It is almost too good to be true: a Filipina actress, Marife Necesito (see photo), has been plucked from relative obscurity to star in an international film with Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal. “Mammoth,” written and directed by Swedish wunderkind Lukas Moodysson, was shot in New York, Sweden, Thailand and the Philippines. With Marife in the photo at the film’s press conference in Sweden are Sophie Nyweide, Michelle Williams, director Lukas Moodysson and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Sounding humble in our interview via e-mail, Marife peppered every sentence with “po” — we felt like we were being addressed by Nora Aunor. For brevity’s sake, we deleted all the “pos” in Marife’s answers in our interview which appears in our column. Read her account of how she landed the role — it’s a fascinating story.

TORONTO, Canada –It was a moving sight — Anita Linda, at 83, attending her first ever international film festival, was applauded and cheered enthusiastically by the audience who came to the second screening of “Adela,” her movie directed by Adolfo Alix Jr. (left) and produced by Arleen Cuevas (right), at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. A “question and answer” with the audience followed the screening which reflected the crowd’s affection for Anita and her performance as a grandmother marking her 80th birthday. I was told that the first screening of “Adela” was also a success. (Photo by Ruben Nepales).

FIL-AM hip-hop artists recently made it to the cover of LA Weekly, El Lay’s alternative weekly publication.

The cover story titled “The Fil-Am Invasion,” which was written by Sam Slovick, appeared with the sub-head, “Embedded with the hip-hop movement that’s taking over Hollywood.” The piece heralded the rise of hyphenated Filipinos as DJs in the burgeoning party scene in LA and in key cities across the US.

Well, all those ballroom dancing parties that their Pinoy parents dragged these kids to are paying off. These DJs with names like Q-Bert and Jep are lording it over the club scene in Hollywood and other parts of the LA area.

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IN MY column marking the second anniversary of Only IN Hollywood “Constantly fishing for the Filipino connection” posted on April 9 at INQUIRER.net, I used the term “FC” for the first time.

FC, short for Filipino connection, is a tongue-in-cheek term that I came up with to call a comment or reply from a Hollywood celeb, a line from a movie, TV show, stage play, musical or anything that has to do with the Philippines that I can play up in my writing.

The readers’ response to my FC anecdotes was heartwarming. These encounters involved recent Oscar winners Helen Mirren (her late brother lived and loved in the Philippines) and Forest Whitaker (in the country for a film shoot, he stayed in a house in Balic-Balic, Manila when the 1986 People Power Revolution broke out), Robin Williams (married to a Fil-Am, he cracked me up with his balut anecdotes), and director Oliver Stone (filmed award-winning movies in Ilocos Norte, Cavite, Laguna and other Philippine provinces).

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WELCOME! It took a long time for this blog to finally hit cyberspace. Some of you might be familiar with my column, “Only IN Hollywood,” which is printed every Friday and Sunday on the Philippine Daily Inquirer and posted online at www.inquirer.net.Let me begin by asking, “Are you a closet Filipino?”

In my years of wandering as a promdi in Hollywood, I have come across some folks who hide their Filipino heritage. These personalities say that they’re a mixture of Spanish (or to be more vague, “European”), Chinese and Malay, the standard racial make-up of most Filipinos. Some even claim that they are of Polynesian heritage. Basta anything but Filipino.

Why do these Filipinos or hyphenated Filipinos conceal their Pinoy identity? Most are performers — actors, actresses and singers — who want to appeal to as broad a market or audience as possible. Or they like to be ambiguous in their race identity so they will not be pigeonholed into Filipino or Asian roles only.

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