The face of beauty and glamour
STARBYTES By Butch Francisco
The Philippine Star 03/29/2007

After 20 years in show business, Regine Velasquez’ career remains as luminous as ever. She continues to triumph in the fields of recording, television and film (all her movies are box-office hits).

At the moment, Regine is also a much sought after endorser, except that from what I know she can be very selective and choosy about lending her face and image to just any product.

Apparently she has complete faith and trust in top hairstylist Celeste Tuviera because the songbird has just agreed to be the face of Symmetria Salon, which is owned and operated by Tuviera.

It took just one phone call and all Regine said was: “No problem. Let’s do it.” The rest of the conversation was just chitchat — basically insignificant girl talk.

Regine and Celeste actually knew each other from way back. This was in the latter part of the ‘80s — when Regine was hosting an ABS-CBN musical called Tin Pan Alley, along with Janno Gibbs and Bing Loyzaga, and Celeste was a regular dancer with the Hotlegs.

The daughter of esteemed Eat, Bulaga! producer Tony Tuviera, Celeste clearly has showbiz inclinations, too (brother Michael Tuviera is now one of the country’s most promising young directors), but decided to give in to her first love: hairstyling and enrolled herself at the prestigious Vidal Sassoon, the Harvard of beauty schools.

After completing her degree (it was tough getting it — just like going to an Ivy League school), Celeste returned to the country and put to practice everything she learned at Vidal Sassoon.

Around this time, Regine went looking for a hairstylist who could do hair extensions on her. She was doing a concert at the Araneta Coliseum with Martin Nievera and wanted to look different for this show. Bong Bella, who does Martin’s hair, knew the right person to do the job. Hair extension that time was practically unheard of in the Philippines, but Bong was aware that Celeste had taken a special course on hair extension in Los Angeles and could help Regine.

The two women were just too happy to reconnect and became very good friends from that time on. They had to be — for they were spending long hours with each other. For that hair extension project, Celeste had to work on Regine for six hours straight.

But Regine felt it was worth it and was happy with the job. From that time on, she became a regular at Celeste Tuviera’s Symmetria Salon (it’s at 59 Connecticut, Greenhills and it’s tel. no. is 705-1375) and has everything done there: Haircut, hair color down to her nails.

And what a dream client Regine is — so swears Celeste. “She is simple, patient and appreciative — not at all demanding.”

For Regine, Symmetria is paradise because it is here where she relaxes. She goes there all by herself — often just dropped off by the driver and to be picked up later.

It was also without fuss that they went through the photo shoot for Symmetria — at Jun de Leon’s new studio at The Fort. With the help of another one of Celeste’s good friends, Marlon Rivera, president of the advertising company Publicis Manila, they worked around four layouts in four hours — which was fast. The photos show Regine sporting “sexy hair that moves.”

During the shoot, Celeste couldn’t help but tell herself how she made the right decision to ask Regine to be the face of her Symmetria Salon. “She epitomizes my style, my work and carries it well,” declares Celeste.

Regine is just as pleased and flattered to be the face of Celeste Tuviera’s Symmetria Salon. She certainly made the right choice about lending her face and image to an establishment that serves her well, especially in a profession that is defined by beauty and glamour.

Might as well go scout for that salon and see how well Regine’s face helped the beauty center up.  Or maybe, I’ll go and get my hair done there.  By Celeste herself, hehehe.  Unni, can you cut my hair the way Kim Sun-ah’s hair looks like? 

After 25 years.

Our ratings provider has finally cooled down and is now willing to share the ratings, hehehe. So let’s not test his patience in the future.

So here are the most sought after information on Philippine TV landia.

Click pics to enlarge.

If you’ve read the original format of the Fri-Sun ratings that whyte has posted in the comments section here, you won’t be able to stop yourself from laughing. Out loud if you may do so, it feels better. Find it and it’s guaranteed to make you smile at the least.

Annyeong!! How’s everybody doing? It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an update about Kim Sun-ah unnie. Chesohamnida.

So I’ll try to search more of her in the coming days. Hopefully, she’d be seen more often. I wonder what she’s been up to? Gets me all the more excited to know her whereabouts and whatabouts.

A KSA fan posted a letter in soompi.com that was sent by Sun-ah unnie’s agency to him/her. It was very encouraging for the fans and I want to share it here. Thanks to jastinel for posting it.

Dear Cora,

Thanks for your letter regarding one of our clients, Ms. KIM Sun-Ah.
We appreciate your enthusiastic support for her career and being a wonderful fan of her.

As you have thought, we are trying to break the bigger market for her as we believe she has the great potential and is such a versatile, one-of-a kind actress and with support like yours, we believe an opportunity will come soon.

In the meantime, you will be able to see her on another new Korean movie productions soon and we ask you of your continuous interests and support.

best regards,
Catherine Park

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Catherine Park, Head of iHQ Inc.(formerly known as SidusHQ)

Isn’t wonderful? So iHQ is gearing Sun-ah up for international stardom. It’s very clear that unnie’s stardom is rapidly spreading. Good luck!!

I wonder what Ms. Park meant with the upcoming movie. I really hope they patched things up with the “Thursday’s Child” project.

Anyway, here’s a juicy article (though almost 2 years ancient, hehe) I also want to share. This came from baozin2002 of onlysuna.com. Enjoy! coz I did, harharhar.

“33-year-old handsome and successful businessman and Kim Suna’s marriage issue”

Since TV drama “My Name Is Kim Sam Soon’s debut, its popularity never reduces until this date. The identity of Sam Soon Kim Suna’s boyfriend in real life, Mr. J, is also the centre of attention.

She admitted her relationship with Mr. J when was asked about her couple ring during a TV interview on May 26 (2005).

Mr. J (33) is 180cm tall and looks quite like Hyun Bin. He’s a graduate from University of California, USA, currently an owner of a firm (formerly owned by his father) exporting cosmetic products.

Kim Suna and Mr. J have already known each other for 7 years. Their relationship as a couple only started 3 or 4 years ago.

Even though he’s dating a famous movie star, he did not show her off in public. In fact, both of them kept their relationship a secret. Kim Suna was only seen a few times sitting in his car outside his work place. He always enter his work place alone, thus most of his employees still have no idea about Kim Suna being his girlfriend.

“We will get married when it’s the right time,” said Kim Suna. But there’s no news of them tying the knot yet. An employee of Mr. J’s firm stated, “he was asked by his father when will he get married and he answered it will be some time during this year’s autumn or until next year’s spring.”

Mr. J

His work place:

I wish the photo was larger and nearer the subject. At least it was confirmed that the boyfriend is “handsome” and successful. Kim Sun-ah unnie deserves that much. And their relationship lasted for three years (though rumors spreading around says they already broke up) which means they really stuck it out together.

The article was written on 2005 when KSA was visibly sporting her “couple ring” on and off the screen. But nowadays, her left ring finger is devoid of any accessory. Sayang.

I’ll be posting the Voll 2007 Spring Catalogue pictures soon. Hope you watch out for it.

This is a late news article from Channel News Asia’s website, but it’s still worth posting. Though the concert happened already a few days ago, this bit of (post)advertising is still appreciated.

Power of Two promises great vocals and emotional songs
Posted: 20 March 2007 1404 hrs

Divas Kuh and Regine share their secret to success

What do you get when you take 2 of the most succesful Filipino divas and put them together?

Audiences at the Esplanade’s Mosaic Festival will get to find out when Kuh Ledesma and Regine Velasquez perform together in a concert entitled Power of Two.

The two diva spoke about their partnership, and how they worked together over the years to great success both at home and in the US.

They also shared their views on Asian singers trying to break into the US market, urging them to “dare to leave their comfort zone” and take the risks of leaving their home countries. - CNA
source

If any of you wanna watch the interview of Regine and Kuh in Channel News Asia online, you can click any of the two link below;

source 1 CNA

source 2 Ms. Rodis’ Multiply site

Oh, by the way, I would like to congratulate Regine and Erik Santos for winning the “Favorite Collaboration” award for the song “Bakit Ba Inibig Ka” in the recently concluded MYX Awards. I dunno if there were other categories where Regine was nominated. I’m not really a MYX channel viewer or any other music video programs (local or cable). I ‘ve already passed that stage, hehehe. Anyway, congratulations.

BABY TALK Ni Salve V. Asis
Ang Pilipino STAR Ngayon 03/17/2007

Super successful pala ang ginanap na concert nina Kuh Ledesma at
Regine Velasquez sa isang sosyal na concert hall sa Singapore na ang
tawag ay The Esplanade three days ago. Kuwento ni Ms. Girlie Rodie,
kahit weekday ginanap ang nasabing concert at may pasok the
following day ang mga Singaporean, pero halos puno rin daw ang
teatro.

Wait, parang hindi ko pa napanood na magkasama sila together sa
concert.

Ayon kay Ms. Girlie, magandang kombinasyon ang magkaibigang Kuh at
Regine. Dahil siguro nga sanay na rin silang magkasamang kumanta,
relax na relax daw ang magkaibigan. Nagpapatawa at nagkakantyawan
pa.

“Impressed din ang mga nanood. Nagulat sila sa rami ng gown na
ginamit ng dalawa,” say ni Ms. Girlie sa e-mail.

Tig-apat na beses daw kasing nagpalit ang dalawa ng magagandang
gown. May portion pa raw na nagmistulang model si Kuh dahil
pinagbigyan niya ang request ni Regine na rumampa siyang parang
super model.

“Walang tigil ang palakpak at tawanan ng mga masasayang kababayang
dumating sa one night only performance, ” dagdag ni Ms. Girlie.

Si Ms. Girlie ang nagdala sa Singapore sa kanila na by the time na
binabasa n’yo to, nasa bansa na sila.

thanks to ms. girlie rodis for the pic

Friends, sumimasen… I’ve been busy (or I’ve been making myself busy ) lately and I haven’t found the time to do this particular episode. It’s been more than a month since I last posted day 49. Chesohamnida. Truth be told, it really takes time to finish one particular episode, and I do not have enough inspiration the previous days. I feel so stressed out and I really want to have at least some vigor before starting to type a chapter of the wonderful life of Samsoon.

Anyway, here it is. The day 50 Filipino transcript of the hit Korean drama My Name is Kim Samsoon. This drama was shown Monday to Friday, 9:30pm, over GMA-7 in the Philippines.

click the pics to enlarge

This one had so many cuts compared to the original korean version. It was soo frustrating for someone like me who has seen the series numerous times and who knows every scene by heart (asus). But I guess, since the series is over, there’s no use to get upset with it. If I could shed a pound or two by being angry at GMA’s take, I will gladly frustrate myself voluntarily, hahaha.

Here’s one pretty sight that was cut from the televised/tagalized version. Samsoon lovingly read “Momo” (her favorite book) to Amber till the child’s eyes close after their fun visit at the aqua park. And Cyrus looked at the two with such love in his eyes. Sayang! But here’s a pic for those who didn’t witness it, and for those who wants to see it again.

The best scene of the episode? Of course, the last one. When Cyrus dragged Samsoon in a corner and hugged her thankfully. Sweet!

Haay, sweet love. Trust, trust and trust. Samsoon feels she can trust Cyrus. Hopefully he will treasure it.

And of course, Hanna is again irritating! What’s new, anyway. Such an obnoxious creature.

Here’s a cute behind the scene pic of Tita Samsoon and Amber. Enjoy!

Well, till next, Ganbatte ne, children!

Photos from onlysuna, soompi and yours truly.