Mother Lily: Richard-Marian better than Richard-Angel
By: Mario E. Bautista

FreehandMARIAN Rivera got not only “Marimar” when Angel Locsin left GMA7. She also inherited the Valentine movie GMA Films usually releases on Valentine’s Day with Richard Gutierrez as lead actor. The film, “My Best Friend’s Girlfriend (BFGF)” was formally introduced to the press Wednesday night and the trailer looks very promising. Marian plays Grace, a dancer who comes out of a huge cake in a stag party attended by Evo (Richard), who’s surprised when he learns later that Grace is the girlfriend of his best friend (JC de Vera). When Evo is dumped by his own girlfriend (Ehra Madrigal), he hires Grace to pretend to be his new girl to make Ehra jealous, leading to some unexpected complications. “It’s a romantic comedy that is hard to pull off especially kung you and your partner are working for the first time,” says Director Mark Reyes. “I’ve never seen Richard do as much comedy as he does in this movie and it works because he has this amazing chemistry with Marian. "They hit it off well right from the start at iba ang kiliti ng tambalan nila.” Wasn’t it hard for Marian to work with Richard for the first time? “No kasi he’s always been nice to me,” she says. “Even before I got to play ‘Marimar’ at mother roles pa ang ginagawa ko, each time he’d see me sa ‘SOP’, he’d greet me: Hi, Marian. So noon pa, alam ko nang hindi siya suplado. He’s nice to work with kasi he’s basically good-natured at masayahing tao.” And how did Richard find Marian on the set of BFGF? “Masarap katrabaho. Grabe lagi ang taas ng energy level niya, kahit puyat at pagod na kami, so I draw energy from her. It’s really refreshing for me to have a new partner after three Valentine movies na the same ang kapareha ko. "Maganda agad ang naging rapport namin kasi magaling ang range niya from comedy to drama. Iba naman ito kaysa sa past Valentine films ko. Mas maraming kilig scenes kaya it’s the perfect date movie on the day of hearts.” “Richard’s movie with Marian is better than his movies with Angel,” adds Mother Lily, who’s co-producing BFGF with GMA Films. “Sa screen, magkamukha sila. Isang guwapo at isang guwapa, kaya they really look good together.” “This is the best Valentine we’ve ever made,” GMA producer Joey Abacan proudly proclaims.

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RICHARD: EMBASSY BAR INCIDENT NEVER HAPPENEDBOTH

Richard and Marian claim they’re currently loveless. But there’s a story that Richard had a fight with someone at the notorious Embassy Bar recently. It’s said he saw his ex-girlfriend Georgina Wilson there and he insisted on talking to her but someone prevented him so Richard hit the guy, who turned out to be Georgina’s cousin. “That’s not true,” says Richard. “No such thing ever happened.” “Someone from ABS called me up,” his mom Annabelle Rama informs us. “Sabi, may tumawag daw sa kanila na ganitong pangalan at sabi, sinapak daw siya ni Richard and he wants to air what happened. They asked him if he has reported what happened to the police and sabi raw, hindi. So they advised him to do that muna kung totoo nga, huwag dalhin agad sa media. Pero hindi na raw tumawag uli. I called up naman si Georgina to ask if she really has a cousin na ganun ang pangalan and she said, wala raw. So gawa-gawa lang talaga ‘yung kuwento.” “Hindi ko na lang pinapansin ‘yan at hindi naman totoo,” says Richard. He’s turning 24 on January 21. What’s his birthday wish? “I already have so many blessings from the Lord kaya dapat, pasalamat na lang ako. But one wish I have is for our movie ni Marian to hit it big in the box office. Sana pasukin talaga ng mga tao.”