Krisis Korner

Last week, my blog received an inordinate amount of traffic because of my recent post about the romance of Kris Aquino and James Yap. I even got an angry comment from a certain Francisco D. Valmoria, Jr., who apparently goes around the Internet commenting on blogs defending the honor of Kris and her family.

(Boy, I'm glad he didn't see that episode of Kool Ka Lang a couple of years ago when Joey Marquez and Philip Salvador were fighting over this ancient sword, you know, a kris. The way this guy had his knickers in a bunch over my post, he probably would have gotten a heart attack over that. That episode, by the way, had me rolling in laughter. But I digress.)

Anyway, to get my mind off such things, I spent my weekend watching good ol' Purefoods basketball. I caught the delayed telecast of Game 2 of the wildcard series between Purefoods and Fed-Ex on Saturday night. Purefoods had won the first game of the series and had an opportunity to advance outright with a win. Meanwhile, Fed-Ex is easily the whiniest and most annoying team in the league (their top two locals are Ren-ren Ritualo *and* Wesley Gonzales).

Well, I thought I could get away from all of it, but moments after tip-off, the cameras focused on Kris Aquino who was in the crowd. I didn't mind it the first time, but it grew kind of annoying by the 543rd time the production team did it. I wouldn't have minded, except that Purefoods ended up losing (with that sonofabitch Ritualo having a monster game and out-playing James Yap). Si Kris kasi eh.

I decided to watch Game 3 of the series live on Sunday. Moments before I left the house for the arena, I was channel-surfing and saw that Kris Aquino was still on The Buzz.

I arrived at the arena just as the game was about to begin, and Purefoods ran off to an early 15-point lead to start the contest. Near the end of the first quarter, the people around me started buzzing, and after a couple of minutes trying to figure out what it was, I saw Kris walking in right across the arena from us. The crowd was actually excited about Kris Aquino more than the basketball game.

Of course, Purefoods took this as a cue and promptly lost their lead (well, that, and the fact that Ryan Gregorio is still coaching the team). Meanwhile, at halftime, the people at the lower sections went up to Kris to have her photo taken with their camera phones. Unbelievable.

It wasn't all bad though. Purefoods ended up winning, thanks in large part to -- get this -- a fourth-quarter explosion by James Yap. Hehe, so hindi pala si Kris ang malas.

Whatever. I'm just hoping that (like James Yap on Kris Aquino?) Purefoods goes all the way. They've got Shell up next in the quarters:


(The ultra-professional looking graphic nicked off the PBA website) I'd meant to be sarcastic, but now they've changed the graphic to something that's actually professional-looking.

As for Kris and James, the whole thing reeks of publicity gimmick. Their script looks a lot like the one with Kris and Mark Lapid. Think about it. Kris Aquino's biggest product endorsement today is San Miguel beer, which is owned by the San Miguel Corporation, which also happens to own Purefoods. The big boss of the corporation is Danding Cojuangco, Kris's uncle.

But why would they do it? Potentially, James Yap might be the brightest star in the PBA for the next decade, and the bigger his star becomes, the better it is for the league. And who owns the broadcasting rights for the league today? ABC-5, chaired by Danding's nephew and Kris's cousin Tony Boy Cojuangco.

I'm probably wrong, but who knows? At the end of the day, and after several hundred words on the subject, I don't really care. Man, I just want Purefoods to win.

Labels: showbiz

- posted by jaemark @ 6/15/2005 04:44:00 AM