By BOY VILLASANTA
abs-cbnNEWS.com

Every day seems like Christmas day in the Muhlachs' household, since love is so clearly in the air minute after minute among Aga, wife Charlene Gonzales and their twins, Andres and Athasia.

As the year wears out, Christmastime for the Muhlachs becomes less about material concerns
and more of spirituality and compassion.

In the case of Aga Muhlach, what else could he ask for at Christmas time, since he seems to already have all the things a man could wish for?

And yet this Christmas season rather poignant for the Muhlach family, who are still in mourning barely a month after Aga's mom, Anita Aquino, passed away.

Aga, his wife and kids, could not celebrate the yuletide season in the usual way. Still, Aga said that while Christmas in their home might be less joyful, the kind of caring shared among them stays the same as always.

This Christmas, Aga gathered all his loved ones and prepared gifts to distribute and a little noche buena for them to share.

He also led a prayer for the repose of his mother's soul.

Aga's dad, Cheng Muhlach, came in with son Andoy. Cheng drove all the way from New York in Cubao to Ayala Alabang where Aga and family reside.

Cheng had a surprise for his son, that really touched the latter's heart: a rare bottle of vintage Drakkar perfume.

“I gave him a bottle of Drakkar perfume. Iba 'yon. Wala nang gano'n. Hindi pa uso 'yong mga spray-spray, meron na ako no'n. Itinago ko 'yon at ang sabi ko sa kanya, kahuli-hulinan 'yon sa mga sinaunang pabango na nakatago sa akin. Sa kanya ko lang ibinigay 'yon kaya masayang-masaya siya," recalled Cheng.

(You can't find that sort of perfume anymore. Even before spray-ons became common, I already had that bottle. I kept that for so long and I told him it was the last among my collection of vintage perfumes. I reserved that bottle exclusively for him, and he was so very happy).

Father and son talk a lot on the phone, but Cheng said that Aga considers his Christmas gift extra special.

“Sabi sa akin ni Aga, kahit na madalas kaming mag-usap kahit sa telepono, iba raw 'yong mabigyan siya ng gift ng isang magulang. Kita ko, e, iba ang ngiti ni Aga nang ibigay ko ang regalo ko," said Cheng.

(Aga told me that it's a very special gift that passes on from a parent to a child.)

Talent manager and showbiz talk show host Lolit Solis has filed a counter affidavit answering libel charges pressed against her by actors Sam Milby and Piolo Pascual.

Solis accompanied by her lawyer filed the affidavit at the Manila Fiscal's office in the presence of Pascual's and Milby's legal counsels.

In her affidavit, Solis defended an article she wrote for a national tabloid, stating that her description of the supposed "sweetness" between the two actors had no malicious motive.

"I never imputed any malicious or defamatory condition to either Piolo or Sam," Solis wrote in her counter-affidavit.

She added that the response of the two matinee idols to the article is to blame for whatever negative impact the article had on their image.

"It was the complainants' own acts of publicly presenting their one-sided, constricted and hypersensitive assessment of my article which fuelled doubts in the public's perception of their sexuality..."

Solis said that what she wrote was covered by Constitutional freedom of speech and expression.

"It is a fair report on two celebrities, made well within the ambit of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and expression"

Solis cleared that she was not joking when she said that she is wiling to give her service to the actors.

"'No hindi biro...I'm willing to do PR for Piolo and Sam habang buhay, habang nasa showbiz ako para mapatawad nila ako...pero I stand by kung anung sinulat ko...hindi ko babawiin yun."

She also said that she is planning to call up Mr. Johnny Manahan, talent manager of Pascual and Milby to say sorry and ask for their forgiveness.

"'Gusto ko tawagan si Mr. M. hindi ko kilala si Piolo at Sam, kaya hingi ako ng patawad kay Mr. M dahil alaga niya sila...baka mapatawad na nila ako."

The fiscal's office set the next hearing on January 17.

Actors Pascual and Milby, who both make a living as popular showbiz leading men and celebrity endorsers, filed libel charges against Solis on grounds that her article implying a homosexual relationship between them is false and ruins their reputations.

The controversial column by Solis was published by Pilipino Star Ngayon on October 15, 2007. Solis claimed she saw Milby and Pascual in the middle of a romantic tryst at the poolside cafe of the Hotel Sofitel last October 12.

The actors said that what Solis wrote is a complete fabrication.

Pascual and Milby are seeking P5 million each for moral damages.
Source: abs-bnnews.com

Charice Pempengco, the 14-year-old Filipino singer whose YouTube videos wowed audiences here and abroad, guested and sang in the American television show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" last Wednesday (Thursday Manila time), ABS-CBN News Bureau Chief Ging Reyes reported.

CHARICE PEMPENGCO LIVE ON ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW


Pempengco guested on DeGeneres's nationally-syndicated television show where she sang "And I am Telling You" from the musical Dreamgirls.

After her performance, the audience gave her a standing ovation while host DeGeneres remarked, "you're amazing."

Upon her arrival in Los Angeles, Pempengco also met with music producer Davis Foster and prominent entertainment lawyer Ed Shapiro.
Shapiro said the teenaged singer's talent is "exceptional."

"You don't find the Mariah Careys everyday - they come once in a while. The Whitney Houstons, they don't happen all the time. [We] think Charice is literally that, that next to Whitney, next to Mariah," said Shapiro.

Pempengco was also emotional after her performance on Ellen's show, saying she did not expect that kind of reception in America.
"Yung isa sa dream ko, natupad na. Tapos lalo pa ng sinabi ni Ms. Ellen na 'you're already a big star here,' sabi nya. Tapos proud na proud daw siya sakin -- tuwang tuwa po ako. Hindi ko po akalain na ganito po ako tatanggapin ng mga taga-America. Hindi po nila pinansin kahit na Pinay ako - pinansin nilang pangalan ko," she said.

(One of my dreams came true, especially after Ms. Ellen said that 'you're already a big star here,' and that she's proud of me -- I'm really happy. I did not expect that Americans would welcome me like this. They did not mind that I am a Pinay - they only noticed my name)

Pempengco will return to the Philippines to fulfill several engagements, and she expects that she still has a long way to go after her unforgettable Hollywood experience.

Pempengco was a former contestant on the ABS-CBN show "Little Big Star," a children's singing contest hosted by Sarah Geronimo. She placed 2nd in the show's Big Division (for 10-13 year old competitors), behind Sam Concepcion and Gian Barbarona.

According to show's website (www.ellentv.com), the show "features a diverse mix of celebrity interviews, musical performers, audience participation, and segments spotlighting everyday people with extraordinary stories and talents." It has already won a total of 21 Daytime Emmy Awards, the website said.

Reuters

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister, who stars as a schoolgirl in Nickelodeon's popular TV show "Zoey 101," is pregnant.

The cable channel confirmed a report in the forthcoming edition of celebrity gossip magazine OK! that Jamie Lynn Spears is expecting a child.

"We respect Jamie Lynn's decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn's well being," Nickelodeon said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.

A high school student who lives in Louisiana, Jamie Lynn Spears reportedly met the father, Casey Aldridge, the son of a Tennessee papermill worker, at church. Jamie Lynn Spears' personal publicist was not available for comment.

Her big sister, Britney Spears, may not be the best source of parenting advice. The 26-year-old pop star lost primary custody of her two sons, aged 2 and 1, to ex-husband Kevin Federline after their divorce last year and is engaged in a bitter custody battle that has shone a harsh spotlight on her maternal shortcomings.

"Zoey 101," which wrapped production on its fourth and final season in September, revolves around a headstrong student at a co-ed boarding school in California. Fresh episodes will air through 2008, a spokeswoman for the Viacom Inc-owned network said.

Source:abs-cbnnews.com

AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines on Wednesday identified GMA-7 as the television network being linked to bribery attempts to unduly influence TV ratings being harvested by the research firm in Bacolod City.

In an interview, AGB Nielsen general manager Maya Reforma said an informant revealed that it was GMA-7 that allegedly funded an operation to bribe metered homes in Bacolod City to watch GMA shows and influence the ratings.

Reforma said GMA-7 conducted promotional activities in Bacolod City to increase viewership for the network. She added that the research firm has yet to confirm if the activities influenced TV ratings in the area.

She said there was no reason for the research firm to stop the ratings surveys since the tampering could be an isolated incident.

Last week, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. sued AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines for continuing to release possibly tainted nationwide TV ratings despite information that metered households used to gauge the ratings might have been bribed.

"The Filipino people and the entire media industry deserve to know the truth. We in ABS-CBN have discovered what can only be viewed as a systematic, organized and well funded attempt to cheat in the ratings," ABS-CBN Chairman and CEO Eugenio Lopez III said in a statement.

Vivian Tin, ABS-CBN Research and Business Analysis chief, said ABS-CBN informed AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines last November 20 about the bribery attempts and urged the research agency "to stop the release of erroneous data, check their panel nationwide and resume release only when they can guarantee the integrity of the data."

She said the network filed a P63 million civil suit against AGB Nielsen after it continued to release the weekly TV ratings even after the informant met with AGB Nielsen officials. "They did go with the informant and he did show them the homes. According to the informant, the homes that he showed them were verified to be AGB Nielsen homes," she told reporters at 9501 restaurant.

ABS-CBN lawyer Maxim Uy said the network sued the research firm for breach of contract and for failing to keep as confidential information on metered households. The P63 million lawsuit is broken down into P45 million in license fees paid by the network to AGB Nielsen, P15 million in moral and exemplary damages and P3 million in attorneys' fees.

Uy said the network also requested the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for a temporary restraining order on AGB surveys.

GMA-7 reaction to tampering issue

On Tuesday GMA-7 denied that it was the station being referred to in ABS-CBN's lawsuit against AGB Nielsen.

In a statement, GMA-7 said it did not make sense to conduct alleged bribery attempts in Bacolod since the research firm does not release separate ratings data for the city.

The network also cast doubt on the informant's claim that he and six other people were able to locate 89 meter devices in Bacolod.

"Bacolod accounts for only about eight percent of the total urban TV households in the Visayas, according to computations based on the National Statistics Office population figures and AC Nielsen figures from their 2000 Fact Book. Eighty-nine devices are already more than 22 percent of the total panel homes in the Visayas," the network said.

"Besides, GMA Network's ratings in the provinces - particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao - have not shown any significant improvement since July of 2007 when it started to subscribe to the ratings of AGB. If there was any involvement on GMA's part on the alleged tampering of panel homes in the area, then its ratings there should have experienced significant increases," it added.

The network said it has also complained to AGB about the unexplainable disparity between the cable and non-cable ratings of GMA's programs
"which do not obtain in respect to ABS-CBN's programs."

"It is only in the Philippines that the ratings of programs on non-cable or free TV households exhibit a very different behavior from the cable households. Coincidentally, the Philippines is also the only country in the world where a competing free-to-air TV station also operates or controls the dominant cable company," the network said.

Cable television operator Central CATV Inc. is owned 66.5 percent by a Lopez-controlled holding firm SkyVision Corp. and 33.5 percent by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. ABS-CBN owns 10.2 percent of SkyVision Corp.

How ratings are harvested

Tin said TV ratings are harvested by measuring the viewing behavior of TV audience in select households.

In the case of AGB Nielsen, the research firm chose 1,540 panel homes for its national urban television audience measurement (NUTAM) panel. The NUTAM homes represent 90 percent of the total urban population with TV sets or about 37 million individuals age 2 and above in the country.

In the selected homes, meters are attached to all TV sets in each household. The meter comes with a handset that has a button for each member of the household. Each household member is instructed to push the button assigned to them every time he or she is watching TV. The meter attached to the TV is designed to identify the channel to which the TV is on. By using the handset, the meter will know which programs the household member watches and how long he watches TV.

Once accumulated, the data from the handsets and meters will show the different types of people watching different channels and programs.

Tin said any attempt to unnaturally influence the behavior of members of the NUTAM panel like giving them incentives to watch programs that they do not want to watch will render a panel "unrepresentative." She said an unrepresentative panel will give wrong information and will lead TV networks to produce programs that people will not really want to see.

She said it was difficult to know the overall effect of the bribery attempts on ABS-CBN's ratings. "We don’t know to what degree that activity has impacted our ratings as a part of the national ratings in Bacolod and we cannot say that it’s not happening in any other areas so it is really hard to say how big the breach is, which is where I go back to what we have asked AGB to do. You have to make sure that the same breach has not happened anywhere else," she told reporters.

In a video presentation presented by ABS-CBN officials, the informant said he was hired to conduct the bribery operation late last year. At least seven people were allegedly involved in the operation to bribe metered households in Bacolod, he said.

He said they were able to identify the metered households by following a certain Edward who was assigned by AGB Nielsen to install the TV meters in Bacolod. He said they used motorbikes to follow Edward who usually rode a multi-cab with the plate number GNU-107 when going to the NUTAM households. He said Edward did not know he was being followed.

The informant said that after the meters were installed, their group then approached the members of the household and told them to switch to another channel in exchange for P500 in cash plus groceries. He added that many of the people they approached accepted the bribes because of financial hardship.

The informant said he was given a monthly salary of P6,200 plus P115 cellphone load allowance to conduct the operation. He said he and other members in the bribery operation received instructions from a "backchecker" from Iloilo.

He said he was able to identify 89 metered households when he was still working for the bribery operation.

The informant said their group also monitored metered households chosen by TNS-Trends but later focused on AGB Nielsen households because their employer wanted to influence the ratings. He said their employer wanted to cut down on ABS-CBN's lead in nationwide TV ratings by tampering with the viewing habits of metered households in Bacolod.

Source: abs-cbnnews.com

GMA-7 on Tuesday dismissed talk it was the television network that allegedly rigged the ratings administered by survey firm AGB Nielsen Media Research.

"The alleged informant of ABS-CBN must be referring to a station other than GMA Network in the case it filed against AGB Nielsen," it said in a statement.

The statement from ABS-CBN's informant did not jive with information that GMA was the network alleged as the one that cheated in TV meters installed in some homes in Bacolod City to measure viewership.

GMA's statement came after ABS-CBN sued AGB Nielsen for the alleged anomalies in the way it conducted ratings on TV programs.

ABS-CBN spokesman Bong Osorio said the network filed a case against AGB Nielsen after discovering "a systematic, organized and well funded attempt" to bribe metered households used to gauge viewer behavior and preference.

"The Filipino people and the entire media industry deserve to know the truth. We in ABS-CBN have discovered what can only be viewed as a systematic, organized and well funded attempt to cheat in the ratings," ABS-CBN Chairman and CEO Eugenio Lopez III said in a statement.

Osorio said that to measure TV ratings nationwide, meters are installed in randomly sampled households to check the viewing behavior of people in the areas covered. These households are considered as representative after passing statistical standards set by the research agency.

"The identity of these metered households is kept secure so that no outside entity can influence their behavior. This ensures that the ratings that come from these homes reflect their true behavior," Osorio said.

He said ABS-CBN was approached by a person who confessed that he was hired by another TV network to locate and bribe metered households in Bacolod to switch to a different channel and thus influence TV ratings in that area. ABS-CBN later verified the information with some of the households allegedly approached by the informant.

abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online news department of ABS-CBN Interactive, Inc., an ABS-CBN subsidiary.