The year started with the Vhong Navarro scandal. On January 22, Deniece Cornejo invited Vhong to her condo unit in Taguig, where he was pounced upon by Cedric Lee and his cohorts. A badly battered Vhong landed in the hospital and his manager, Chito Rono, backed him all the way and had him interviewed on national TV where he narrated what happened to him. Cedric and friends, along with Deniece, were later arrested. Deniece countered by filing rape charges, along with two other women who claimed they were also raped by Vhong. All cases were dismissed by the courts for lack of evidence.
Another shocker is actors-senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada being implicated in the Janet Napoles PDAF or pork barrel scandal, along with Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. They’re now detained in Camp Crame for the past five months on charges of plunder. Another actor politician, ER Ejercito, was deposed from being Laguna governor for alleged overspending in the last elections.
Then there are the sex video scandals. After Wally Bayola’s sex video with a dancer, the sex video of Neri Naig and Chito Miranda went viral, followed by Paolo Bediones who had three videos with two different women.
Then there’s the so called audio scandal of Daniel Padilla, who allegedly told a friend after seeing Jasmine Curtis Smith: “Kinilig ang tumbong ko.” That made supporters of his love team with Kathryn Bernardo mad and they bashed Jasmine big time on social media.
Then there’s the continuing Barretto family scandals. Claudine Barretto continues to wage war against ex-husband Raymart Santiago and sisters Getchen and Marjorie Barretto. As if trouble between the Barretto aunts was not enough, Julia Barretto filed a case in court to officially drop her dad Dennis Padilla’s real family name (Baldivia). This boomeranged on her as most people sympathized with Dennis and it’s believed this is the reason why her launching show, “Mirabella”, didn’t do so well in the ratings game.
Derek Ramsay’s ex-wife, Mary Christine Jolly, filed a violence against women and their children case against him, even including Angelica Panganiban in a concubinage case. But the case ended quietly with a settlement and Derek even got permission to be with his 11-year old son, Austin, on his birthday last Dec. 7.
ALLEGED VOTE BUYING IN THE STAR AWARDS
In March, in the Star Awards for Movies, Jobert Sucaldito complained that he paid in lobbying for Jeorge Estregan to win as best actor for “Boy Golden” but someone obviously upstaged him in vote-buying as the trophy was given to Vice Ganda instead. In November, this was repeated in the Star Awards for Movies, when someone squealed that Kim Chiu paid to win best actress. This is really becoming an embarrassing habit for the Star Awards who choose to just be numb about it and just ignore the complaints of vote-buying among their members. They do not even bother to make an attempt to cleanse themselves or their sullied reputations.
After her encounter with John Lloyd Cruz in a bar, Anne Curtis has another such incident at the plush Gramercy with Sam Concepcion, the boyfriend of her sister, Jasmine Curtis Smith, to whom she reportedly said: “You are not even classy enough to be here.” Soon after that, Anne was stung by deadly box jellyfish while taping “Dyesebel” in Batangas.
After Judy Ann Santos, Zoren Legaspi is the next showbiz denizen who was hounded by the BIR. Harlene Bautista, actress turned producer, filed cases of estafa and qualified theft against Director Dante Garcia and he was arrested.
Dennis Roldan made a showbiz comeback in “My Destiny” but was later on sentenced to life imprisonment when the courts found him guilty of the kidnapping charges filed against him.
COCO MARTIN LAMBASTED FOR WOMAN ON A LEASH IN FASHION SHOW
Comedian Jobert Austria tried jumping from the Sogo Hotel after someone allegedly threatened his life. Billy Crawford went to a Taguig police precinct insisting that they put him behind bars and charges of malicious mischief was filed by the cops against him. Ronnie Ricketts was suspended as Optical Media Board Chairman.
Megan Aguilar had a falling out with her dad Freddie and denounced the singer-composer on national TV after a squabble at Freddie’s home. Later on, she’d surface again after she was badly beaten up by her boyfriend.
Aljur Abrenica files a petition in court to get out of his contract with GMA-7 even if they just gave him two shows in succession, “Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko” and “Kambal Sirena”. Ill advised, people called him an ingrate and his career is now in limbo.
Coco Martin appeared on stage in the Bench Fashion Show at MOA with a woman looking like a dog on a leash. He was attacked by the women’s group Gabriela and he apologized as his endorsements were affected.
Master filmmaker Mike de Leon was offered to be given the Natatanging Gawad Urian but he rejected it. Kim Chiu told columnist Aster Amoyo at the presscon of “Bride for Rent”: “We don’t owe you an explanation of our private lives.” She got a lot of flak for that.
THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY THRIVES
Like last year, the television industry is once again more active this year than the movie industry, where indie films ruled in terms of production. The good meaningful films can actually be seen only in the local film festivals, like CineMalaya and Cinema One.
The following TV shows were introduced by ABS-CBN: “Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon”, “Dyesebel”, “The Biggest Loser Doubles”, “I Do”, “Bet on Your Baby”, “Ikaw Lamang”, “Mirabella”, “Moon of Desire”, “Pinoy Big Brother, All In” (with Daniel Matsunaga as grand winner), ”Two Wives”, “Dream Dad”, “Bagito”, “Forevermore”, “The Voice Philippines” (where Lyca Garainod wins but it seems runnerup Darren Espanto is now making more waves in the local music scene).
On GMA-7, they had “The Borrowed Wife”, “Carmela”, “Rhodora X”, “Paraiso Ko’y Ikaw”, “Kambal Sirena”, “Inamorata”, “The Half Sisters” (the longest running among the new shows introduced in 2014 as it’s extended up to March 2015), “Marian”, “Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real”, “Nino”, “My BFF”, “Dading”, “Strawberry Lane”, “Ismol Family”, “My Destiny”, “Ilustrado”, “Hiram na Alaala”, “Sa Puso ni Doc”, “More than Words” (which saw the comeback of the Leni Santos-Rey Abellana love team).
On TV5, they produced original TV movies, the best of which was “When I Fall in Love” starring Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III who both give great performances. They also had the mini-series “Obsession”, the dance show “Celebrity Dance Battle” where cager Gary David won, the sitcoms “Confessions of a Torpe” and “One of the Boys”, the weekly mini-series “Wattpad Presents”, “Face the People”, “Let’s Ask Pilipinas” now hosted by Ogie Alcasid, “Beki Boxer”, “Trenderas” and “Talentadong Pinoy” (hosted by Robin Padilla Mariel Rodriguez, with Beatboxer Neil from Davao as grand winner).
Stars who jumped ober da bakod this year include Ellen Adarna and Isabelle Daza who left GMA for ABS-CBN, while Yia Villanueva left ABS to return to GMA where she actually started in “Click”. Martin del Rosario also left ABS for GMA but he has yet to be given a good project as a Kapuso. TV5 decided not to renew the contract of Nora Aunor. Aga Muhlach’s contract also expired. They’re now offering him a contract on a per project basis. Sharon Cuneta decided not to finish her contract with them, declared on social media that she went through a mid-life crisis and is now earnestly losing weight in preparation for a comeback. She called 2014 the worst year in her life in her Facebook account.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers! May 2015 be a truly peaceful and prosperous one for you!
