An Awards Night for the books

A Pinoy actor is busy going around London’s iconic spots showing off her hula hoop skills. Another actor just cut her hair boys’ bob-short even as the FAMAS Awards night’s production and people now confess that actor Eva Darren was definitely dropped from the list of presenters two days before the event on Sunday, 26 May. They actually did not even bother to look for her, and the production staff did not bother to let the awards night director, Vince Tañada, know of her presence.

And, oh, Best Actor winner Alfred Vargas said Tuesday morning, 30 May, that he was not aware that some bashing netizens claim he was supposed to be the only winner in that category but the FAMAS voting members were “influenced” to make Piolo Pascual a co-winner.

“Piolo’s acting ability is beyond doubting now and I am very much honored to win Best Actor with him,” declared Vargas to a group of showbiz journos who called on him in his private office as Quezon City councilor.

Meanwhile those production people who have “confessed” about not bothering to look for Eva Darren at the awards night are Tañada’s staff in Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF), which he himself founded but is now headed by PSF actor Johnrey Rivas.

Rivas puts the blame on FAMAS public relations man Renz Spangler for the removal of Darren as one of the night’s presenters.

“Ikaw lang ang nag-iisang may kasalanan (You are the sole person at fault)!” Rivas accused Spangler on Monday night (29 May) in a seven-page posting on Facebook to clear Tañada and PSF’s name in the FAMAS fiasco.

Rivas bared that it was Spangler who requested the inclusion of Darren as a presenter since Spangler invited her to be a presenter after he managed to convince her to buy four dinner tickets for the awards rites at P5,000 per plate.

Writing largely in very informal Filipino, Rivas “confessed” that Darren was listed as early as 17 May and it is true that she was sent her spiel as presenter with actor Tirso Cruz III, as claimed by her son, Fernando de la Peña, to prove that the FAMAS invited his mom to be a presenter. It was De la Peña who raised furor on his FB account about his mom not made to present after she bought tickets, bought new dress and shoes to attend the awards night.

The awards’ pre-production tasks required a series of Group Chat (digital) meetings with FAMAS officials during which updating of confirmation and cancellation of presenters were done.

Rivas explained that it was the FAMAS people’s sole prerogative to invite presenters and all that Tañada and the production staff required of the members is to keep re-confirming the names of those who can make it and those who cannot.

The deadline was on Friday, 24 May. Rivas was also in charge of maintaining the FAMAS social media network for the awards night.

Lengthily recalled Rivas: “Nung mga unang meeting ng chat group, sumasali pa si Renz as PR and as inviter of Ma’am Eva, kaya kasali pa si Ma’am Eva sa mga unang script. Pero biglang tumigil ang FAMAS PR sa pagsali at dahil wala nang nagko-confirm kung darating si Ma’am Eva o hindi, tinanggal na namin siya finally nung Biyernes, May 24. May secretary si Renz na sumali sa group chat at nung tinanong namin yung secretary kung nag-confirm na si Ma’am Eva, walang maisagot yung secretaries. We posted yung list at about 7:45 p.m. at definitely ay wala na si Ma’am Eva sa list (During the first meeting of our chat group, Renz was included as PR and invited Ma’am Eva in the first script. But the FAMAS PR suddenly stopped joining the chat and because no one was confirming if Ma’am Eva was attending, we finally removed her from the list on Friday, 24 May. Renz had a secretary who joined the chat and when we asked the secretary of Ma’am Eva was attending, she could not give us an answer. We posted the list at about 7:45 p.m. and definitely she was no longer in that list).”

“Pero hindi lang naman siya ang inalis namin sa listahan. May iba pa, dahil sinabi nung inviters na di makakarating yung artista. Ang mga tinanggal ay sina Gloria Diaz, Alfred Vargas, at LA Santos. On the awards night itself, tinanggal din namin sina Ken Chan at Glaiza de Castro dahil hindi pala sila ipinagpaalam bilang presenters kundi para uma-attend lang ng awards night. Last minute ay nag-try and road managers nila na ipagpaalam sila sa GMA 7 management para maging presenters, at nag-No raw ang management (But she is not the only one we removed from the list of inviters. We removed Gloria Diaz, Alfred Vargas and LA Santos. On the awards night itself, we removed Ken Chan and Glaiza de Castro).”

“Kung pumapasok lang sana si Renz sa Group Chat room, nadiskubre n’ya sana na wala na sa list si Ma’am Eva at pwede naman n’yang ipakiusap sa amin na ibalik namin si Ma’am Eva. Kung ginawa yon ni Renz maski nung bago pa lang magsimula ang awards night, baka pumayag pa rin naman si Direk Vince na ibalik siya. Si Direk mismo ang gumawa ng script ng awards night, at may nagawa na siya noon na spiel para kay Ma’am Eva, kaya madali na siyang ipasok uli sa sequence ng presenters (If Renz had only joined the chat, he would have discovered that Ma’am Eva was no longer on the lisr. He could very well have asked us to put her back in. If Renz had done that, I don’t see any reason why Direk Vince would not put her back. It was Direk himself who wrote the script for the awards night and he wrote a spiel for Ma’am Eva so it would have been easy to bring her back into the sequence of presenters)…”

Rivas stressed that Spangler sent Darren’s spiel to her on 23 May even as he confirmed her attendance with us only once and that was in 17 May.

Rivas also revealed that it was Tañada who advised whoever it was who wrote the FAMAS letter of apology to Darren that the staff could not locate Darren at the banquet hall. He said Tañada made up that reason to save FAMAS from the embarrassment of having a no-show presenter.

Tañada knew, according to Rivas, that his mentor (Tañada) was risking PSF’s name with the announcement that the production people could not locate Darren at the Manila Hotel’s Fiesta Pavilion. But Rivas maintained that It’s Ok for the meantime for PSF to be the “sacrificial lamb” since FAMAS awarded him Best Director last year for his movie Katips and also gave it seven other awards. Even Rivas won a FAMAS statuette last year!

But Tañada seem to have the sure way to extricate PSF from the fire: prompt Rivas to tell the “truth” about Spangler’s “negligence” in continuously updating Tañada and the PSF about Darren’s status as a presenter. Rivas revealed that they prevented themselves from exposing Spangler’s negligence the day after the awards night as they didn’t want Spangler to suffer additional mental due to the recent death of one of his grandmothers.

By the way, aside from Vargas whom Tañada and Rivas reported to have backed out from being a presenter but turned up as a Best Actor nominee for his performance in Pieta and won, LA Santos showed up and went home with the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work in In His Mother’s Eyes.

Gloria Diaz was once listed as a presenter but she also backed out. She really did not attend at all even as she won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mallari (where Pascual won for playing three main characters)

Meanwhile, the actor showing off her hula hoop skills in various spots in London is Gladys Reyes. It has been a long dream of her to do that, she bared on her Instagram. She is in London only for a vacation with one of her four sons, Christoph. She has sashayed and gyrated on her hula hoops at Abbey Road, the Tower Bridge and in front of the Buckingham Palace.

The actor with the new ‘do is boyfriend- less Bea Alonzo. She showed off her new boys’ bob cut on Instagram on 29 May. She simply captioned her pic, “I haven’t met the new me, but I guess she will be all right.”

She canceled just a few months ago her engagement and wedding plans with boyfriend of three years, actor Dominic Roque, who has also not met a new sweetheart.

Stop worrying about Pinoy movies and movie idols. They’re largely doing well and serving us divertissement wittingly or un-. And there’s the new Eddie Garcia Law approved by President Marcos Jr. to protect film idols, big and small.

And, oh, we hope the FAMAS officials themselves blow up their side of the juicy FAMAS awards night stories.