SHARON & ROBIN
by Gay Ace Domingo, Yes!, November 2001

Sharon Cuneta is certainly blooming these days despite a very hectic schedule.

Aside from hosting the weekly musical talk show "Sharon," she is currently filming a movie, promoting an international album for BMG Pilipinas, and keeping tabs on her newly-opened Sari-Sari Store boutique at Shangri-La Mall. And, by the time you read this, she would've returned from a 10-day Japan concert tour!

She's also shed off a lot of the weight gained while pregnant with her baby Frankie. Seeing friends Kris Aquino and ZsaZsa Padilla at the ABS-CBN lobby, Sharon takes a moment to announce the good news: "I've lost 30 pounds since December! But I'd like to lose 20 pounds more, a few more pounds pa and Red Diaries Part 2 na!" Then she laughs her Sharon laugh.

"Nagte-text siya sa akin on how many pounds she's lost," says Mel Mendoza-del Rosario, screenwriter of Pagdating ng Panahon, the reunion movie of Sharon and Robin Padilla at Viva Films. "She'd ask me, `Tita Mel, do I look okay na, do I look okay?' You would think that since she's the Megastar, she wouldn't care what other people think. But Sharon's very humble. There isn't an iota of yabang in her body."

But she is one candid star. "I've done practically everything that I've had to do," says Sharon of a career that spans 23 years. "So it would be nice to do something different, short of taking my clothes off. Otherwise, how sad naman for everyone that will watch me!" And she laughs heartily once more.

Robin is Manuel, a mangangaret, someone who collects coconut juice to make into tuba. Manuel gets a huge shock when something transforms Lynette (Sharon), the mousy woman he's about to marry, into the most desired woman in the province!	Screenwriter Mel del Rosario got the idea for Sharon's character after seeing buko-pie vendors in Tagaytay. Mel: "Lynette sells buko pie and espasol. She belongs to a family of old maids. Each time a woman from their family gets married, the husband dies." Sharon who got married at 17, cannot relate to Lynette, saying, "Siyempre, cannot identify ako!"
"Meron silang bonding na mahirap ipaliwanag, says director Joyce Bernal (center) who also made Kailangan Ko'y Ikaw, the movie which established Robin as a Romantic lead. Incidentally, Sharon gives the then six-month pregnant Joyce food during shoots, as well as tips on pregnancy.	Sharon on Robin: "He's really a changed man. I'm so comfortable with him. We're buddies now. Because we're both married, we're both happy, we have children, so most of our conversations revolve around our families. He joked about pairing off his son with my baby. I said, 'No way!'"