Dark days, ‘Dark Materials’

IT was, literally and figuratively, a dark day last Thursday, November 29, 2007.

The sky was cloudy and it was raining intermittently. This was the day when Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV chose to create chaos by walking out of his mutiny hearings at the Makati City Hall and trooped to the posh Peninsula Manila hotel to make some so-called stand, some statement, along with his friend Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

He called on everyone to go to the hotel to support in his protest against the Arroyo government. There were a few who heeded his call—from a bishop to a former vice president of this island republic, to some running priest. Many, on the other hand, didn’t heed his call. Probably busy Christmas shopping.

Six hours later, Senator Trillanes surrendered. He said something about how his conscience couldn’t take it if media people would get caught in the crossfire. Wow! I really hope he was being sincere and not because there was that big tank that demolished the hotel lobby and the hundreds of troops that had been sent out to capture him.

After his surrender, a number of press people were herded and detained at Camp Bagong Diwa. The government said it had to make sure they were really from the media (among them, prominent news personalities like ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon, Pinky Webb and GMA’s Sandra Aguinaldo). To this day, we still don’t know why they had to be brought there. Maybe the government had some gadget/detector lying around in Camp Diwa that would readily identify a media impersonator. I really hope so.

Anyway, November 29, 2007, would forever be marked in history as another failed attempt by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim—the same officer who was the spokesman in the 1989 coup d’ état that failed to topple the Aquino administration—and Senator Trillanes. Weird but in Trillanes’s web site, someone said he sees God in Trillanes. Weird but I do hope God isn’t some selfish soldier who doesn’t use the proper channels to fight for his principles. Isn’t that why he ran for Senate in the first place?

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OPENING soon in theaters is The Golden Compass. I am excited to see this movie because it stars the luminous Nicole Kidman.

I watch every movie this Aussie hottie makes. Hell, I wouldn’t mind lining up to watch, say, Patikim ng Pinya The Musicale as long as Nicole Kidman was in the cast.

Anyway, there’s controversy now surrounding The Golden Compass and I’m sure a number of our MTRCB and our Catholic fanatic friends are on the edge about this movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them would even call for its ban from local release.

NICOLE KIDMAN in The Golden Compass

I haven’t seen the movie but I’ve read the books. The Golden Compass is an adaptation of the first of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, a not uncommon tale of good vs evil sprinkled with a lot of ingredients that would guarantee box-office gold: magic, monsters and more. Of course, there are what some would say anti-Catholic passages in the book and, consequently, in the movie which has the church involved in kidnapping and conducting experiments on children, along with liberal use of religious symbols.

Then again, is a movie about the Vietnam War or the Gulf War necessarily anti-American? There are even a lot of action thrillers that show the US government doing a lot of nasty things (anti-American?!) or suburban fare that shows moms doing heinous things (or worse, antimoms!!!).

I just hope scripture-thumping hacks would give the movie a chance and watch it first before they pass judgment...and allow us to watch it and make our own judgment. I also hope the local distributor of the movie won’t allow themselves to be pushed against the wall (maybe they can get pointers from The Da Vinci Code peeps).

I don’t know but maybe this, too, can help the movie’s case….Nicole Kidman is a Catholic, a practicing one at that. And she said it herself: she wouldn’t have agreed to make this movie if she thought it was anti-Catholic.

Case closed.

Gab Fab: Dark days, ‘Dark Materials’

IT was, literally and figuratively, a dark day last Thursday, November 29, 2007.

The sky was cloudy and it was raining intermittently. This was the day when Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV chose to create chaos by walking out of his mutiny hearings at the Makati City Hall and trooped to the posh Peninsula Manila hotel to make some so-called stand, some statement, along with his friend Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

Eliza Dushku goes from ‘Buffy’ to group sex

IF you make a movie about group sex, you must be prepared to own up to your point of view on the subject. But when actress Eliza Dushku, star of the indie Sex and Breakfast, which opens in limited release Friday, is asked whether she’s pro or con group canoodling, she giggles, before fessing up, she’s more of a monogamous kind of gal.

Dog Show

IF you’ve read the book, why watch the play?

The recent staging of Jessica Hagedorn’s more successful novel, Dogeaters, by Atlantis Productions was met with great expectations. Finally, an acclaimed material from the US written by a successful Filipino-American author is here. For Filipinos here and abroad, it’s something to be proud of, despite the title’s derogatory reference to their race.

Larger than Lagerfeld

BEFORE leaving his Paris apartment every day, designer Karl Lagerfeld sorts through a large platter filled with chunky silver rings, deftly slipping his selections onto his fingers until his hands resemble medieval armored gloves.

Hands Off Geoff

AMONG the Eigenmanns, said to be our local Barrymores, Geoff has the sweetest, most decent-looking face. So adorably delightful is the young actor that he was handpicked by Hanford, a “conservative” underwear brand, to be its newest endorser.