LOVE THE SECOND TIME AROUND
by Allan Hernandez,The Manila Times Internet Edition, November 5, 1999

WE CAN almost hear the ear-splitting shrieks coming from the gallery.

It could be on any noontime show, a primetime show or a late-night chat show. It will be a happy reunion of Sharon Cuneta-Richard Gomez fans. Don't get them all mixed up. They're not just ate Shawie's fans who could be of the Sharon-Gabby faction. Or even Sharon-Rowell Santiago fans if they're still around. They're different beings.

And not just Richard Gomez fans who could be Richard-Dawn fans or Richard-Patricia Borromeo fans or even Goma-Lucy fans. No, this will be a reunion of fans who, at one time, thought Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez were it.

The shrieks will reach fever pitch when ate Shawie and Richard come out to greet the fans. "Ate Shawieeee! Koya Rechard!"

The Kilig factor will be uncontrollable when the pair snuggle up on each other as that sappy, clammy, shameless Barry Manilow song about a guy walking aimlessly somewhere down a road pinning for the right love found at the wrong time begins to play. They will duet on the song and the fans will gush. "HaaaaaayyÖ"

It can happen. And if the drumbeaters for Sharon and Richard's new movie in five years-a romance movie yet untitled-knew how to tickle the fancy of their fans who've resigned themselves to the fact that Sharon is happily married to celebrity lawyer Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan and Richard, to the Rose of Ormoc, Lucy Torres, it should. In tinseltown, there's nothing more enjoyable than messing up couple's lives-all planned, of course-for the fans.

When shooting is all done, probably next year, we'll be hearing some buzz about Sharon and Richard "getting it on" again. A romance rekindled? An old flame stoked? The showbiz press will feed on that, surely. It will be followed by rounds of guestings, the constant parrying of questions on that affair-that "no, this is just a movie we're doing." Which is what it actually is: Their latest movie since 1994 (Kapantay Ay Langit), probably one of the first trickle of tearjerker films we'll be seeing next year against the heavy flow of juices from skin flicks lined up one after another.

Working with one's ex isn't all that bad for Sharon. "I feel comfortable. This is just another project. We've always thought we worked well together."

Richard doesn't mind either. Looking at them now, you wouldn't think something had been going on between them. Not that they don't look well together (the ebony-ivory love affair that some critics say don't look good)-more like because they don't look like they'd want to upset their spouses. Would you want to upset a sweet girl like Lucy or fighting a lawyer like Kiko?

And they look too busy with their own respective lives to even care about a fling. Logistics-wise, the movie was hell to make even before the actual shooing took place, says the film's director Olive Lamasan. Sharon and Richard's schedules were the first to be tweaked to give way for the shooting skeds.

"Before Shawie left for Boston two years ago, pinag-usapan na itong movie na ito," says Direk Olive. "It's so difficult to get them together and find the right vehicle for them."

As for Richard, Olivia and her staff knew that they'd have to call on him from his office in Malacanang to offer him the movie. They'd have to ask the good Cabinet member if he would yield his busy schedule for a movie with Sharon Cuneta.

"I have very tight schedules. I devote a lot of time in Malacanang. I spend time with Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga. I go around town, talk to kids, go to town sportsfests two to three times a week. I average one movie a year. But this year I opted to do two because this is a good movie."

After getting the nod of Sharon and Goma, it was time to work the script out. At the outset, direk Olive already had Sharon in mind for the movie, and the succeeding brainstorming sessions for the script were directed towards tailor-fitting it to Sharon, and then for Richard, too. So the story:

Sharon and Goma are two married people who find each other, fall in love, but know all too well the futility of the affair, since neither of them would allow each other to break their marriages, just like Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro in the Hollywood flick, Falling in Love. Edu Manzano is playing Sharon's husband while that of Goma is Angel Aquino.

How convenient-putting in scenes that would make people blush once they see the ex-lovers onscreen again, but not too much as to wreak the least minor havoc in their respective marriages. Olive didn't want to upset Ate Shawie to much. "I am a Sharon fan."

Something will have to give, though. Olive kind of told Sharon the idea behind the movie; gave her a picture of what was going on in the movie industry these days.

Direk told her some love scenes were in order.

"Pwede naman eh, basta decentÖna with passion."

Nude scenes?

"Hahaha, try me."

Torrid kissing scenes?

"Direk haÖ"

And do you really think fans are ready to see Sharon take it all off? What would KC say, especially now that she's in that crucial adolescent stage when kids are very impressionable? Will Kiko ever talk to her at night, in bed, before they go to sleep?

"You know, I have a very cool husband. When I was in Boston, it was a chance for me to show that my family comes first. I already told him early on, 'you know I'd have to work with my ex's at some point. I can't do anything about it, mga matinee idols yan, eh.' So with this movie I asked permission from him, he said okay."

So no, love the second time around won't happen. Even in the movie, it will have its complications. But, really, for the shrieking fans out back in the gallery, would things have worked out then? What went wrong?

Sharon: "kawawa naman 'yung mga asawa namin."

Indulge us.

Sharon again: "It was the wrong time."

"Aaaaaaayyyy! Aaaaaaayyyy!"

Shhh, zip it, you freakin' fan.