Nora Aunor in squabble again

"My role as Arah is very challenging, an ad agency executive who’s 30 years old," she says. "Erich is Elizabeth, my secretary and Jason is Eric, her childhood friend she’s secretly in love with. The problem is that Jason falls in love with me even if I’m several years older than him."

Heart feels she’s now ready to take more challenging roles like this. "The past few years made me a different person. When I was 21, I had the mind of a 16-year-old. I lived a sheltered life and my parents were very conservative, they gave me everything and they found it difficult to accept that I’m growing up and I want to be independent. Then I met Echo (Jericho Rosales) and everything changed. He has seen the world and I have to adjust to him. Because of that, I am mature now and a much better person. I learned so much from him. I no longer think that I can get anything I want at the flick of a finger. At the time I had a conflict with my parents, Echo was the one who continued to urge me to make up with them, that I should respect them," she recalls. "Kinulit niya akong puntahan ang daddy ko, so bumalik ako sa parents ko and my dad forgave me. Sobrang bait ni Echo. He’s the only breadwinner in his whole family and some of them, nagkakamali, but he’s very patient and continues to understand and love them all. Kaya nga ayaw niyang malayo ako from my own family."

She feels she’s now a much better actress and the director of "Muntik na Kitang Minahal," Ruel Bayani agrees. "She amazed me. She now has more range and can easily project any emotion that’s required from her. She’ll delight the viewers with her fine acting in ‘Your Song’ that starts this Sunday right after ‘Love Spell.’"

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Former Viva Hot Babe Sheree was supposed to be launched in Viva’s "Scorpio Nights 3." The project never took of the ground so she grabbed the offer of director Jun Lana to play the title role in his new film, "Roxxxanne." "The role is good at title roler pa ko, so I accepted it," she says. "I play a girl who rents an apartment owned by Jay Aquitania’s family. I don’t know that Jay is a closet queen in love with a pedicab driver, Janvier Daily. To cover up his sexual preference, Jay invents a lie about me na nilagyan ng sex video. This leads to an explosive series of events that erupts in a violent climax. When the movie premiered in UP, puro positive ang feedback sa pelikula at sa performance ko kaya happy talaga ako sa ‘Roxxxanne."

In spite of some delicate scenes of sex and violence, the film was approved without cuts. It will be shown starting tomorrow, February 2, at Robinsons Galleria’s Indie Sine. Why did director Jun make a movie about a sex video?

"Our country is dubbed as the tex-ting capital of the world," he says. "About 200 million text messages are sent everyday and the cell phone is no longer just a communication device but also a powerful social tool. It’s also used for violating someone’s privacy. Sex videos involving celebrities and even ordinary people continue to circulate through cell phones. ‘Roxxxanne’ takes a look at how this seemingly harmless device can change our lives and affect us, whether in a good or a bad way."

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Janvier Daily first gained attention as the boyfriend of Ethel Booba who was the reason why she went out of Kuya’s house in "PBB Celebrity Edition 2." But it turned out he has already dumped Ethel so she just went back to "PBB." His nude picture later circulated on the net. "Roxxxanne" is his first starring role. Those who’ve met Janvier say he’s inscrutable, unfathomable. This is because he had a very sad past. He says he’s willing to bare his body on screen to help his mom who’s now in the hospital.

"What my mom went through to raise us is no joke," he says. "She’s from Surigao, my dad’s from Laguna. We are eight siblings. He beats us all up and my mom almost died, so we escaped from him. I was about five years old when we went to Manila and we slept in the streets of Ermita. Someone reported us to ‘Magandang Gabi Bayan’ and my mom was accused of pimping us. But it’s not true. She was just looking for people to help us with our studies. My mother worked as a waitress and me and my siblings took all kinds of job. I sold newspapers."

Janvier even recounts his mother’s bad ordeal with the police. "Once, when we were looking for a place to sleep in Ermita Center, my siblings and I were arrested by cops for vagrancy. My mom went to the police station and the cops beat her up, stripped her and locked her up. After that, she’d often have breakdowns. She’d suddenly cry and would walk around naked in Ermita until she gets tired and sleeps anywhere. When she wakes, okay na uli siya. When I was 11, I was taken by social workers from the Manila Youth Reception Center (MYRC). My other siblings were taken by other orphanages like Asilo and Kapatiran. In the MYRC, they made me a servant, collecting food for pigs," he says.

When he grew up, he went to Baguio and was taken in as a basketball player by a university since he’s 6 feet tall. It was in Baguio that he was discovered by his manager, Ihman Esturco, who gave him a role in the movie "Troika." "Roxxxanne" is his second film.

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A reader from San Diego, California who claims to be a Noranian (but who requests that her name not be revealed anymore) e-mailed us to report what happened to Nora Aunor’s "Together Again" concert with Tirso Cruz III at Peter Auditorium in LA last Saturday night when it was raining heavily in Southern California. Other stars who were supposed to be in the show were Jojit Paredes, Bernardo Bernardo, and, of course, John Rendez. Ate Guy, as she is fondly called, could hardly sing that night and her voice was so hoarse. Tirso didn’t make it as his working visa was not approved. Bernardo also didn’t show up and when some friends called him, he was surprised as no one informed him about the concert at all. He was told that it was Ate Guy who’s supposed to get in touch with him and she already got his talent fee. The concert producer was a Pinay named Rilla Pax and, during the show, Ate Guy reportedly maligned her even if she was right there sitting in the audience, saying the producer wasn’t paying her any fixed talent fee for the show. Whatever she’s getting will be based on how much the show would earn that night. The producer cried because Nora has been living in a house she owns for six months. "Pinakisamahan ko siya nang husto," the producer said, crying to some friends. "She (Nora) was crying when she approached me then as she had no place to stay. Naawa ako sa kanya at kinupkop siya. Pinatira ko siya sa isang bakanteng bahay ko nang walang bayad. Pero heto ang napala ko, sinira-siraan pa ako, pero after the concert, ‘dun din siya tumuloy sa bahay ko."

We asked one Noranian writer here in Manila for comments and he only said: "What else is new?"

(mmhannah143@yahoo.com)