“And the Breadwinner is... “ is mainly a movie of Vice Ganda. We don’t think her fans will stop themselves from watching it starting 25 December just because the practically confirmed lovers Maris Racal and Anthony Jennings are in the film. Almost surely, the young lovers’ roles would not be as major as that of Ganda. The lovers’ presence in the film is most likely just a garnishing, not the main narrative.

Viewers will swarm to the film mainly for its transgender star even if the roles given to Racal and Jennings had been assigned instead to the less known loveteam of Kaori Oinuma and Jeremiah Lisbo who are also ABS-CBN contract stars.

It’s okay if the hot young lovers would not be allowed to join promo events and interviews — because their sizzling reputation would make their presence eclipse even someone as limelight-sought and limelight-hogging as Vice Ganda.

You know, we even have the feeling that all those who have been bashing Racal and Jennings for allegedly cheating on content creator Jamela “Jam” Villanueva will all the more watch And the Bread Winner Is... so they can hate the lovers all the more. For bashers of well-exposed celebrities, the fun of life is ever-intensifying hatred. Bashing is less fun for their practitioners if it’s done only mildly. The bashing must be done always overboard, to the hilt, so to speak.

Once the bashers’ senseless hatred has reached a saturation point, they just move on to other warm celebrities and make them sizzle with their fiery contempt and bashing. Showbiz bashers, though, won’t bother with Sen. Riza Hontiveros or beleaguered Vice President Sara Duterte. Bashers keep to their turf. Thankfully, they are territorial.

What we’ve said about Racal and Jennings in relation to And The Breadwinner Is... we will also say to the executives in charge of promoting Daniel Padilla’s forthcoming series Incognito, which also stars “MaThon” (which is how the Maris-Anthony love is billed in Pinoy showbiz).

The forthcoming action series also has MaThon as some sort of added attraction. Its early press releases put the young lovers’ names the last on the list. Well, after all, Racal and Jennings are the non-action stars in the show’s very impressive supporting actors to Padilla whom ABS-CBN is now beginning to transition from a romantic lead to an action star.

Those supporting actors are Ian Veneracion, Richard Gutierrez and Baron Geisler (oh, well, he really is a superb drama actor who has once took on a role as a gay broadcast journalist in Cinemalaya’s Jay for which he won Best Actor).

People will watch Incognito even if MaThon is in its cast. The series’ main attraction will be Padilla, Veneracion, Gutierrez. (Kaila Estrada is also in the cast, and it is not known yet if she is the love interest of one of the boys, or hers is a fiercely independent character in the series.)

Incognito is directed by Lester Pimentel Ong who also directed the hit series Ironheart top-billed by Gutierrez. Ong’s being the director of the forthcoming series is one of the reasons people will watch Incognito (which means unknown in English). The word refers to Padilla’s character in the film.

Although Incognito is premiering in January next year yet, ABS-CBN has tendered a media conference for it, as if the series would be drowned by the unrelenting flood of captivating positive breakouts or contemptuously captivating occurances. Or overshadowed by the blitz promo and publicity these days for the entries in the forthcoming 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival.