatment in the name of “democratic” stance to cover competing channels and their stories and narratives before ABS-CBN called us out for exclusivity etc. were aplenty and I could safely say I was a byword in every corner of star newslandia because “TV Patrol” was soaring in the ratings game.
I vividly recall, one night, when I was at the doorstep of a bar and restaurant somewhere in Timog Avenue (to cover a music gig, the star of which I couldn’t remember anymore) where roving vendors, young boys and girls alike, milled around with their merchandise on hand like cigarettes, sampaguita garlands and chewing gums and candies for sale to habitues and guests.
I readily presented myself to the guard to ask what time the show would start.
When the kids heard my name, they were kind of excited to no end as if they won a lotto if not a jueteng bet or given a salary increase by five cents or all their items were sold-out.
They echoed my name in unison.
ABS-CBN’S TV PATROL
To think it was only a few years since “TV Patrol” was reformatted to Star Network’s tabloid-on-air format from its commonplace newscast “Balita Ngayon.”
You could imagine I was in every showbiz event—big and small—and red carpets were rolled out each time I was around.
The late Mario V. Dumaual whom I dragged in to work with me during the news show’s inception because “Star News” was under staff at the time and I was ahead of him in the room intently asked me: “Sa palagay mo, bakit tayo laging naiimbita sa lahat ng (Why do you think we are always invited in all) showbiz events?”
With all honesty and naivete, I retorted: “Dahil mabait ako sa kanila (Because they find me congenial and I am ‘Miss Amity’),” an answer which took him flabbergasted and broke him to loud guffaws.
I kept thinking why Mario reacted that way.
“Because we are ‘TV Patrol’,” he figuratively quipped like dropping a bomb to wake me up from slumber.
Why did I have to take his idea hook, line and sinker?
Our platform was a sleeping giant, to say the least.
I knew it ever since that I was only a dot in the entire gigantic landscape of a glamorous yet competitive broadcast industry.
Had I become suddenly identity-less and had assumed a new consumerist personality despite my own self?
We started “Star News” by sheer hard work, creativity and resourcefulness when no big stars would let them be in the Channel 2 frame because we were nobody.
In effect, Mario and I didn’t take the cellar dwelling place of the newscast sitting down.
Alma Moreno, Snooky Serna, Richard Gomez and their ilk
True, we had Alma Moreno, Snooky Serna, Richard Gomez and their ilk at the time because they didn’t have the regularity in formidable stations, only from film companies except for Alma who was in a government-run station and later, her contract with Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) Channel 13 would soon reportedly expire ahead of others.
I had to make things on my end happen even making the impossible possible.
I then thought and espoused the so-called “ambush interviews.”
Nora Aunor was loyal to Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9 as well as Dolphy, Vilma Santos was faithful to GMA Network Channel 7, Sharon Cuneta was the face of Channel 13 as well as Maricel Soriano who was the first to be moved out from her TV studio.
Well, Fernando Poe, Jr. allegedly had a verbal exclusive contract for interviews with the TV Queen of Intrigues Inday Badiday.
Dumaual and I had a pact.
He would take care of Vilma and I Nora, who were both elusive to ABS-CBN cameras.
Since they wouldn’t face us on cam, you know what I did?
In one awards night at Manila Hotel, here comes Nora walking down the hallways.
I instructed my cameraman Pablito Manalo to just thrust his camera on Aunor while we met head-on that she couldn’t evade my mic (avoiding interviews in public would mean impolite o discourteous especially for a Superstar like her) so she answered back my haphazard questions however in her “single word,” “one phrase” stingy replies.
DA KING OF BOX OFFICE
FPJ didn’t escape my invasion as well of his person at the backstage of Araneta Coliseum during the Box-Office King and Queen coronation if only to capture just his one million-dollar smiles sans soundbites in my three queries, namely “What can you say about your award? “To whom do you dedicate the award?” and “What are your plans after the awarding?”
No answers.
Yes, FPJ just grinned before the camera.
That’s all.
Those were “big stories” by just getting their faces on ABS-CBN cameras later delivered on the four corners of the screen.
Oh, Sharon, indeed, enjoyed my ambush interviews with her.
Well, Maricel, Kris Aquino, the late Dolphy and Rudy Fernandez were willing interviewees after my “ambush interview” spree.
Lea Salonga, Sarah Geronimo etc. I already had them in their own sweet time.
Piolo Pascual, Bea Alonzo, Kristine Hermosa, Jericho Rosales, Diether Ocampo, Joshua Garcia et al were already in the ABS-CBN territory and they were easy catches by using charm, tact and friendliness which Mario was gifted with.
Until I left ABS-CBN because I wanted to do more stuff in show business like “theatering” by putting up DUMALO (Dulaang Don Mateo Lopez), a community-based theater group in Lopez, Quezon.
Then ABS-CBN was and still is lording it over all other networks and “TV Patrol” was and still is your regular news program staple.
When Angelique Lazo moved to Channel 9, she offered me to do entertainment news again for “Action 9” with Ramon Tulfo, Rey Langit and the late Dong Puno which I obliged and the repeat of showbiz social or socializing inclusion had occurred anew—presscons, parties and other related happenings everywhere, anytime, anyhow.
It was also the same rhythm and temper when Angelique did “Arangkada Extra Balita,” the noontime news show of RPN with Dodie Lacuna.
I also did AM radio in the nebulous DZXQ (I should have stayed on with ABS-CBN for it could give me my own solo TV show or a radio program, after all, Jik—Angelique’s pet name—Mario, Obette and Apa Ongpin started ‘Star Patrol’ talk radio version but it’s another story), editing vernacular entertainment tabloids, writing for English broadsheets, organizing confabs, producing showbiz talk shows for other stations in between which also brought me to the realm of the high and mighty.
DANIEL RAZON AND ELI SORIANO
Meanwhile, I was able to host my own daily showbiz talk show, “Barangay Showbiz,” for Daniel Razon and the late Bro. Eli Soriano’s UNTV.
Although the marketing verve and nerve of ABS-CBN was and still is supreme and ultra expensive which RPN and UNTV couldn’t match.
Now, I am confined to print and printed texts on social or digital media but my outlets do not subscribe to the highest order of marketing strategies.
They just let it happen naturally, overwhelmingly by lifting one’s finger or by twist of fate, miraculously.
My invites now are not as many as they used to be.
No room for self-pity, arrogance or false pride or even lost glory because they are just artificial trimmings in life.
Does it hurt?
If it does, one should rise above the petty and the mundane.
It is a capitalist state, for God’s sake.
What matters is one’s contributions to amass profit from a mode of production, literally and symbolically, in any way possible.
There shouldn’t also be any comparison and contrast between showbiz then and now (for the line that divides the past and the present has blurred as seen through historical upheavals vis-a-cis arts and culture in recent years when showbiz is also a beneficiary like the rise of independent filmmaking or the deconstruction of star system), for the only things left are the same social structures that mold show business since time immemorial, in more ways than one, generally, like pursuits of material things, vanity, popularity for one’s end, socio-political influence etc. or on a more positive note, inspiration, practicality or to be loftier about it, pragmatism or enlightenment for the masses or the general crowd.
Am I losing my glow?
No matter.
As long as I am able to write the things I want to impart to the audience, usually the untypical showbiz write-ups.
It’s not enough that one is popular but popularizing the unpopular but inspirational and substantial counts the most.
It’s a tough choice but I have to carry on.
Mabuhay ka kuya Boy!