Speech of PEP Editor-in-Chief Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon regarding showbiz | PEP Hot Story - video Dailymotion

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Speech of PEP Editor-in-Chief Jo-Ann Maglipon before the Multi-Media Press Society (MMPRESS). The occasion was the Kick Off and Appreciation Night of MMPRESS held at the Mowelfund Film Institute on September 27, 2024. Jo-Ann was honored as one of the "Entertainment Stalwarts," composed of veteran columnists, editors and broadcast journalists.   #MMPRESS #MultiMediaPressSociety #Mowelfund   Subscribe to our YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/@pep_tv   Read the latest in showbiz at http://www.pep.ph   Watch more videos at https://www.pep.ph/videos   Follow us!  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pepalerts/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PEPalerts  Twitter: https://twitter.com/pepalertsViber: https://bit.ly/PEPonViber  Kumu: pep.ph   Visit our DailyMotion channel! https://www.dailymotion.com/PEPalerts

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00:00who make up the multimedia press society like showbiz veterans June and Rose and Nitz and Noy

00:07and the young ones I have yet to meet. Your statement says the group is revitalized. Any

00:15group that invites Arniel Cerrado, chief of correspondence at PEP, our breaking news guy

00:22and resident jester must be pretty revitalized. Thank you for adopting him. Your statement also

00:32says you are inclusive. Any group that puts me in the same category as honoree with Nylolith,

00:41when our views about, say, Bea Alonso are known to clash, must be really inclusive. But let me

00:49put it out there. Nylolith is someone I tend to disagree with often, but she is someone I

00:57can love always. I think watching over us is Douglas Quijano, everyone's tito dogs, who will

01:05always be first among equals in the very select group of independent talent managers in an age

01:14when independents are becoming a rarity. I've been around showbiz about 30 years put together. I

01:22just counted. I was two years with Celebrity Magazine of Mr. Rodriguez, one year with a

01:29Gottenway-owned Sunday Times magazine, where at one time a section called Showbiz Scrapple was

01:36written by tito dogs no less. Several years freelancing with entertainment articles and

01:43columns for Philippine Daily Enquirer, Panorama Magazine, and elsewhere. And then 18 lively years

01:51with Yes! Magazine, where I worked with Anna Pingol, the best showbiz editor anyone can have for

01:59backup and partner. Today I count, I really don't know the exact years, with the Philippine

02:07Entertainment Portal, PEP, where holding the fort steady is veteran editor Erwin Santiago. So this

02:17award feels like I've earned it. Tonight gives me that one more connection to showbiz, thank you

02:24Empress, an industry I have long embraced even as I do not give up social political writing. I am a

02:32great defender of showbiz. Jose F. Macaba, executive editor at Yes! Magazine then, used to say, we take

02:41our entertainment seriously. Sounded funny even to us, but it is true. See, there are always doubters

02:50and snobs. When in a big gathering with other journalists covering beats like Malacanang,

02:56Defense and Foreign News, there's always that small embarrassed pause before someone asks,

03:01Oh, ano na ang kwento kay Heart at Cheese? I sense a whole subtext there. A subtext that says,

03:09let's take a rest from all this heavy important stuff about governance. Tell us about Jingoy.

03:15Bakit parang victim blaming? Bakit si Robin may sinasabing in heat? I'm not comfortable with it.

03:23It makes showbiz feel like an intermission, like a frivolity, so they can act like they're not

03:30really interested, but just need the comic relief. But I tell you, they're interested in every word.

03:37These closet mariteses. Well, my own circle, small, of journalist fans is probably more genial in

03:47intent. But what they all need to get is that, like CCP Lifetime awardee Pete LaCava, I take

03:55showbiz seriously. I do not think of showbiz as a sidebar or an addendum. I want showbiz at center

04:04stage. I want it respected. Entertainment is every bit as relevant, as relevant, a beat as Malacanang

04:13and the AFP, just minus the killing. And every bit as relevant as foreign news, where madmen run

04:21countries sometimes, just like here sometimes. What culture the entertainment industry can create

04:28matters. It's songs, films, plays, dances, scripts. These matter. I mind that censorship keeps getting

04:38in the way. I mind that limited and narrow minds are given control over wild and fun creatives.

04:45Artists push boundaries. Nobody's heard. Society evolves because it's artists dare to nudge borders

04:55and conventions. They take risks for the rest of us. Therefore, artists need support, not one

05:04obstacle after another thrown at them by unaccomplished people with cramped ideas. Artists

05:12need air, not more rules that suck the enthusiasm out of them. Artists need funding, not sanctions

05:21and fines for every woke transgression. For artists to survive, censors must leave uptight

05:29personal beliefs at home. And please do not invoke religion. I studied only in Catholic schools all

05:38my life, and I know not to use somebody's name in vain. Like I said, I take showbiz seriously. So

05:47seriously that PEP, where I am founding editor, applies the rules of journalism to this beat.

05:53What applies to the beats of the lower house and the upper house applies to showbiz. Getting the

06:00many sides to a story, fact-checking, getting quotes right, finding more sources, even if

06:06everyone wants to be anonymous. Not doing as instant reporters from social media do. We do

06:13not rely on postings and comments alone. It is no longer the pandemic. We have to get out of the

06:22virtual world and step into the real one, where flesh and blood people are. Which is why, to

06:30managers and handlers, producers and network executives, may I say, please stop guarding your

06:36stars as though they have no minds of their own. Do not keep controlling press cons with your

06:42curated questions. Do not drop reporters from your list because they ask the questions people want

06:49answers for. You are making showbiz bland. Everyone's beginning to look and sound alike. Try not to go

06:58into a pictorial with your long lists of don't asks. Don't ask about the parents. Don't ask about the

07:05husband. Don't ask about the co-star. At the same time, try to cut down on your list of asks. Evian,

07:14Ambipure, special food from some specialty resto, a chess game lounge, a dedicated ante room. Stop

07:23picking up from the Hollywood playbook. You're selling your stars, so take away the plastic wrap.

07:35Bottom line is they have brains. They are not clueless. They have their own history. There is no

07:41need to invent one for them. They have the potential to be interesting. Let them speak. Don't

07:48fence them in. Let them, if it comes to that, make their own mistakes. That said, we reporters and

07:56editors must, in turn, not pounce. We want stars to speak openly. We should stop being mean. Even

08:05more basic, we do not browbeat one star to make another shine. We do not take a newbie actor's

08:12comment out of context just so we can have a clickbait for our next column, especially when they

08:18do not have the protection of a showbiz clan behind them, cut them some slack. But my ultimate wish

08:27for us who write about showbiz is this, that we find our courage. If not our courage, at least our

08:34irreverence. If not our irreverence, then just the urge to tell it as it is. Let us not write nice

08:43things because we want GMA7 to keep inviting us. Let us not write bad things because we want star

08:50magic to pay us attention. Let us not write all the time about the same showbiz family because this

08:57one feeds us and takes us on trips. Let us not write because we like the power and the perk.

09:04Let us write because writing is the only thing we want to do and because it is the one thing

09:10we want to do well. Thank you to Empress Long Live Showbiz.

Speech of PEP Editor-in-Chief Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon regarding showbiz | PEP Hot Story

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