LOVI Poe has not worked since the lockdown began seven month ago so she’s just too happy to be in “High Rise Lovers,” the featured story this week in GMA-7’s hit drama anthology on primetime, “I Can See You.”
“I was really looking forward to going back to work kahit noong kasisimula pa lang ng lockdown,” she said. “I was curious how things will be handled while taping with the threat of the virus around.”

Did she worry she might catch the dreaded virus?
“No. Kasi buo ang tiwala ko sa production ng GMA. Ever since naman, kahit sa iba pang shows na nagawa ko sa GMA, safety comes first, so I know they’ll take all the precautions to put everyone on the set on the side of safety.”
In the story, she and Tom Rodriguez play Luis and Samantha, husband and wife whose marriage is put into a test. They just moved to a high-rise condominium and she’s so busy with her work while Tom, an engineer contractor, has no job because of the lockdown. Isabel (Winwyn Marquez), a neighbor, asks him to renovate her condo unit, and since Tom feels his busy wife is neglecting him, he falls for the charms of Isabel.
“The story is about infidelity and love triangle kami rito nina Tom and Winwyn,” she said.
“Lock in taping kami so matagal din kaming nagkasama sa location nang walang uwian. It helps that Tom and I have played husband before in another soap, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me,’ so things were much easier for us.”
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Celebrities Lovi Poe and Billy Crawford feel lucky to have work during the pandemic.
Billy Crawford is lucky because he has two new shows on TV5, but with different producers. Since TV5 opened their station to blocktime buyers, so many content producers have started producing new programs for them. One of them is Brightlight Productions, which is the company behind Billy’s daily lunchtime show that starts airing on Monday, October 19, “Lunch Out Loud,” and Viva Entertainment which produces “Masked Singer” that starts airing on Oct. 24.
So how is it to be a new dad?
“Words can’t really express what I felt when I first saw our son,” he said. “Of course, first of all, we have to thank God for giving us our own angel. And I salute my strong, brave wife for what she went through in giving birth to him. I have nothing but gratitude and respect for her. It’s a life-changing experience and the past few nights, walang tulugan talaga, but it’s okay. We enjoy every minute of it. I can’t be more in love with my wife and our son.”
He’s now much more inspired to work and he considers Baby Amari as a lucky charm as two new shows landed on his lap after ABS-CBN lost its franchise.
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Kokoy De Santos is now on TV5 and will be paired with Maris Racal in “Stay in Love.” Earlier, Iñigo Pascual was tapped to be Maris’ leading man, but ABS-CBN reportedly didn’t allow him to do a show with TV5, so they got Kokoy instead.
It’s good for Maris. We all know her launching movie with Iñigo, “I’m Ellenia L,” laid a big fat egg at the box office when it was shown as part of last year’s Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino. In other words, her much touted love team with Iñigo didn’t have a big fan base at all.
In contrast, Kokoy de Santos comes from a successful BL series, “Gameboys,” which is a hit not only locally but even with global audiences. Between him and his partner, Elijah Canlas, it’s Kokoy’s star who really shone brighter. Proof of this is he now has so many fans club active in social media. There’s KokoyNation, Kolokoys, Kokoy Global, Kokoyds, Kokoy Circle of Friends and many more.
It cannot be denied that it’s really Kokoy who carried the “EliKoy” love team because he’s such a livewire on screen. His performance is brimming with such natural spontaneous energy there’s no way you won’t notice his incandescent screen presence.
And we’re glad he’s now paired with a female star in a more conventional romance and not in another Boys Love material. This means he won’t be stereotyped in doing gay roles. Good for him. We just don’t know if Maris is the right girl partner for him.
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Buboy Villar started as a child actor when he was 7 years old in ABS-CBN’s “Little Big Star,” but it was with GMA-7 that he gained popularity in such series as “Dyesebel,” “Darna” and “Zorro.” In the movies, he’s best known for playing the young Manny Pacquiao in “Kid Kulafu.” We were surprised when we learned that he became a dad in 2017 at the age of 18.
The mom was his American girlfriend named Angillyn Gorens. As may only be expected in the case of such very young couples, their relationship didn’t last. They parted ways soon after their second child was born. But what do you expect? They’re both so young to carry a family of four.
Their daughter, Karollyn, is now 3, while their son, George Michael, is one year old. Angillyn has returned to her parents in America with their two kids. We heard life was difficult for them since Buboy has no regular income. When he doesn’t have a show with GMA-7, then that means they could hardly make both ends meet. Buboy said they’ve both decided to admit in public that they’re now officially separated.
“Kasi maraming nagtatanong about us at nag-e-expect na kami pa rin, so we decided na sabihin na in public ang totoo.”
He added that they’ve managed to remain friends.
“Ang importante, maayos kaming dalawa at pinakamahalaga para sa amin ang aming mga anak.”
Buboy is now only 21 years old and we won’t be surprised if he’d soon get into another relationship again.