Annabelle Rama

"I’m born under the year of the Tiger. And I believe that this will be a good year for me, my family and my talents!”

Annabelle Rama, talent manager and matriarch of the Gutierrez clan of actors, intimated the above statement in Filipino during the Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year’s celebration sponsored by movie producer Mother Lily Monteverde at the Imperial Palace Suites.

Her declaration is also not far from the truth as things began looking bright for her family starting with the settlement of her talent and son Richard Gutierrez’s lawsuit against Philippine Entertainment Portal, after its editor-in-chief apologized to him. This proved that her son’s credibility and integrity have always been intact. The lawsuit sprang from an article posted on PEP which maligned the actor’s personality. The said article has also been reported to have spawned negative and often below the belt criticisms about the actor.

“I advised Richard to push through with the lawsuit because like me, a lot of my friends believed that this was a sure-win case,” Annabelle added.

From the beginning, she also knew her son could get “big money” from winning the case.

With mock disappointment Annabelle said, “But that’s what I admire about my son. It was never about money but more of his name and persona. He was wronged and he fought for his right and he won!”

Richard’s victory has been deemed by many as a precedent to future false stories about actors or celebrities who are scared of voicing out their grievances if they were maligned in write-ups.

Another that Richard is victorious about is his TV series entitled “Full House” which continuously rates well despite its nearing end on primetime TV. GMA Network insiders revealed that there were even clamors for “Full House” to be extended. Unfortunately, its being the Filipino version of the popular Korean telenovela of the same title constricted them not to do so. What to expect though would be a “wonderful” ending to the relationship of Heart Evangelista as Jessie and Richard Gutierrez’s Justine.

“I’ll be missing the cast of ‘Full House’ especially working with Heart,” quipped Richard. “It has been quite an experience working in ‘Full House.’ I had fun and as always, I learned a lot from my director and co-actors as well. We all gave our best to make the show beautiful since the beginning!”

Mother Lily and Annabelle Rama would be discussing the next Regal Films project for Richard. Their thrust is to create or find a very good project that the actor would star in.

While the movie project is in the process, next in line for Richard is “Captain Barbell,” wherein he would be playing another super-hero. Watch out for it!