Answer The Phone

I've been working in the industry for 4 years already and I still find it surreal every time a star calls me on the phone. Back when I was still doing AD jobs, I made it a point just to get the phone numbers of the star's personal assistants so I wouldn't have to talk with them directly. My defense is that I wanted to project a "non-showbiz" image so that they would still look at me as some "sort of" authority. (You know some stars can really abuse the kindness of assistant directors when you're feeling close with them. I don't like that. I'm a "work is work, chika is chika" kind of person.) So when THE Aga Muhlach called me on my cell one time and asked me for his call time on the set of All My Life, I stammered in my reply and gasped after the call thinking, "Wow! I just talked to a movie ICON on the phone!" I'm jologs, I know. =)

Earlier tonight, while I was having dinner with my "network" friends, I got another call from a star. The conversation went something like this.

BEATLEBUM: Hello?
STAR: Hello, may I speak with beatlebum?
BEATLEBUM: Speaking. Sino to?
STAR: Marvin
BEATLEBUM: Sinong Marvin?
STAR: Marvin Agustin.
BEATLEBUM: (disbelieving) Marvin Agustin?
STAR: Oo. Yung artista.
BEATLEBUM: Yeah right, and I'm Rico Yan.
STAR: (laughs) Hindi nga. I got your number from Direk Joyce...

Napahiya ako. Sha nga.=) Marvin Agustin of the Marvin and Jolina fame. It turned out he's looking for writers for a TV project he's developing and Direk Joyce suggested my name. Since he was also in the ABS area, he went to where I and my friends were having dinner to talk to me personally. His TV show concept is actually good but I had to turn it down because for one, it's for a daily series (no more daily soaps for me!), two, it's a fast-track project, and three, I'm still writing for Reload. I gave him Masturmind and Byron's cell numbers, instead. I also believe those two are more suited to write the concept he has in mind than me.

Going back to Marvin, I actually got to work with him before in Dekada 70 where I was the script continuity trainee. I had a not-so-good experience with him then. I was assigned to wake him up because he'd be in the next sequence for shoot. So I gently slapped his hand for him to wake up. To my astonishment, he slapped back my hand, strongly, it hurt really bad. (But I was just doing my job! :( ) It seems like a petty thing now, but I disliked him for that.

Of course, he doesn't remember . =)