LOVI Poe was in Los Angeles when she had a zoom presscon as endorser of Imono Jewelry. Someone asked her if it’s true she had a secret marriage with her British boyfriend who is based there, Montgomery Blencowe. The rumor is that they have already exchanged wedding vows in a secret ceremony with only a few friends and family members invited.

“Actually, ni hindi pa namin napag-uusapan ang wedding,” she replies, laughing. “He has not even proposed and honestly, it has never crossed my mind. Kaya doon sa tanong na will we choose an Imono wedding ring sa kasal namin, bago wedding ring, siguro dapat, engagement ring muna kasi we’re not even engaged yet.”

She says she’s still too engrossed with work to think of settling down. “I have an ongoing series on GMA-7, ‘Owe My Love’, and I’m also supposed to shoot a new movie. Here in the U.S., I am now recording a new song. My last song was ‘Under’, released last February, so I’m really busy.”

And of course, there’s the rumor that she’s leaving GMA to move to ABS-CBN. So what’s the truth about it? “I guess it’s only fair to keep things private at this stage as negotiations are still going on and it’s all confidential at this very moment,” she says. “I will inform naman everyone what will happen as soon as things have been confirmed. As of now, nothing is sure yet.”

Lovi is very proud of the Imono Jewelry SS21 collection she herself curated consisting of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, rings and bangles that aim to bring out any woman’s inner strength needed to have a positive and pro-active attitude.

She adds: “I chose the designs in this collection based on what I look for in everyday jewelry. It has to be versatile so it can look good in any outfit for any occasion. It has to be elegant with refined details so it highlights the beauty of the person wearing it. It should also help bring out the best qualities in a person—it’s an extension of what’s within. Jewelry is very personal and for me, I wear Imono to remind myself of my own values so I can always exude inner-strength and confidence, even on the most challenging days.”

As for “Owe My Love”, Lovi’s romance with Rocco Nacino as Doc Kenneth has been aborted after she discovered some of the secrets he has been keeping from here. So does that mean that she will now revive her romance with Benjamin Alves as Doc Migs?

“That you will have to find out for yourself sa pagpapatuloy ng ‘Owe My Love’. Marami pang kakaharaping problema ang character ko as Sensen dahil si Jackielou Blanco as Divina is planning our more evil schemes against me and my family.”

The future of viewing

SOMEONE suggested to revive showbiz talk shows that used to be such topraters during the time of the late Inday Badiday’s “Nothing But the Truth” or “Eye to Eye”, and other such shows as “Showbiz Lingo”, “The Buzz”, “S Files” and “Startalk”. But let’s face it, in this era of youtube and social media, talk shows have already overstayed their welcome and they are now bonafide relics of a past era.

It’s so easy now for fans of celebrities to directly keep track of the latest ongoings in the lives of their idols as everyone now has his own Instagram, Twitter or Facebook account where they post the latest happenings in their private lives. Not only that, some have also their own vlog or youtube channel where they even reveal past intimate secrets in their love lives.

Best examples are Rica Peralejo and BB Gandanghari confessing about their past affairs with Piolo Pascual (which Piolo wisely ignored) or even Kaye Abad confessing she was enamoured with Paolo Contis during their younger days in ABS-CBN. More worthless revelations are coming out in the desire of celebrity vloggers to get more regular subscribers for their respective vlogs.

If you’d notice, even entertainment columnists now just rely mainly on the vlogs and social media postings of celebrities to be part of the regular content of their pages. Sometimes, a celebrity will just write a comment or something and a columnist will then make “salsal the balita”, insinuating things like “patama ba ito ni Andrea kay Derek?” or things like that. Any kind of click bait to sow intrigues among celebrities and get the attention of the reading public.

In America, studies show that people now watch one billion hours of video everyday on youtube and video watching is now about to surpass the 1.25 billion hours of television that Americans watch everyday. No such concrete studies yet have been made in the Philippines but we surmise that it’s more or less the same.

It’s not only youtube and social media that are being patronized heavily but even other outlets like Tiktok, Kumu and what have you. More and more viewers find them as their primary source for content showing new information and entertainment.

Today’s young generation of viewers have also much shorter attention spans. Only a few would have the patience to seat through a long two-hour movie or will have the tenacity to follow and watch teleseryes that are serialized for several months.

The advantage of a platform like youtube is that it has algorithms designed to recommend to you things that it thinks you will find more entertaining than the one you’re already watching. So you can just click what they recommend and you get really hooked endlessly as you don’t need to sign off from youtube at all.

Admit it or not, youtube and social media have really changed audience’s taste and viewing habits. Young people are now so connected to wifi and the internet. They are forever looking into their gadgets, checking their own accounts. We can see this in our very own grandchildren.

Their biggest problem in life is when the internet goes off and there is no wi-fi. They get so bothered when the wi-fi is slow or even just buffering. The biggest punishment you can impose on them is to ask them to turn off their tablets or cellphones or laptops.

We remember that when we were writing for the Philippines Daily Express in the late 70s, we wrote an article about the “malling of the movies”. We said stand alone theaters will be a thing of the past as people would soon be going only to theaters in malls. It happened.

Now, we can see that today’s younger generation no longer watches free TV. No doubt, this is where the state of broadcasting will be going to. So networks should now prepare for this eventuality.

They should start to create and cultivate their own content data intended mainly for today’s new outlets as we won’t be surprised if free TV would also become a thing of the past.