MISS Universe 2018 Catriona Gray is one of the hosts of TV5’s “Sunday Noontime Live” or SNL and she got the most number of questions during the zoom presscon held to promote it with two other new shows, “Oh My Dad” and “I Got You”, all produced by Brightlight Productions of Cong. Albee Benitez.
The first question to Catriona is: did she ask for any tips from BF Sam Milby about hosting? “Yes, he’s more seasoned as a host and a performer than me, so he has shared some valid pointers with me,” she says. “I did some hosting in ‘It’s Showtime’ before, but I now also did some research on my own. I’ve watched several variety shows to study how others do it and see how I can come up with my own style of hosting.”
With the pandemic lockdown going on, does she see the annual Miss Universe pageant still going on? “I hope so, but of course, because of the restrictions, we have to leave the final decision to the pageant’s organizers. Let us just wait and see if it would push through or they’d decide to postpone it.”
“Sunday Noontime Live” or SNL will start airing this Sunday on TV5 and Catriona says she is excited to share the same stage with her co-hosts: Piolo Pascual, Maja Salvador, Jake Ejercito and Donny Pangilinan, under the direction of Johnny Manahan. Catriona is also an accomplished singer so she’s looking forward to doing musical production numbers with them.
Off cam, Catriona continues her civic mission as a beauty queen to help local businesses in her own vlog with her Raise Your Flag series. Lots of local garment factories slowed down because of the pandemic and she helped them promote their products by personally promoting them in various places in our country.
She has just been to Zamboanga to help sell textiles made of indigenous and traditional materials, some of which she herself used and wore when she joined Miss Universe. “I’m really so proud to promote uniquely Filipino made products to help local businesses and our countrymen,” she declares.
Thea goes a long way with Jeric
THEA Tolentino will be seen this weekend in two shows, on Saturday night in “Magpakailanman” and on Sunday afternoon in “Dear Uge”. In “Magpakailanman”, she stars in a fresh new episode titled “Sign Language of Love” opposite Jeric Gonzales. Both Thea and Jeric were discovered when they joined GMA’s artista search, “Protege”, where Thea was the female winner and Jeric was the male first runner up.
“Ang layo na ng itinakbo ng careers namin ni Jeric since ‘Protege’ and I’m happy to work with him now that we’ve both matured as actors in the MPK episode ‘Sign Language of Love’,” says Thea. “I play Beth, a teacher in the school for the deaf. Jeric is Alex and he’s one of my students. Love blooms between us and people are very judgmental at tutol sa relasyon namin kaya humarap kami sa malaking problema.”
What preparations did she take for her role? “Before we taped the episode, pareho kami ni Jeric na dumaan sa special workshops to understand deaf people more. Pareho rin kaming nagsanay how to do sign language. Panoorin nyo ang ‘Sign Language of Love’ dahil it will give you a better understanding on the plight of deaf people and those who care for them.”
“Magpakailanman” is shown Saturday nights at 8:15 after “The Clash Season 3”.
In “Dear Uge”, Thea plays the role of Tom Rodriguez’ girlfriend with whom she has a misunderstanding just before he goes to meet the illiterate Eugene Domingo who becomes his student in English.
Eugene learns English from Tom
EUGENE Domingo is happy to be paired with Tom Rodriguez in the new fresh episode of “Dear Uge” entitled “Read My Heart”, to be shown this Sunday afternoon written by Jessie Villabrille, directed by Tata Betita and with the gorgeous and incomparable Miss Gina Marissa Tagasa as head writer.
Uge plays Lalai, a farm girl who grew up to be uneducated as she helped their parents in farming their land. She has to make a sacrifice while her younger sister pursues higher education, cultivates a successful career and gets to migrate to the States where she gets married to a rich German American.
Her sister buys her a very big house and she lives in it with her good friend who she treats like a brother, Popoy, played by Archie Alemania. Popoy is mute, but not deaf. Lalai is fairly satisfied with her quiet provincial life.
But when her sister’s husband suddenly dies, she needs to go to the States to help console her as they’re the only ones remaining in their family.
“Diyan ngayon nagkaproblema si Lalai,” says Uge. “Kasi kailangan niyang mag-apply for a U.S. visa at paano siya pupunta sa States, ni hindi siya marunong magbasa at magsulat, lalo na in English? Ang ginawa ng sister niya, ikinuha siya ng tutor na tuturuan muna siya to read and write in English bago siya mag-abroad.”
And that tutor turns out to be Tom Rodriguez as Elmer, who’s good looking, but appears disheveled most of the time, and very strict. He also has a girlfriend, Thea Tolentino. As Lalai struggles to comprehend Elmer’s lessons, Elmer, in turn, has to understand her better as a person who is no read, no write and as a woman who has had no boyfriend since birth.
Eventually, both Lalai and Elmer will learn something from each other. An endearing and heartwarming story of love and acceptance, Direk Tata Betita says viewers will surely be impressed by the fine performances of Uge as Lalai, Tom as Elmer and Archie as Popoy. Don’t miss “Read Your Heart” this Sunday at 2:45 PM on GMA-7.
