The news spread through various forms of Philippine media very slowly.

I heard over the television, then the radio, that teen idol Rico Yan, whose latest movie Got to Believe became a local hit, died while on holiday at the Dos Palmas Beach Resort in Palawan island.

Word has it that he succumbed to a severe asthma attack. He was admitted to the Palawan Adventist Hospital, but I suppose the doctors there could not save him.

There is currently a news blackout on this. No formal statements as to the cause of death have been released yet.

However, it is being said that when Rico’s best friend and movie buddy Dominic Ochoa tried to wake him up at 9:00 A.M. today, his body was already cold. Clarifications on this will be made as more news trickles into the media.

I hope that wherever Rico is now, he is at peace.

Philippine show business is never peaceful, when you think about it.

My father has been obsessing all night about this. Scroll down the page and you will see the Anna Nicole Smith piece, which states that she was awarded 475 million dollars.

Maundy Thursday has been very quiet, with only two local networks airing shows, with these being a live telecast of the meeting of popular national religious organization El Shaddai and a prayer encounter with Bo Sanchez’s charismatic group. A few short bits of Holy Week reflections were thrown in here and there.

To keep up with the overall somber mood, I have been alternating the first and second Master of Chant albums as BGM.

At early dawn, around 2:00 or 3:00 A.M., we heard several sirens, signaling fire trucks passing through the old road close to our house. It turned out that there was a big fire in Molo, a neighboring suburb.

The incident took place in a lumber stockyard, owned by the Gopun family, and resulted to a loss of at least 10 million pesos. That would only be counting the cost of merchandise that was burned; it would be much more if the cost of fixtures and structures were added in.

To think that March is supposed to be our National Fire Prevention Month.

I have just finished watching The 74th Annual Academy Awards.

It is four to the hobbits and four to the schizophrenic mathematicians. I still say that The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring deserves to win Best Picture over A Beautiful Mind any day. Think what you like, but LoTR deserves more than it was given.

However, I was most happy with the results for Best Actor and Best Actress categories, wherein the plum went to Denzel Washington and Halle Berry, respectively. I have seen Denzel and raved about him in Training Day!

It is also great that Oscars are also being given to animated films, full features and short ones alike. The victories of Shrek and For the Birds, both of which are immensely fun, delighted me to no end.

Very good that the animated genre is given the attention and recognition it has long since deserved. Next thing we know, anime-style features may just invade the Western market and make their mark on the Oscars.

Here are the complete results:

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Best in Film Editing: Black Hawk Down
Best in Make-Up: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best in Costume Design: Moulin Rouge
Best in Cinematography: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Documentary Feature: Murder on a Sunday Morning
Best Documentary Short Subject: Thoth
Best in Art Direction: Moulin Rouge
Best Animated Feature: Shrek
Best in Sound: Black Hawk Down
Best in Sound Editing: Pearl Harbor
Best Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent, Iris
Best in Visual Effects: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Original Score: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Best Live Action Short Film: The Accountant
Best Animated Short Film: For the Birds
Best Original Song: If I Didn’t Have You, by Randy Newman, from Monsters Inc.
Best Adapted Screenplay: A Beautiful Mind
Best Original Screenplay: osford Park
Best Foreign Language Film: No Man’s Land, from Bosnia and Hersegovina
Herschel Humanitarian Award: Arthur Hiller
Honorary Oscar/s: Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford
Best Actress: Halle Berry, Monster’s Ball
Best Actor: Denzel Washington, Training Day
Best Director: Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
Best Picture: A Beautiful Mind

I have just finished watching Nora Aunor speak on television. She has a 30-second spot in which she encourages her fellow Filipinos to continue supporting the programs of the government.

I have to say that this actress has quite an interesting past. This I say for her primary career, which is of course show business, and her incidental pursuit, which would be politics.

Ate Guy, the nickname by which she is affectionately called by the masses, is one of the foremost actresses in Philippine cinema. Her moniker is also “The Superstar,” having reaped dramatic honors right and left in her prime days. She is most recognized for her acting work in the 1982 jewel of a film, Himala (Miracle).

She was a close political ally of former Philippine president Joseph “Erap” Ejercito-Estrada, playing an important role in advancing his aspirations for office. It can be argued that Nora was responsible for a great number of Erap’s votes that made him City Mayor, Senator, Vice-President, and, finally, President.

When Erap was about to be unseated because of People Power II last year, Nora sided with the camp of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and publicly admitted the misery she had gone through as Erap’s mistress-of-sorts. Included in said misery would be physical beatings, being ignored and taken for granted during campaign trips, and endless fights borne of Erap’s supposedly possessive nature.

Now Ate Guy speaks in favor of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

I suppose no one wants to fall along with Erap if they could help it. Or maybe Nora just had too much.

Folks at home are currently watching on television Binibining Pilipinas 2002, a nationwide beauty pageant extravaganza. The contest hails three winners, who each gets to represent the Philippines in Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss International.

One of tonight’s hosts is Miriam Quiambao, who won First Runner-up in Miss Universe three years ago. She would have been the champion, hands down, had she not clammed up so badly during the final interview.

Miriam lost to Miss Botswana, who was the only one who gave a sensible enough answer. The question ran along the line of how Miss Universe should deal with her title if and when she gets pregnant during her reign. Miss Botswana said that she should proudly go on with her duties, as pregnancy is a celebration of femininity.

I am still a bit woozy from this afternoon. I was supposed to watch Soryuden, aka Dragon Creation, on GMA-7 at 5:30 PM as scheduled.

However, it turned out that Hunter X Hunter has been extended to have Saturday shows as well, in lieu of Soryuden in said timeslot. Will have to wait this out, for clarifications and hopes of getting a more set schedule.

I miss Tsuzuku.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!

Today my paternal grandmother turns 74. Wow. It is rather amazing when you think about it, because she does not seem her age when it comes to energy.

She can brisk-walk to her sibs’ houses at Hechanova with nary a complaint. She also goes to the La Paz Public Market on Saturday morning and to Church on Sundays.

Not only that, she can talk up a storm on the phone like any teenaged telebabad expert, giving most of my phone-pals a run for their money.

This article is very interesting. I am not a big Betty La Fea fan but, well, I have a high regard for the unconventional. It is rather disappointing when things you thought were fresh idea-wise would eventually get on the ugly-duckling-turns-to-beautiful-swan bandwagon.

Anyway, I found a blog through a “top sites” list. Said blog was ranked high, shuttling between first and second in the rankings. When I visited, out of sheer curiosity, I was, as J.R.R. Tolkien would put it, flummoxed.

There was absolutely nothing in this blog.

That would be an exaggeration, of course, given that there is a log of sorts on the index, but it is close enough when you are a webmistress who had from the very beginning cared about content in websites.

The thing is, it would have been all right with me if the owner of the blog had written about his/her life in the entries, but NO. The entries were about rankings in several “top sites” lists, encouraging visitors in each and every entry to “support” the blog.

If you remove all entries with this repetitive self-plugging, then I would not be exaggerating any longer. Nothing would be left.

The person blogs to get more blog votes. That is mystifying. What is the point?

I was out of the house early this morning to attend a convention of Business majors. I had morning snacks and lunch at the venue as a special guest.

Afterwards, I decided to drop by the Book Fair being held at SM City. The Fair opened last Wednesday but will only last for four days, hence the last day was today. Lots of Philippine bookstores and publishing companies took part, and most if not all of them offered their volumes at slashed prices.

I got a few souvenir postcards from The Filipino Bookstore, featuring indigenous endangered species. I collect that sort of stuff. Also got them for a very low price.

I also toured the greater portion of SM City after leaving the fair area. I bought two books from National Bookstore, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. These came in re-issued paperbacks and were sold at decent prices.

I have read The Lord of the Rings series ages ago when I borrowed the books from an uncle in a fit of summer-induced boredom. It is nice to finally have my own copies, though The Fellowship of the Ring could not be seen anywhere on the shelves. I am planning to go back tomorrow and buy The Hobbit as well.

Call me a shopping overachiever.