This Christmas season, Manilans will be treated to a world-class acrobatic show at the Araneta Coliseum. Splendide, the Chinese National Acrobatic Circus, is coming over for a series of 18 shows from Dec. 25 to Jan. 2, 2011. Expectedly, the show would be one of this year’s most spectacular family entertainment acts in the country.

The Chinese National Acrobatic Circus, China’s oldest, has come a long way since the days when Chinese acrobatics was all stunts and no art. Today, its act is billed as “the artistic conception acrobatics.” The two-hour action-packed show includes 13 acts that are guaranteed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. The show will highlight performers climbing and jumping between tall poles to the beat of drums, plates spinning three at a time atop slender sticks, somersaulting on a wire, and various balancing maneuvers. The show will also feature the Amazing Peacock Pyramid where the performers ride on one bicycle in an inverted triangle formation, holding huge colorful fans to look like a colorful peacock on a bicycle.

Over 100 award-winning acrobats, jugglers, aerialists, contortionists and more will be in this thrilling event as seen in the Beijing Olympics. The group will bring with them their award-winning acts fused with mesmerizing sounds and lights. The thrilling finale will be a number that bagged the Golden Clown Award in International Circus Festival in Monte Carlo.
Call Ticketnet or visit www.ticketnet.com.ph for more details.

• • •
Iya goes sexy as Tanduay girl

MYX VJ and movie/TV actress Iya Villania has taken a sexy image, something that was definitely needed when she accepted the offer to be Tanduay Rhum’s year 2011 endorser. Said the pretty and popular Filipina-Australian actress-host: “I didn’t have second thoughts when I was offered the project. I just asked for the concept. It came at the most opportune time, talagang it was great timing. It came at the time when I was feeling more mature and more comfortable with my body.”

This is not the first time though that Iya posed for a calendar (she had done this for Silka which she also endorses), but the Tanduay Calendar is definitely more sexy and provocative. But posing sexy as the new Tanday Calendar Girl doesn’t mean Iya is now ready and willing to pose for FHM.

She said posing for the Tanday 2011 Calendar gave her the feeling of excitement and thrill, “at least hindi boring ang career ko.” Dancing helped her prepare for the shoot, she added. It made her more comfortable with the movements of her body. Not known to have ample breasts, Iya however declines any thought of boob enhancement. “I am comfortable and happy with what I have...”

Asked if her real-life boyfriend Drew Arellano didn’t deter her from posing sexy as Tanduay Calendar Girl, Iya said no, “Drew had always been very supportive of my career. He knows what’s good for me and my career. We both know what’s good for our respective careers.’’

There was also an offer to move back to GMA-7 but Iya said “ABS-CBN gave me good reasons to stay.” She recently signed a three-year exclusive contract with the Kapamilya Network. Iya first gained fame as host for the TV show “Game Channel.”

Iya is also a movie actress and a seasoned stage performer, having most recently played the female lead role in the just concluded and very successful theatrical run of “The Wedding Singer.”

• • •
Jillian leads cast of ‘Namamasko Po’

Starting last Nov. 29, another exciting show was presented by GMA-7 as part of its holiday primetime treat. It is entitled “Jillian: Namamasko Po!” and leading the cast is the cutest Kapuso star – Jillian Ward.

Joining Jillian in the show are Michael V (in a special role as Santa Claus), Claudine Barretto, and Wendell Ramos. Kapuso stars, like Marian Rivera and Carla Abellana, will also grace the new Christmaserye.

Wendell plays Nelson, a TV repairman and father of a sick child. Claudine plays Lynette, a cheerful mom and wife who believes in the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus. “Jillian: Namamasko Po!” tells the delightful story of Jillian, the magical doll and assistant of Santa Claus who will accidentally fall into the hands of a sick young girl named Dolly (Daniella Amable), daughter of couple Lynette and Nelson.

• • •
Tidbits: Happy b-day greetings for Dec. 7, go to veteran actor Armando Goyena, former Sta. Maria, Bulacan Vice Mayor Ada C. Maurico now administration of the San Juan Hospital; Concepcion “Nene” Brosas, Mimi Viernes, Fe Sermonia Vilar, Andrea Sazzi, Jayson Tuazon, and Joelle Trisha M. Galigaro...