MEGASTAR MOMENTUM
by Bayani S. San Diego Jr., Mirror Weekly, February 20, 1995

Film critics theorize that each era in Philippine cinema is best personified by a movie queen.

Think of Nida Blanca and Gloria Romero, and invoked are images of ladies in hoop skirts, couples in white convertibles cruising down Dewey Boulevard, powdery perfume, and Ramon Valera gowns. In sum, it was an age of buoyancy and hope.

Think of Susan Roces and Amalia Fuentes: Kislap-Graphic, the Elephant Walk, beehive hairdos, downtown movie houses and the Vera-Perez Gardens. Onscreen, everyone was young and carefree.

Think of Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos: the First Quarter Storm, social realism, bell-bottom blues, curfew. It was an era of upheavals and changes, when a nation's innocence was somehow lost between Mendiola and the Tarmac.

Think of Sharon Cuneta and Maricel Soriano: Walkman, cable TV, Whisper with Wings, Diet Coke, Escada, the EDSA revolution, Megamall.

And it is hardly coincidence that Sharon Cuneta, the last of the movie queens, reigns at a time when not only a generation, but the whole country, is zooming 200 miles per hour in a world whose speed limit is 60.

This is a true story.

It was the opening of Bituing Walang Ningning. As early as 10 in the morning suburban Sharonians were already packed inside Manuela Cinema 1 in Las Pinas. But something went terribly wrong.

It was already four in the afternoon, the movie house was already filled, but the reels of film had yet to arrive. During the six- hour wait, the fans subsisted on pop corn and burgers. They waited, patiently, steadfastly, and were distracted from their vigil only by sporadic reports that Sharon herself, in flesh and blood, was at the lobby, in the course of a theater tour. Of course the reports were false, concocted by wicked souls who wanted to steal seats.

When the lights were turned off, and Sharon's giant image (as a movie fan picking Sampaguita buds in the bushes) appeared on the silver screen, the whole movie house heaved a collective sigh of contentment.

As if it was worth all the wait.

The same scene was repeated almost a decade later, but instead of fans, a group of reporters waited for Sharon, for the launching of her latest film, her 41st, The Lilian Velez Story (Till Death Do Us Part).

It was a lunch meeting but it was almost three when a rueful Sharon arrived, profusely spewing apologies. She had taped the MTV portion of The Sharon Cuneta Show the night before, and had gone home at two in the morning.

No one in the room had the heart not to forgive her. For her very presence had lit up the room.

Why do people love Sharon?

By way of explaining the Megastar's appeal, ad execs gush: "She epitomizes the modern women. Despite her star quality, she's very down-to-earth, very approachable. She appeals to people from all walks of life."

A whole generation of fans - housewives, bank tellers, hairdressers - watched Sharon live her life each week via her Sunday show. They saw her through a hasty marriage, a hastier separation...

For the past decade, she has played the role of a Poor Little Rich Girl who discovers life is not all fairy tales and happy endings.

So why do people love her?

Maybe because she makes her loyal followers feel that all the fame and the success in the world could never insulate anyone from hurt and pain.

Maybe because she's always the first to admit. "I'm far from perfect..."

They love her for that. In spite of that.

The Megastar and the Massacre Director discuss the subtleties of art.

Actually, this is a freewheeling conversation on film criticism and massacre movies.

"What is art?" Carlo J. asks no one in particular. "Art is feeling. And with my films, people feel the tragedy of a massacre."

"Never mind them," Sharon counsels direk Carlo J. on the best way to handle criticism. "That's their opinion. You do not waste your time responding to your critics. Unless, of course, they mean well and it's constructive - reviews that make you take a good look at yourself."

Sharon tries her hand at film criticism: "The word for direk's movies is 'raw.' Very raw."

Sharon has a very definite opinion on the art of making art. "There are a lot of critically acclaimed art films, but they don't make money. And there are commercial films, like the ones that direk Carlo and I make... and you know what, a box-office hit is something you cannot buy. You cannot say. 'Panoorin ni'yo ang pelikula ko, babayaran ko kayo!' If people watch a movie, then there must be something there. You cannot argue with success."

So there.

The Megastar assesses Philippine cinema on its diamond year. "Technically, we're very advanced. We're kinda world-class now. Filipino artists - directors, writers, actors - are capable of coming up with films that they can be proud of when they're shown somewhere else in the world. Sana we could do that: break into the international market."

After almost 14 years in the movies, Sharon the Movie Queen attests, "I've seen a whole decade pass. I've grown up with the changes. From having big hot lights in shootings, all of a sudden we have gigantic, cool lights. From noisy, heavy cameras, we now have high-tech, portable cameras."

She has grown up with the movies. The Movies Queen is also an Hauteur, she says her body of work can be divided into trilogies.

"The theme of my first few movies was 'truth, beauty and simplicity.' The first part was the teenage movies: Dear Heart, P.S.I Love You and My Only Love. Then there's the Tala trilogy, mga musical-drama: Bukas Luluhod Ang Mga Tala, Bituing Walang Ningning and Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas. And last, my movies with the Action Kings: with Fernando Poe Jr., Rudy Fernandez and Bong Revilla and Robin Padilla."

She looks up to her predecessors Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, and feels she's ripe to play the roles they play. Her dream roles? "I'd like to be super api-apihan, like Ate Guy. And I also want to be naughty. To play the other woman, like in Ate Vi's best movies. Slowly, my movies are becoming more mature. I have to grow up with my audience."

As for her contribution to Pinoy cinema, it's "a whole era of movies for my generation, a magical, one-of-a-kind moment that can never be duplicated." For her Sharornians she leaves "good memories at the movies."

If the FAP (Film Academy of the Philippines) or CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) were ever to put together an encyclopedia with all the names of '90s stars, in the entry "Sharon Cuneta," she would like to read the following:

That she excelled in everything she did. And that she is a good person, more than anything else."

And, by the way, this movie queen loves banana cue.

For each movie queen there's a legendary story that showbiz insiders recount to remind us of the stars' little quirks and idiosyncrasies, their humanity.

Vilma Santos' van resembles the ladies' wear section of Rustan's. Nora Aunor's favorite place in the world is the bathroom: "Tahimik doon." Maricel Soriano, when working, is completely silent, but the minute the director screams "Pack- up!", she reverts to her old self, never failing to refer to everyone on the set by their first names.

Sharon stories are told and re-told among PAs and makeup artists. "Once, Sharon had an inexplicable craving for banana cue," a production assistant relates. She asked her alalay to buy banana cue for the whole set. Gano'n siya... she wants everyone on the set to eat the same food as she."

There's reason for this odd anecdote.

"Yes, I'd like to keep the mood on the set light and cheerful," Sharon explains. Especially because a shooting for a Sharon blockbuster usually wraps up around two in the morning. "It's important to me that everybody gets along on the set. The two to three months I spend doing a film, they're all I see. From the house, derecho na ako sa set. So they're like my second family."

When she has time, she even cooks (usually pasta dishes like fetuccini) for her co-workers. "Umaga pa lang nagluluto na ako. "Tapos dadalhin ko sa set patin ang turbo, para mainit."

On a set where the Megastar reigns, everyone is "pantay-pantay."

"I like to feel loved on the set," she reveals. "I get attached, e."

Perhaps, other stars," she surmises, "think of the movie set as just a place of work. Ako, I enjoy the company of my makeup artist, my art director, my production designer, my associate producer, the utility men. It's something I look forward to. It's not just the role that is important, it's the working relationship. The experience of being with all these people. In the back of my mind is the question: When I'm old and gray, will I smile when I think of this project?"

The lonely little girl who grew up in a golden cage found freedom and friends on a movie set.

That's why I get bothered when there are artista who are so high-up-there, when we're all just working here."

Sharon detests things showbizzy. "The only thing that keeps me in showbiz is my love for singing and acting. Because I cannot stand the business sometimes. You have to deal with people you'd rather not deal with." She insists that she's no prima donna, she's not hung up on celebrity.

She credits her upbringing. "That's why I love my mother and father. If they were not my parents I wouldn't have turned out this way. I'm level-headed, I'm proud of that. I didn't allow showbiz to eat me up. I'm very normal."

But the stories we hear about Sharon are not so conventional.

She has her own private aerobics instructor, her name: si Vivian Zapanta lang naman. If Richie Rich's personal trainer is Supermodel Claudia Schiffer, the Megastar's exercise regimen is drawn up by the country's leading fitness guru. "Vivian used to come to our house every day just before the Mega Concert and even right after that... But because my skeds got a bit too tight, I stopped. But, the minute, my schedule allows it, I'll go back. It's important, e... for resistance."

The Mega-Entourage includes Yaya Luring, at least two PAs from Viva Ad-Prom, a driver, two bodyguards toting walkie-talkies and a backup car.

She is driven around the city in a big white Roadtrek 190 van, the civilian equivalent of a military tank or an amphibian. Picture it: formidable, a fortress-on-wheels.

Sharon relates a typical day on the road: It's way past three in the afternoon, the day after the first shooting day of her latest movie The Lilian Velez Story and... "I have not eaten anything since 12 noon yesterday. I was shooting the whole night. There was a dinner break. But all I wanted to do was to sleep, so I went to the van and slept."

Roadtrek 190 is also a bedroom-on-wheels only for security. "It's also for errands."

A messengerial service-on-wheels!

"Kasi I need to have papers processed, sign papers for my various business. I'm into real estate, now we're building a condo. That's also why I have a lap-top computer in the van. To keep track of my business, my schedule."

Sharon's big white van is Sharon, Inc.-on-wheels.

This is the Sharon her public seldom sees: astute businesswoman, driven and determined career woman.

Boss Lady.

In the ABS-CBN studios, she is deferentially (and respectfully) called "Ma'am" by everyone. Before she sets foot in the studio, a half-dozen PAs whisper to their headphones: "Parating na si Ma'am." Why, even Bad Boy Robin Padilla became weak-kneed when he was scolded by his Ma'am on national TV.

As these stories illustrate, the circumstances she finds herself in are hardly run-of-the-mill.

She is not called the Megastar for nothing.

One and for all, how does she really feel about that title?

"The press gave it to me back in '85. It was the time of Bituing Walang Ningning, when I won my first box-office queen award. But, as I've always said: The only reason I take the title seriously - because generally I don't - is that I have to constantly remind myself that there are people expecting so much from me."

When Viva people billed her latest the Mega Concert, Sharon was the first to protect. "Diyos ko! I was in and out of the bathroom. I was so tense. Why name it Mega Concert? What if it didn't turn out that way? People expect so much from me. That is the only thing I consider a good enough reason to take that title seriously. Otherwise, I'm very ordinary. I'm so mababaw."

"I'm not a perfect person," she reiterates. "I have a temper. My patience is very mababa, but when I'm pushed too far, I snap. But that's only for a while..."

And what makes her snap?

"Betrayal. Dishonesty. Disloyalty."

As a rule, Sharon always strives to be happy. "I like being around people who are fun to be with. Life is too short. You should try to be happy all the time. Kailangan ikaw na mismo ang gagawa no'n."

She describes herself as a basically cheerful person. "I find happiness in very mababaw things. I'm so simple. If you give me a cheeseburger. I'll embrace you na kasi I haven't had a cheeseburger in a long time. If someone gets me a good book or a memo pad that's very cute... I'm very happy na. I've always loved collecting stationary, magazines and books."

All kinds of books. Her reading list is very yuppie, virtually a bookstore's best-seller section. "I have business books, as well as novels by Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, John Grisham."

She describes her bedroom: "Like a library, a bodega, with a bed in the middle."

Sharon at home is a dazzling, spinning star at rest.

"I'm stressed out all the time," she sighs. "Since my work is tuloy-tuloy, when I do have a free day (usually a Monday), I spend the whole day in bed. And I watch one movie after another. I watch everything. I even tape cooking shows on cable TV. I try not to watch local TV. Kasi nga I want to be away, I don't want to be reminded of work."

In terms of movie fare, she prefers light romantic comedies. "Kasi I do heavy drama. So when I relax, I want to be entertained. My feel-good movie of all time is Working Girl. I also like Four Weddings and a Funeral. It's funny. For some strange reason, I like Green Card; my best friend Anna doesn't like it. I loved Sleepless in Seattle and Pretty Woman."

She also wept over The Joy Luck Club. "It was beautiful."

Seems Sharon is partial to films with Chinese characters. "I also like action movies. My friends laugh at me because I always watch old Bruce Lee films on cable."

Bruce Lee was a childhood idol. "I have an older brother," she explains her strange devotion to the Dragon. "My brother Chet used to bring me to all of Bruce Lee's movies. I also had a toy, remember `yong plastik na chako. My brother and I shared toys."

Next to Bruce, she idolizes brother Chet.

"Kahit ano'ng gawin no'n, kasama ako. Pag umakyat sa puno, akyat din ako. Pag nag-tumbling sa garden, ako rin. Idol ko siya."

Chet Cuneta was a pilot in Manila. When he and his family migrated to the States, he set up his own business. "He has his own garments factory. They do sub-contracting work for Fruit of the Loom, Reebok, Converse din 'ata. But he has his own line, which he's also promoting. He wants it to become the next Gap."

When she's in the States, she's no Ma'am, she's just little sis to Kuya Chet. "If he asks me to buy something at the grocery, or to fetch a glass of water from the kitchen, I gladly do it."

Brother Chet, Sharon says, has bestowed on her a treasure chest of principles. "Mga words of wisdom."

"I was 16 to 17 when he told me: 'Live your life so that on the day you die, nobody will spit on your grave... instead everybody feels your loss.' I never forgot that. So every move I make, I make sure that I don't hurt anybody... Kasi dadalhin `yan ng anak ko, e."

Showbiz is such a dizzying business; the fame game, fierce. But Sharon is undaunted by the highly competitive nature of her business. "There will be other actresses, they will probably be more beautiful, more talented, more popular than me, but, you know what, they will never have my brain... and my heart."

A psychic once said on TV that, in her past life, Sharon was a fairy who came down on earth to experience life with mortals. True or not, it's a fairly accurate description of the real-life Sharon. She approaches show business and all its attendant madness with child-like wonder and fascination.

"I'm really friendly. But in the past I made the mistake of trusting too much. Especially when I was younger. I thought everyone was mabait. When I joined showbiz and I started meeting all sorts of people, and feeling ko, bakit sila gano'n? I was young and impressionable, bombarded with all these negative write-ups."

It was traumatic?

"No naman. My parents explained to me that this is the real world; life is no fairy tale."

Nine-year-old daughter Kristina Cassandra (KC), she says, is the best, probably the only, person who can benefit from her mistakes.

"I got married early. I was only 18. Obviously I made a mistake, because we separated. "KC's dad is Sharon's ka- loveteam in numerous romance movies, Gabby Concepcion. Late last year, the Sharon-Gabby love story finally met a much-welcome closure. The Vatican passed judgment; the fair-tale wedding at the Manila Cathedral was annulled following a six-year petition.

She admits she failed as a wife; that is why she is determined to be a good daughter to her parents (Pasay City Mayor Pablo Cuneta and Elaine Gamboa-Cuneta) and a good mother to KC.'

She enumerates her dreams for KC: "I hope she finishes school. I hope she wouldn't experience the same hardships I did. And if every she wants to join showbiz... I will discourage her. This generation is different from mine. It's scary now. I know how it is, because I'm from the inside."

She sounds like any suburban mom: "This early I tell her, you have to be careful. O, sa school, when you make friends, make sure that they're not malandi or brats. Because no matter how good you are in raising your kids, if they are thrown in the company of people who are bad influence, naku... kaya hindi mo rin maaalis na may mga naliligaw kahit galing sa matinong pamilya."

In this department, Sharon is a success.

Her non-showbiz friends describe her as a loving person "who remembers, and is grateful for, things even her own friends have forgotten."

Ana Zosa, her best chum since high school, is especially proud. "She makes her friends feel special."

Sharon talks about her kumares with genuine, almost palpable, affection. There's a hint of pride in her voice, as if her friends are the real Megastars.

"My best friend is Anna. She was the bridesmaid in my wedding. She is also my daughter's ninang."

Sharon traces the history of their friendship.

They met when they were teenagers. "I was already the girlfriend of Gabby. She also had a boyfriend then. It's funny nga because I went to Saint Paul's Pasig and the International School, while Anna went to Assumption.

Wala. We just met. There was a whole group and we went out to see my movie, My Only Love `ata. After that we started hanging out together. I had another friend then, si Arlene. I was always with her because we were classmates. And the Anna joined us. "Tapos Arlene went to the States. Now she's married; she also has a kid. She's also KC's ninang. When I visit her in the States, it's as if we just saw each other yesterday. Another childhood friend is Lorraine. She's my oldest friend... since Grade Two. I'm also the ninang of her kid. She also lives in the US. Sila 'yong mga significant sa buhay ko: the Anna, the Arlene and the Lorraine. Without these people..."

That is precisely how she copes with showbiz-induced stress.

"I talk to my friends; I run to my family. No matter what personal crisis I'm going through, I'm secure. I know I have a loving unit to come home to."

A support group.

"That's important. And these people, my friends, they do not expect anything it return. And they have been with me through the ups and downs."

Sharon and Anna's story parallel that of Bette Middler and Barbara Hershey in the movie Beaches. "Yah," she laughs. "Saka nag-legal Management 'yan. Di ba `yong character ni Barbara Hershey, lawyer. That's why I kid her. 'Yong lawyer namatay, hindi 'yong singer."

Like Sharon, Anna is an over-achiever.

"She graduated from Ateneo. Legal Management. Now she runs a traveling agency that is family-owned. She also finished Restaurant Management in San Francisco. But she is not as driven as I am. I actually envy her because she knows how to take time out and enjoy herself. She goes to the beach. With her dad, she takes her boat and they sail to the beach or to Palawan. This year, she's planning to go to Europe."

Sharon wrote in the liner notes of her Sharon Sings Canseco album: "To my best friend Anna, who provides the balance I so need to keep me sane..."

"When I'm with my friends, I'm just Sharon. We go to the mall, to the movies. We eat out. They keep my feet on the ground. Anna has been with me through the upheavals, through the boyfriends, the marriage, the separation. It's not easy. But I feel so lucky because she's very straight. She prays all the time. She's a good girl from a good family."

Friends keep her sane and stable.

The self - admitted workaholic's schedule could daunt even a stock market speculator. She works six days a week (even on a Sunday evening). And it's normal for a 12-hour shooting day to end at six in the morning.

Incredible.

She has the finesse of a politico's wife and the stamina of an Olympic prizefighter.

We have seen her in action.

In less than three hours, she gave four interviews: one each for the lifestyle section of a newspaper, for a food magazine; for the TV talk show Isang Tanong, Isang Sagot; and for Mirror magazine. And she never ran out of words. Or stories.

For the lifestyle writer, she discussed her fashion philosophy. Investment dressing.

"Actually I'd like to think I'm smart with money. I enjoy it. I'm not kuripot because I have only one life to live. I enjoy as much as I can without risking everything because I'm not waldas. No way! I gift myself with a couple of good outfits because I know that 10 years from now I'd still be wearing them. The classic. Also, I know that my Chanel suits can be worn by my daughter someday. Over the years I have accumulated dozens of clothes. That's why I'm planning a giant garage sale. Some of the more precious stuff - like costumes that I wore in my movies - will be auctioned off. The proceeds will go to charity."

For the TV crew, she talked about celebrating Valentine's with beau, lawyer-politician Francis Pangilinan.

For the food magazine she gabbed about her favorite restaurants (Saisaki, Annabel's and Ciudad Fernandina), her diet (high- protein: "I can eat mga ulam. Doesn't matter how you cook it.") and her addictions (tea and coffee).

For Mirror magazine she confessed, she bared her soul: "I'm a coffeee addict." (During the first interview, she ordered decaf cappuccino. For our second, she sipped "strong brewed coffee.") "I'm a good girl na nga now, I drink only three cups a day. I have to cut down, otherwise I'll have palpitations. I used to drink up to 10 to 15 cups a day. And I've been doing that since I was 17. At home I have all these abubot. I have a grinder, et cetera. I love coffee. I'm an addict. When people say I'm an addict, it's just coffee."

Caffeine (whether in soda or in coffee) peps up yuppies who are in a hurry to succeed.

Like Sharon.

She's quicksilver. In seemingly informal interview, she is one step ahead of her inquisitor. She responds to all questions, even those that remain unasked.

She's very '80s, very '90s.

Sharon's the prefect symbol for the Nervy Decade. She's oh-so- normal, yet she's also complex. She's transparent, yet she remains a puzzle. She gives out as much as she holds back.

In 1988, martyred student leader Lean Alejandro, basketball legend Sonny Jaworski and Megastar Sharon Cuneta were named "Idols of our Time," by Istudyante, the first national newspaper for students.

Between '88 and '95, a lot has happened to Miss Megastar, but one thing has remained constant: Ma'am Sharon, driving 200 mph in the freeway of life, is the first to reach every finish line because a woman, unyielding and uncompromising is almost always winner.