Maricel Soriano ends hiatus.

Maricel Soriano's last tv appearance was in Pilyang Kerubin more than six months ago.
Back then, she was tapped by the show's executive producer to help in improving the ratings of Barbie Forteza's show in Kapuso network.
That guesting stint proved once again that Maricel's acting mettle is by far the highest standard in filmdom and tv-dom since Vilma and Nora are in acting breaks.

From then on, several stories started circulating about her whereabouts.
The nasty blind items kept saying that she was in a basement for a famous hospital because of illegal drugs.
Some of them say that she was there for rehab.
Yet another group of them say she's out of the country.
Maricel is this. Maricel that.
Then that maid controversy erupted like volcano one morning of June, a week after she agreed to do a surprise visit in Party Pilipinas.
And the horror stories started getting more horrifying about her whereabouts and about her substance abuse.

That Party Pilipinas guesting was something to be proud of, if you are a Maricelian.
For one thing, that 10-minute appearance became a worldwide twitter trending topic...something that none of us anticipated.
And for another sentimental reason, Maricel strut her rico mambo stuff while looking gorgeous.
Bursting that social media popularity were the maids who went to Mon Tulfo and cried foul on her supposed maltreatment.

That brouhaha even prevented Maricel from appearing on Dolphy's TV5 special. She just chose to stay away from showbiz and the press.
Tried to cool down and sort things out quietly.
That explains why the two barangay hearings never made the third. There was no Maricel Soriano to keep that controversy from rolling.
The maids went home, never made it to the medico-legal and no case was even filed on the police department to this day.

She followed her legal advisers. No press. No statement. No nothing.
In between the controversies and silence, she started ironing things out with her family, and then with her manager-friend, Malou Fagar.

Last night, Maricel Soriano ends that hiatus by having a fans day to celebrate her 40 years in the business.
In the heart of Malate, she chose to have dinner with Forever Friends and her ever supportive family.
It was a little funny that she stole the thunder from a debutant who was about to enter the ball in pink designer gown. No, she did not gatecrash.
The fans day's venue is on the second floor, while the debut was on the ground floor.
Unfortunately for the debutant, her guests started whispering about Maricel's entrance and not her entrance.
But all's well. Maricel just passed by and headed straight to the stairs trying not to be noticed even if she was shining million times over that debutant.
And her message to her fans?
Thankful and grateful that she has lasted this long and happy that her fans are still supporting her.
She acknowledged the friendships that she built in and out of showbusiness and commented that she's sad that Mommy Linda is no longer around to see her celebrate this milestone in her career.
But she ended that message with a happy note that she still has her dad with her and the other showbiz parents that she still have.
Thank God, she is back.
Showbiz needs a standard like her.

Maricel Soriano, out of the basement?

There had been so many malicious talks hounding her disappearance from the limelight since her last tv stint on GMA-7.

If you have been in her circle over the last few years, you would know that her hiatus is a simple statement of telling the world that showbiz has been tiring for her and she wanted some sort of a break.



If you were close to her, you would perhaps say that she simply wanted space because that one person who understood everything about her, and loved her, since she was six, had suddenly died. Like everyone who loses their mother, suddenly lost in this realm.



But if you are one of her legions of fans, your first concern is...what is taking her so long to come out and work again...she's been known to be workaholic and focused in her career.



As I try to go back in the few group conversations that the maricelians had with her in the past, it always bring me to that time where she vividly told the group that she wanted to retire from the business because its very tiring for her...with emphasis on her 40 years of working in the industry that is always competitive and most of the time destroying and cruel.



Of course, I've heard her say the many thanks because of being so blessed beyond her imagination and for still being able to do films and tv shows and commercial endorsements even in her forties, which is not very common even to female superstars that flourished and languished in the limelight before her.



Yet again, Maricel Soriano surprised everyone that sunday afternoon when no one is expecting to see her...much more enjoy her "unkabogable" presence and dance steps in Party Pilipinas.



Oh my, the camera just loves her impromptu Rico Mambo and Body Dancer steps that had stuck to her to this very day after 20 years or so. And yes, even the social networking world was shaken by her sudden appearance that her 10-minute appearance and epic dance steps had been a trending topic of Twitter, surpassing the topic on Independence Day.



Indeed, Maricel couldn't have chosen a better timing but the freedom day.



She couldn't have chosen the most subtle way of freeing her image from the floating nasty rumors from her detractors about her being in rehab and with diminishing beauty and grace.



There she is, looking gorgeous as ever, with that silky-white skin and strutting her body and dancing her immortal dance steps from the 80s in her YSL Tribute pumps.



She is indeed out of that basement and shining brighter than ever in her 10-minute guesting appearance. A clear testament that she has legions and that her detractors have failed again bigtime.

A birthday tribute to the one and only Diamond Star

BY ARNEL RAMOS
Maricel Soriano was born on the same day that would go down in the annals of Pinoy history as Edsa One, a bloodless revolution that highlighted the best Filipino traits of faith, unity, inner strength and calm. People Power of 1986, the other name by which the Edsa revolt would be called, was predated by Maricel’s birth by 21 years.

As Edsa One turns 25 this year, showbiz’s Diamond Star (one of the very few showbiz titles that caught on the same way that Superstar, Star for all Seasons and Megastar did) marks her 46th summer. Like in previous years, there would be no special show to commemorate the star’s natal day. No spot on this Sunday’s "The Buzz" for La Soriano to divulge how she feels about pushing 50 and how she plans to celebrate her special day.

By now, three decades after her reign as one of the two acknowledged cinema queens of the ‘80s, Maricel Soriano has become the immediate equivalent of elusive diva. The actress known foremost for her versatility and candidness on-and-off cam has turned into the biggest mystery of our time. The Greta Garbo of local entertainment.

Unlike in the past when her quiet stance went unblemished, Maricel’s self-imposed hiatus of late after a cameo in TV’s recently-concluded "Pilyang Kerubin" was not totally free from unpleasant talk, the most incredible of which was the tall tale of Soriano supposedly being hooked on drugs and submitting herself to a rehabilitation program in an undisclosed Makati hospital. Prior to that, reports of liaisons with different paramours, hinted at as both male and female, found their way in showbiz columns in the form of blind items, and as conversation piece in many a showbiz umpukan.

Someone who views everything with an objective eye cannot help but be confounded by the visible loopholes in reports that are the stuff of urban legends. How, one is tempted to ask, could that be when Maricel would occasionally surface in showbiz gatherings, the most recent of which was at her "Florinda" co-star Roxanne Guinoo’s wedding in January? Could she have been granted a brief reprieve from the rehabilitation program she has been subjected to for a chance to witness Guinoo’s nuptials?

Thankfully, Soriano has broken her silence through her manager and friend Malou Choa-Fagar who denounced the malicious rumors, saying that such speculations are unfair to the hibernating movie queen.

If this were the ‘80s, expect Maricel Soriano to deplore it herself most probably on the late Inday Badiday’s "See True" with her much-ballyhooed katarayan of yore. But this is 2011, the here and the now and Maricel Soriano is well aware of it.

She has evolved into the quiet, refined person that she is today and really, why can’t we leave her alone? Do we want her to stoop down to the level of today’s starlets who would gladly open up their private lives for the public to ogle at in exchange for a few minutes of airtime to promote their most recent showbiz gigs? Do we expect Maricel Soriano to behave like some overstaying movie queen who would, as some nasty stories floating around have it, plead to movie producers to give her a romantic movie and make her play an overgrown and oversized ingenue for all the world to mock?

It is not Maricel’s game. She is too much of a star for that. She is not about to tarnish our collective memories of her as one of filmdom’s greatest living actresses, despite her zero batting average at the Urian. Shame on the Manunuris really and we’re saying it like it is.

What could then be our best birthday gift to Maricel Soriano as she marks her 46th year on mortal grounds? RESPECT. The very kind that she deserves for all the colorful, heartfelt portrayals she has gifted us all with in the past. The lonely, dejected heiress of "Ikaw Pa Lang ang Minahal." The tomboy of "Galawgaw" and "Pabling." The wacky maid stuck in a strange land and addresess her reflection: "Maganda ka raw?" in "Pepe en Pilar." The way she walks with heavy steps as though she’s dragging her feet forward in one eerie scene in "T2." The quick shift of emotions from joy to despair as she sees her lover Aga Muhlach joined by his teenage wife Angelica Panganiban inside a boutique in "A Love Story." There are many and all of them made memorable and lifted out of the mediocre by that distinct Soriano touch. Intense one moment, reflective the next. Fiery one instance, only to go subdued afterwards.

Yes, Maricel Soriano deserves our respect. Our admiration, even for making us realize what true stardom really means. That is growing with the times and being acutely aware of the inevitability of age and changing public tastes. Drug-addict. Has-been. You can throw all the worst invectives at Maricel Soriano but at the end of the day, her glowing qualities will find a way to shine through. That unerring instinct for what will work on screen. Her being a true-blue survivor. And yes, that mystique, that sense of enigma that only stars of the highest order – think Lolita Rodriguez, Hilda Koronel, Marlene Dauden and in Hollywood Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Julie Christie, Catherine Deneuve – possess. Mystery, after all, is the true essence of a real star. To evoke that aura of being inscrutable, unreachable, inaccessible that arouses in all of us an overpowering curiosity to learn more and obsess over knowing these almost celestial beings better only to realize in the end that if we were to be allowed that privilege, then the objects of our adoration will have been reduced to nothing but idols with feet of clay and are proud of it.

Intimacy, intimated Glenn Close in an excellent documentary on the late Swedish Sphinx Greta Garbo, is for mortals.

-article taken from Arnel Ramos column on Malaya newspaper.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Diamond Star, Miss Maricel Soriano.

Wishing you more happiness and contentment in life.

We love you.

Not so Blind an Item

Couple of days ago, Maricel Soriano's hiatus momentarily ended.
She was seen walk the aisle of Roxanne Guinoo's wedding along with other celebrities like Charlene Gonzales and Mariel Rodriguez.
Maricel played Roxanne's sister in one of abs-cbn's primetime soap few years back and they have been close eversince.

Together with Rahyan Carlos, their director on the soap, Maricel was principal sponsor to the wedding, alongside Vicky Belo and Boy Abunda.

Prior to her appearance on the wedding, Maricel was never to be found, or atleast had been very elusive to the showbiz camera.
Her absence has spawned several speculations including depression over Mommy Linda's demise, being hooked on alcohols and partying and worse even drugs.

But Maricel kept her private matters private. In the wedding, she has talked to only Boy and Charlene. You couldn't even say there was interviewing that happened. Probably a chit chat for a few minutes just like what Charlene mentioned during an episode of The Buzz, wherein she quotes Maricel as saying that she wants to work with Aga Muhlach again, and that she is ready to go back to work again.

Not many would realize that Maricel might have shyed away from the limelight for the untimely demise of her wonder woman. Before that, she changed manager from Wyngard Tracy (who passed away last year as well) to Malou Choa Fagar of the Eat Bulaga fame. Changing a manager, losing a manager, then losing a friend. I'm pretty sure it's reasonable to be out of biz even if you only experienced one of the three.

But alas, showbiz would not let Maricel keep her peace, especially the blind items just because some people in the biz thinks Martin is not doing any good to Mary.

Still and all, Maricel is beyond 40, and with that, she has battled so many personal tribulations in the past and we have to give her credit for that. Give her the space she needs. Give her the time she needs. And when she has finished contemplating on this space and time, then allow her to comeback. She has done several comebacks and because she is such a talent that is so rare nowadays, she is always welcomed back.

Yeah, some people would say that she is no longer the hottest property. Her opportunities in showbiz aren't that many unlike in the 80s. Her fans may not be as many. I say, if you can find someone like her - talent, charisma and personality in one star of today, then I'll be the first one to tell Maricel to retire. You can't just easily put her down. In fact, so many have tried in the past, but no one succeeded. She just kept silent and kept doing her work and then became the true Diamond Star that she is.

Jobert Sucaldito may have turned her into a hobby, or some other tabloid reporters may write about her every day in blind items, still when Maricel walked down that aisle, everyone was stunned by her presence and everyone kept saying she is as beautiful and as sexy as ever. That presence alone would put all the blind items just blind items coz there's no way someone hooked in drugs and in rehab on the basement of Makati Med will ever look that good.

So i guess, we just have to call on Malou Fagar's attention - What have you been doing when all of these blind items about Maricel is spreading? Just sitting? Just waiting in vain? Maybe playing deaf?

Inay at Roxanne's wedding

EMIR.

EMIR – The rebirth of a Filipino musical

I had always been a Chito Rono fan, eversince I saw Eskapo and Dahas on the big screen.
These two aren’t all that brilliant if you compare it to an Eddie Romero classic or even with a Bernal or a Brocka film, but they stand on its own merits. And after more than a decade, Rono proves that he is indeed one of the best directors we have around on the mainstream.

Last year, Hollywood awarded its top prize to a musical that was directed by a British filmmaker with Indian actors with good story. This year, direk Chito tries the genre with ample help from the Film council and CCP, and the result was brilliant.

Few years ago, Rono tackled a life of an OFW mother who went to London on a starcinema venture. While the reception to that movie was lukewarm as it never reached box-office success in the same league as Anak (another starcinema movie about OFW) generated income, he once again tackles the lives of OFW in this musical drama, this time a whole bunch of OFW women and their lives.

The film opens with the lead character asks why was she in this land, a land where life can be simple but needing. The scene dissolves in three musical ensembles and it became clear to me that the film has quality up on its sleeve.

In the 80s, musical ensembles were bastardized by so many Regal comedies that most of the filmmakers lost track to what a quality musical is. Over the last few years, we attempted to stand on our feet again but most of our filmmakers lacked vision as to how Hollywood do their musicals which had been the standard of filmmaking in this side of the earth.

With Emir, Rono adapts to that standard and he fuses Pinoy music and it is fantastic.

The number wherein the barrio folks chase the rats on the corn fields on moonlight is a clear manifestation that the filmmaker has its own style to boot. The light and the movements and the sound of that particular scene is my most favorite.

As the movie unfolds with its contemporary elements of pinoy OFW lives, there are injections on how we, as Filipinos, adapts to the different culture that we get mixed into because of our jobs. Yet again, we will always remain Pinoy at heart because of the quirky situations and familial bonds that we have which are not always present on different cultures and traditions.

The story climaxes to the dawning of a Turkey war and how lives are changed by this. The scene is quite brutal, and I have never seen a musical that interjects massive death to show that there is hope in the end, and I loved that climax because it projected realistically onscreen.

The film ends in a light tone wherein the ward gets reunited to the kid she has helped to raise as a nanny on the Turkish land, and at that point I was still astounded as to this evolution of pinoy musical that I have seen.

CCP must have played a big part in getting this wonderful story and I have to commend the Film Council and perhaps Malacanang for sharing the budget and making this film possible. If there is one good thing that Arroyo has done as a president of this land, then this must be it – giving budget to make this wonderful film and to revolutionize the Filipino musical genre.

The performances are magnificent. Dulce played the mayordoma role to a T. Beverly Salviejo and another (whose name I did not get) gave good comic relief. Julia Clarete fits her role and I loved her quick character transition in two scenes. Francheska Farr is indeed a revelation by the end of the film. On the first few scenes I was asking myself if Chito Rono had another actor to play that part but towards the end of the film, Farr did not disappoint me. It became clear that the young actress could deliver and that she tried to get into her character.

In one particular scene, I have felt Farr’s emotion and the film’s undertone. This was the scene where Farr’s character and another OFW character chants on the beautiful moon. Watch out for that scene for its haunting song and a wonderful message about relationship.

If you are in the mall and have two hours to spare and would like to see a good film of international standard, then EMIR is for you. See how Rono shows to us Filipinos the distinctive color, music, performances and story that we only get to see on most Hollywood films that are released on this land.