Mark is happy for Jennylyn

"It’s good to know na naroroon pa rin ang dating fans and supporters namin eager to see us together again," he says.

In "Sapi," he plays the husband of Aiza Marquez who plays Isay, a girl who gets impregnated by an evil spirit. The movie ends with him agreeing to look after the child like his own. Is he capable of doing something like this in real life, like in the case of his former sweetheart Jen who just gave birth to a child sired by another man, Patrick Garcia?

"It depends," he says. "In ‘Sapi,’ Aiza is my wife and, in the story, I was hypnotized by a powerful faith healer, Nanding Josef, for me to accept the situation without any complaint as he transferred his powers to me. Pero kung sakali ring in real life, I’m not capable of having my own kids, I’ll just adopt siguro. But I will never agree na magkaanak ang misis ko sa iba."

But supposing he and Jen reconcile, will he accept her baby like his own? "I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. Sa ngayon, I’m not sure what to answer."

Wasn’t any old romantic feeling between them rekindled when they did "Dear Friend?

"Wala naman. I don’t think pareho kaming meron ganung expectation. We’re just doing our work."

What did he feel when he saw Jen’s baby, Alex Jazz? "Well, natuwa ako. He was smiling while he was asleep. And I’m happy for Jen kasi happy siya with her baby."

Does he agree with Jen’s decision not to allow Patrick see their baby? "Well, it’s her choice, ‘di ba? We don’t exactly know kung ano nangyari sa kanila, but I trust Jen. Mukhang nag-mature siya agad when she became a mother. Her main obligation naman is with her child, not with the father. Kasi parang little angel niya ang baby niya.

"But I’m sure, balang araw, makikita rin ni Patrick ang anak niya. Huwag na lang pilitin sa ngayon. Bayaan munang lumamig si Jen kasi ‘di naman biro what she went through."

Mark is also in the new GMA-7 primetime series, "Luna Mystika," where he plays the role of Kamilo, an engkanto who falls in love with Celestina, one of the two characters played by Heart Evangelista. After this, he is reunited with Jennylyn in the new sinenovela, "Paano Ba Mangarap," which originally starred Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon.

***

This Sunday, the special guest contestants in "The Singing Bee" are hilarious comedians and singers who are all scene stealers. Two of them are second-timers in the show, IC Mendoza and Erick Nicolas who got into the Top 4 when they first joined it, while the rest are "virgins": Ruffa Mi (Rufa Mae Quinto’s impersonator), Tess Aquino (a regular in "Dyosa"), Brownie (who looks like action pix tough guy King Gutierrez) and Tuco.

"Siempre, lamang na kami ni Erick kasi we’ve joined the show before at mas relaxed na kami," says IC. "Pag first time mo pa lang kasi, mas nakaka-tension, so mas may chance na kami to win the P1 million jackpot prize."

At the time they first joined, it was actually another singer-comedian who won, Kitkat, who has now filed a case against her boyfriend of six years named Alfred Lumanlan, who stole her jewelry worth P120,000 and got P130,000 from her as he’s a gambling addict. So whatever Kitkat won from "Singing Bee" just went to her boyfriend. This time, Erick is more confident he’d be the winner. He’s a crowd-drawer in sing-along bars and has a wide knowledge of various songs because of his job as MC-singer, just like his colleague Tuko. But IC says his edge is that he is "bee-dioke" addict, so he also knows a lot of songs.

"I go to videoke bars with my friends several times a week kaya marami akong memoryadong kanta," he adds.

Find out who’ll win among them this Sunday in "The Singing Bee" after "The Buzz."

***

Just like "Very Special Love" and "You Got Me," director Cathy Molina’s new romantic comedy movie, "My Only U," is once again a shameless trying hard crowd pleaser. It starts promisingly with a fast-paced prologue showing Benjie Paras as a doctor who quickly dies in the opening scene due to a freak accident when he chokes on the food he’s eating. In the next scene, he’s already a ghost who acts as the film’s narrator, telling in a quick succession of shots that lead character Toni Gonzaga comes from a family where everyone dies before reaching the age of 25. This was shown through a series of photos of Toni’s various dead family members, all played by Toni herself, including her own brother and a grandmother who lived in the Jurassic Age. But as energetic and perky the film’s introductory moments are, the rest of it quickly falls back into mediocrity and monotony. The high octane and stylized perkiness of the opening scenes that are loud and swiftly paced is not maintained but turn out to promise more than the movie delivers. The rest of the movie still has some cute and hilarious scenes, like that sequence in the emergency room where the doctor Toni is talking to turns out to be someone who’s already a spirit and who just left his mortal body. Molina was so promising with her initial works, particularly "You Are the One," but alas, it’s painful but true, some good things never last. She quickly repeated herself in one film after another, particularly the scenes in the rain and confrontations and reconciliations in the middle of the street.

In "My Only U," she even pays homage to her own movie when the rain scene suddenly stops and John Lloyd Cruz suddenly pops up doing the sun dance from "Very Special Love." Other actors from her past films, Sam Milby and Zanjoe Marudo, also do cameo bits here. Like what we’ve said, "My Only U" started promisingly. But unfortunately, the clever bits and things that do work are outnumbered by those that do not, especially the musical numbers that get so boring after a while, particularly that ho-hum song and dance number of Vhong Navarro with his sidekicks Empoy and Janus del Prado. Molina just doesn’t know when to quit while the movie’s ahead and it all feels so perfunctory, too contrived and scripted.

She should have actually done some judicious editing to pare down many of the film’s excesses to make it tighter. The movie is actually a one-joke flick (hanging on the fact that Toni is said to be dying but it’s all a mistake and, in all fairness to Toni, she gives her usual engaging performance) but it needlessly runs for almost two hours when it could have been a more amusing 90 minutes. It just indulges in too many pa-cute scenes like the hand and fingers jokes ("Ano ito? Superman, super friends, kamay") that are actually not humorous at all. We hope she’ll stop all this corniness and silliness in her next movie and come up with something more genuinely imaginative. As her characters in "My Only U" themselves would say: "Last mo na yan, ha."

***

The "Back to Back to Back" concert of Freestyle with Side A and MYMP at the Araneta Coliseum on December 1 is definitely an event that maybe considered as a pre-Christmas presentation for all their loyal fans. Viva Concerts had a special presscon just for their three vocalist: Jinky Vidal of Freestyle, Joey Generoso of Side A and Juris of MYMP.

Freestyle, the band behind the hits songs "Before I Let You Go" and "So Slow" has new members in vocalists-keyboardists Mike Luis and Joshua Desiderio, as well as bass player Rommel de la Cruz. These three guys would perform in their biggest outing as Freestyle members on the one-night-only gig that promises to attract a big crowd that can expect a repertoire of familiar hit numbers.

"This will be the first time we’d be on a big stage with our new members and this is our way of introducing them to the public formally," female vocalist Jinky Vidal says.

"With Side A and MYMP, we open the concert with all of us singing on stage then we’ll have individual numbers with us singing each other’s hit songs. It’ll be really exciting not just for the audience but also for us as we get to sing those originals and covers that made our careers. What will be that song we’ll all perform? Are we gonna do a medley? We are thrilled by just thinking of the great possibilities."

Freestyle had their first major concert at the Big Dome in October of 2000, capturing on record their phenomenal version of Ogie Alcasid’s "Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang" that featured Pops Fernandez in duet with the group’s former male lead vocalist Top Suzara. Just last year they filled up the same venue in a series of back-to-backs with Side A. This time they have the MYMP on board.

As Jinky would like to put it, "Every gig we have is different from the last one. Nothing is repeated. Laging may bagong nangyayari. May lilitaw pa rin na something new sa tugtugan."

Tickets vailable at all Ticketnet outlets, Araneta Coliseum or at Viva Concerts and Events.