THE return of Gabby Concepcion created a tsunami in local tinseltown. He spent a total of 13 years in the US, sort of a self-exile, after that filmfest scam that brought his career and credibility down the gutter. Thirteen years in all, which Gabby described in a recent interview with The Buzz as a humbling experience. Gabby told host Boy Abunda, in those years he learned to be on his own. He learned to work without assistants, unlike what he had grown accustomed to as an artista in Pinas.   

Prior to the interview, The Buzz cohost Ruffa Gutierrez mentioned that there was a near-stampede in the studio upon learning that the father of KC Concepcion will make his first public interview in the said talk show.

Gabby apologized to his first wife Sharon, cleared everything with former manager Lolit Solis and thanked all the people who had helped him while he was in the US. He also pointed out that he has signed up with ABS-CBN, the Kapamilya Network, for a soap and a movie for sister company Star Cinema.

Asked if he’s willing to do a film with Sharon and KC, he readily said yes, citing, “We’re pamilya naman.” Adding the letters k and a, he is indeed a kapamilya. Sharon and KC are contract talents of the multimedia company.

Then again, there’s the earlier commitment he made for Kapamilya rival, GMA. It will be recalled that the noise of his comeback was first aired via GMA. It was reported a few months ago that Gabby will make a comeback film with Jolina Magdangal. It was supposed to be shot in Europe.

The online entertainment portal PEP reported that the project didn’t push through because Gabby didn’t like the script. He was quoted as saying that the story wasn’t focused on the character he was supposed to play. “If it’s my comeback film, then it has to be a comeback.”

Replacing him is GMA’s prized talent Dennis Trillo and, as of press time, it’s been titled I.T.A.L.Y., to be shot obviously not in France or Germany. Gabby insisted that he’s going to honor his word that for his first film, it will be a GMA Films production. Of course, it’s not like he could do so otherwise: according to reports, GMA Films’ Annette Gozon-Abrogar maintained that the one-movie contract that Gabby signed with them prevents him from working with any other production company until his contractual obligation has been fulfilled. 

“I am still hoping my film project with GMA pushes through. It’s one of the many reasons why I am here,” Gabby said. Above all, he pointed out that his return is also about spending quality time with his father Rolly, who is wheelchair-bound and has a heart problem.

Gabby’s return borders on the positive. Many are saying he will give new life again to the coffin-bound local movie industry. As a leading man, Gabby looks like he hasn’t aged at all. The public is still hungry for every news about him.

Then again, it’s as if he never left. Every time we see the now ubiquitous KC, a spitting image of her father, we are always reminded of this beautiful man who fathered four daughters with four different women. After Sharon, there was Grace Ibuna, followed by Jenny Sequia and, most recently, a nonshowbiz girl named Genevieve Yatco. 

And there are the countless beauty queens, models and actresses who were linked to him. Being a ladies’ man, the likes of Robin Padilla, Aga Muhlach and Richard Gomez would look like grade-school pupils compared with Gabby Concepcion. In the realm of Erapesque appeal to women, Gabo is the most accommodating compared with his contemporaries.

It will also be recalled that Gabby once ran for mayor in San Juan City. He lost to one of former President Joseph Estrada’s sons. Gabby is also a resident of San Juan and, besides their amorous conquests, it seems Gabby and the former President have other things in common.

It was also reported in PEP that part of his return to Manila is to settle the legal cases still pending in our local courts. Just a day after his arrival, he was reportedly seen at the sala of Judge Marlo Malagar of the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 5 in Manila, with lawyer Eduardo “Ed” Flaminiano and movie producer Rose Flaminiano, his manager. 

Then quoting GMANews.TV, an anonymous source said Gabby posted a bail of P6,000 for a previous case involving falsification of public documents. The source also cited that it has nothing to do with the 1994 Manila Film Festival scam.

Amid all this, Gabby told Abunda, “I am ready for the intrigues, my life has always been an open book.” 

Still at it

MEANWHILE in cyberspace, the most-read blog by Filipinos here and abroad has come out in the mainstream media. In what many described as an ongoing real-life telenovela, the plot unfolding has been covered—albeit obliquely—by two national dailies, a provincial paper, two widely read tabloids, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, a local FM radio and TV network. The blog is owned by Australian Brian Gorrell, who spent a good amount of time in the Philippines and got to know—apparently to his misfortune—some shady characters in Philippine society.

The story has the elements of an action-packed, James Bond-ish flick—with a comic twist. There’s the money, a big amount, to be recovered. It involves the police, lawyers and ambassadors. Along the way, secrets of high-profile scions of rich and powerful families in a very poor country are revealed. It involves James Bond-ish settings like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and Paris. Well, Manila and Boracay also figure in the story.

It will be a different kind of Agent 007 adventure because it involves gay men and young socialites reportedly with halitosis.

One of the comments in the blog actually posited the possibility of a movie and Gorrell chose Ryan Philippe to play his part. For his former Filipino lover, as one daily earlier reported, the name of TV host-comedian-showbiz scribe Ogie Diaz has been floated. Ostensibly, Diaz was consulted and agreeable, although he asked, “Who will produce?”

But the bigger question is: Ryan Philippe opposite Ogie Diaz? We can already hear the soundtrack, “Everybody’s doin’ the love commotion...” while the bad guys run around air-kissing in their (fake?) Guccis.

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