My Philippine Idol

It’s been a year since I posted here in this blog. As much as I hate it, it seems that I only post when people who I admire die. Let’s hope I could change this soon.

Anyway, this post is also in my Multiply site.

When Jan Nieto, who was my officemate, was a contestant in Philippine Idol, we were in SM Megamall almost every weekend to cheer for him. However, aside from supporting Jan, my family also looked forward to seeing Francis M who was one of the judges of the show.

You see, my family is a die-hard Eat Bulaga family and being one of the Dabarkads, we really loved Francis M. Actually, among the 3 judges, it is only with Francis that we had our picture taken even if it was with just a camera phone.

Personally, as my jologs Friendster profile says, my two favorite movies are Bagets 2 and Ninja Kids. I’ve been watching those 2 movies since I was 7 until I have burned our betamax. Of course it did not end there because I bought the VCDs when they were released. Guess who is on both movies? Yes, FrancisM (together with Bistek and Monching). Until now, I try to be as cool as Ponce and want a Momo steering wheel. If you don’t get it, then review your Bagets 2 tape.

When he became the Master Rapper, I admit I bought those peace necklaces (yes, I was Grade 4 then). Until now, one of my favorite songs is Kaleidescope World. I guess our Kaleidescope World just lost one of its brightest color. But I’m sure, wherever he is now, he’ll be fine.

And as a true Francis M fan, it’s time to say, “SEAMLESS NA!!!!!”

Well, this will be short.  I just want to point out that it’s a shame that Brad Renfro was left out in the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars this year.

Every year, the In Memoriam is one of the segments that I wait for (no, I’m not morbid) just because I want to remember the artists who have contributed to the entertainment industry (being the show biz junkie that I am).

Of course, this year I really waited for that segment because I wanted to see if they will include Heath Ledger.  (see my previous article about Heath here).

Well, when Hilary Swank introduced the segment and said that some of those who we will remember left too early, I knew that Heath would be there along with Brad Renfro since he died exactly 1 week before Heath.  Although, he died by OD-ing with heroin  (something I don’t approve of), I believed in him as an actor.

His first movie, The Client, was the 2nd John Grisham book I’ve read.  It’s film adaptation is  my most watched John Grisham film.  Actually, I loved it because they stayed true to the book unlike The Firm so I don’t get tired watching it.  It also helps that Brad was such a cute kid back then.  I think every one had a crush on him and he was a regular cover of BOP (hee!).  He was brilliant as Mark Sway and he was able to match the acting of Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones (both Oscar regulars) in spite of it being his first movie.

He made me cry in The Cure and made me stay with Apt Pupil (although I was bored).  Gosh, I even saw  Tom and Huck for him.   Sadly, his career went on a downward spiral after that.  I think it was last year when I saw his recent picture in PerezHilton and saw that he did not age gracefully.  He was only 24 then but he had a receding hairline already and he just looked plain awful.  I searched us.imdB that time and learned that he had some troubles with the law and was battling heroin addiction. Well as they say, once you go to heroin, there’s no turning back.

Even with the tragic way he died, I thought he would be there since I remember River Phoenix (another favorite of mine) was mentioned even if he died by inducing a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin in front of Johnny Depp’s Viper Club.

I tried researching why  he was not mentioned.  I am not sure about who gets remembered or not but still it’s a shame.  The logical reason is probably because he was not an Academy member.  Cynics would say it’s because of how he died but then again, maybe the In Memoriam editor just plainly forgot about him.   Now, that is SAD.

P.S.

It seems that I don’t know how to write short.

The world woke up today with the shocking and tragic news of Heath Ledger’s passing at 28 years old. Another case of a young Hollywood star leaving us just when he is at the cusp of stardom. (Yeah, I know he is an A-lister already but I mean the Brad Pitt kind of A plus-list).

The fact that he died on my husband’s birthday just makes it more memorable to me.

I know that I haven’t been posting this week because of my hectic workload. Also, as I’ve said before, I’m still trying to organize my entertainment blog so I am avoiding posting anything showbiz related entries here but I just had to break my silence.

I will not dwell anymore in the negative rumors surrounding his death like illegal drugs and overdosing on pills while with pneumonia since nothing is final yet pending his autopsy. Also, let’s just give him his peace. What’s important is we know that if he did indeed died of substance abuse, we learn from his mistake and will not do the same.

As I was trying to compose my thoughts about Heath, what better way to do it than posting my own list of 10 things I Love about Heath in honor of his first big Hollywood movie (and the movie that introduced him to me).

In random now,

1. His Name.

His name has “star quality”. Unlike some stars (e.g. Thomas Mapother aka Tom Cruise) who have to assume a screen name to give them that recall, Heath’s name is unique enough to make him standout but still easy to be remembered. Trivia: Heath was named after Heathcliff, the main character of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

2. His voice and dance moves

When I first heard his voice, I was charmed by his baritone. He has a passable singing voice as seen in 10 Things I Hate About You. Actually, he sang the football stadium scene too well, that the director scolded him and had to redo the scene. Of course, aside from the singing, the one that caught my attention in that movie was how he easily danced up and down the bleachers. I don’t think it is coincidence that his favorite actor is Gene Kelly.

3. His accent

Who doesn’t love hearing a guy with an accent? An Australian accent to boot…..’Nuff said.

4. He is a good athlete

When he was young and still in school, he had a choice to train either in acting or in field hockey because he was a highly rated player. He was so good that he was a member of the State U17 squad but his passion for acting won over his love for sports and we all know how that turned out.

5. His humor (at least in pet choices)

He used to have a pet kangaroo. No, really!

6. A Knight’s Tale

Although it was not a critical success, so what? For me, movies are a form of escape and I like my movies to be entertaining. Why would I want to watch a movie that would make me feel worse after, right? So in that criterion, A Knight’s Tale ranks high in my list of favorite movies because it never fails to entertain me even if I have seen it a lot of times in HBO.

Actually aside from the nice “visuals” that he provided in the movie, what I loved about the movie is his ragtag army of supporters led by Paul Bettany and their chemistry with Heath.

7. Joker

Joker is one of the most well-known villains of Batman and was brilliantly portrayed by Jack Nicholson. Just by accepting the role proves again that Heath is courageous in choosing his roles. It is a role that could just give him that extra push towards Hollywood’s “elite of the elite”. Unfortunately, he has no chance to see what this role could have done for him.

Note: I read in Perezhilton.com that this role mentally drained him. He had sleepless nights because of the role and had to take sleeping pills like Ambien and Valium just to rest and even with the aid of the pills, he would just sleep for an hour. After the autopsy and if it is proven that this led to his early death, then it’s so unfortunate indeed.

8. His courage to take gay roles

Long before he did Brokeback Mountain with Jake Gyllenhaal, he did a TV series in Australia called Sweat, a series about Olympic hopefuls. Actually, he landed 2 roles in the series as a swimmer and gay cyclist and he chose the latter because he felt that the role would make him stand out among the bunch of athletes. Even then, he had no qualms about gay roles since probably he was so secure about his sexuality. This reinforces again his courageous role choices to showcase his talent.

9. His height

I am a sucker for tall guys and 6′1″ or 185 cm makes him almost the same height as my favorite Korean actor Rain. (Ok, I just had to include that….)

10. A loving father to Matilda

We might never know what caused his breakup with Michelle Williams last September but I hope based on the pictures, he really loved his daughter. Even on the official statement of his family, he was described by his father as a “doting father to Matilda”. I read that Michelle rushed to New York and is devastated (who wouldn’t be?). I hope that she would have the courage through this and be a source of strength and guidance to Matilda since she is too young to understand what’s going on. It’s a shame that Matilda will not have a chance to get to know who her father was.

edit: I just saw this touching article about Heath’s relationship with his daughter Matilda. Just look at the pictures and it says a thousand words… http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2008/01/tribute-to-cele.html

Rest in peace, Heath.

Due to the Writer Union’s strike, the 65th Golden Globes Award Show was canceled. The Actor’s guild already said that they will not allow members to attend the ceremony in support of the Writers. Of course, would anyone watch a bunch of reporters (The Golden Globes are from an international group of entertainment reporters) hand awards to whoever had the guts to cross the picket line?

However, apparently, they still announced the list of winners. Personally, I don’t think it would have made such a difference if there was a show or not. Just look at the list below and save for a handful, I am not familiar or excited about them. Sorry to the fans of the other winners but I think Johnny Depp would have been only high point in the show.

Oh and of course, would anyone miss this year’s Miss Golden Globe, Rumer “Potatohead” Willis?. I certainly won’t.

For complete list of winners, click more

MOTION PICTURES:

—Picture, Drama: “Atonement.”

—Actress, Drama: Julie Christie, “Away From Her.”

—Actor, Drama: Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood.”

—Picture, Musical or Comedy: “Sweeney Todd.”

—Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marion Cotillard, “La Vie En Rose.”

—Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd.”

—Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There.”

—Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men.”

—Director: Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.”

—Screenplay: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, “No Country for Old Men.”

—Foreign Language: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” France and U.S.

—Animated Film: “Ratatouille.”

—Original Score: Dario Marianelli, “Atonement.”

—Original Song: “Guaranteed” from “Into the Wild.”

TELEVISION:

—Actress, Drama: Glenn Close, “Damages.”

—Actor, Drama: Jon Hamm, “Mad Men.”

—Series, Musical or Comedy: “Extras,” HBO.

—Series, Drama “Mad Men,” AMC.

—Actress, Musical or Comedy: Tina Fey, “30 Rock”

—Actor, Musical or Comedy: David Duchovny, “Californication.”

—Miniseries or Movie: “Longford,” HBO.

—Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Queen Latifah, “Life Support.”

—Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Jim Broadbent, “Longford.”

—Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Samantha Morton, “Longford.”

—Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Jeremy Piven, “Entourage.”

In case you’ll notice the new addition to my sidebar, yes, I have joined the Twitter bandwagon.

I know that posting major posts could take long but I would still like my audience to know what I am up to so I signed up for a Twitter account.

I’ve read some reviews why some bloggers won’t Twit and it is mainly because they felt that they would lose their privacy with Twitter. Well, yes that could happen but it still up to you what you would post. I think of Twitter as a sort of a controlled Big Brother. My audience would know what I am up to but only if I tell them.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up and follow me.

I’m so proud of myself. I was never a writer so updating this blog is really an effort for me. More so, it’s the busiest week at work and yet I only missed two day in posting an entry.

I’m so tired at work especially since November because one of my teammates transferred to another team and I assumed most of his work.

I realized that updating my blog is my outlet. I might not be updating this blog so much about showbiz because I am gathering material for my new blog in Blogger. Hopefully, I could unveil it next Saturday depending on my workload. *Crossing my fingers*

Till then, cheers to another week!

When I decided to blog, I chose between WordPress andBlogger among all the other free blog hosts available.  Eventually, I chose WordPress because of the good reviews I read about it and because I wanted to migrate to wordpress.org eventually.

But I overlooked one detail for WordPress, that is, Google Adsense is not available in wordpress.com.  If I wanted to put up my Adsense, I have to migrate to wordpress.org which was my original plan as soon as I have gathered critical mass of blog readers.

This led me to explore my other choice, Blogger.  Knowing that Blogger is now owned by Google, I knew that putting Adsense in my blog would be a breeze.  While I was creating a new blog with Blogger, I found it easier to customize with other add-ins and the support is more extensive.

The advantage of wordpress for me is it is easy to write posts here and to monitor site stats.  However, the more I explore Blogger, the more it made sense for me to move in there because of overall easier blog management.

Therefore, watch out for my new and improved blog once I have set up my Blogger entries.  My new blog would be tighter in terms of content and would have a signature way of posting.

By the way, my Blogger account would not be mominthecity anymore since it is not available anymore.

Hint:  My Blogger account name would reflect the way I would post and it would showcase  mainly the majority of the referrals I got in my 2 weeks stay here in wordpress.

I will still maintain this site but edit its content so that it would really contain my original plan for it, that is a blog for moms.

I got this idea from Chuvaness. I believe that if I write about it then it becomes a reality. So I went to ticker factory to get my own ticker so that I could track my own weight loss. Starting today, I am putting the weight loss widget on right column of my blog so I have a constant reminder of my project.

I am 5′2″ so 105 lbs is my ideal weight. 110 lbs is not bad but I would like to stretch it to 105 lbs.

Before giving birth to my first daughter, I was 102 lbs. I topped out at 141 lbs. during my 8th month then down to 138 lbs prior to giving birth. After a year, I was able to bring it down to 105 lbs. so I believe that it is doable.

However, I have gained 25 lbs. ever since I started working so I am now at 130 lbs. I gave birth again last year and went up to 150 lbs but I am back at 130 lbs.

Mind you, I am not doing this for only for vanity (but it would be nice to fit back to my old clothes) but because I can already feel the strain on my knees so I better start working on it.

I don’t plan to go on diets because I am breastfeeding but rather I would just eat more sensibly. I would also increase my physical activities. Hiphop Abs, here I come!

Any other weight loss techniques are welcome. Please leave suggestions in the comment box. Aja! Fighting!

Last week, I read in the news that my Korean husband, Rain (Bi), was offered by the Olympics Organizers to sing the official in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Of course, as a fan of Rain, I was happy to hear that he was offered such as a prestigious opportunity. It would immensely boost his career as a world star if he would be able to showcase his talent in the Olympics especially that he has an upcoming international movie, Speed Racer, to be directed by the Wachowski brothers. The Wachowski brothers are the same people behind The Matrix series.

However, with this offer, a round of cyber debates between the Chinese and the Koreans ensued. This is of course because the Chinese were questioning the organizer’s choice of choosing a Korean in the Beijing Olympics when there are a number of good Chinese singers who can do the honors.

As much as I love Rain, I understand the appeal of the Chinese. The Olympics is their chance to showcase to the world what they have to offer and and it would be ironic if a foreigner would be doing one of the highlights of the show. Although we are all Asians, and Rain is arguably the most recognized Asian singer nowadays, it would still be more appropriate to see a Chinese singing in the Olympics.

That is why I am so proud of Rain’s decision to turn down the organizers because for him it makes more sense if a Chinese would be the Voice of the Olympics.

It is very hard to get this kind of opportunity but it is even harder to turn down such offer knowing the exposure that you can get. He is still planning to hold another event in the Olympics but not as the main voice of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I wish him good luck and I hope that this ends the cyber debates that are on going.

With the recently concluded Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2 as Ruben Gonzaga as the big winner, let me share an open letter written by my sister in her multiply blog. I share the same sentiment as her so here is her letter in full.

(Picture credit: Pinoy Big Brother 2 Official site)

” I am a part-time housewife if you may, living in Canada. My main form of entertainment is watching shows on the internet and reading blogs and forums.  It’s winter and there is nothing to do outside unless you want to catch a cold or flu.

Why? Why? Why????  As a concerned consumer I think we all need the answers to these questions, don’t you think?“

Please feel free to circulate the letter and hopefully it reaches the right people.