Editor’s Note: The Butcher comes out midweek this time to invite Pikapika subscribers to watch This is Showbiz’ Wilma Doesnt interview, which comes out this weekend. Part 2 of the In Memoriam series will be uploaded in the usual The Butcher Monday schedule.
When I migrated to the US more than two decades ago, my final assignment for ABS-CBN’s Showbiz Lingo was to do the first interview ever of Lucy Torres. That feature was aired to coincide with my farewell episode and it was shown in the afternoon of Feb. 15, 1998.
It turned out to be one of the highest rated episodes of Showbiz Lingo. Looking back, I’m not sure if people watched the show because they were curious to see the future Mrs. Richard Gomez or maybe because they wanted to make sure I was leaving. But what a coincidence it was that Lucy was there for my despedida and when I came back for a visit, she was part of my bienvenida.
I arrived in Manila early Sunday evening and the first face I saw when I turned on the TV set was Lucy Torres, who had already become an actress then. Along with husband Richard, she headlined the sitcom I Love Lucy for ABS-CBN.
Although there was already TFC in those days, it wasn’t available in Boston where I lived that time. But I sure was very happy to find out upon my return that Lucy was no longer the shy provinciana I had interviewed before I left the Philippines.
So how did she fare in I Love Lucy? For a newcomer, she did exceedingly well. She was charming and that matters a lot on television. I just thought then that she could have projected her voice more.
But to compensate for that, I was happy to discover that one of her I Love Lucy co-stars seemed to have swallowed a megaphone prior to signing up for the series. Boy, was she loud! But loud in a happy and funny way.
She was new to me then and she was unmistakably of African-American descent. Her name: Wilma Doesnt.
She was very impressive on-cam, especially in a sitcom like that which needed her brand of loquaciousness. Wilma truly became an asset in I Love Lucy. I watched it every Sunday evening during my entire stay in Manila then.
By the time I returned to the Philippines for good (to do Startalk this time), I Love Lucy had been canceled, but Wilma Doesnt had become a star on her own. I began to follow her career because I thought she was extremely talented as a comedienne. I was amused even with her interviews for print because she had always been very funny.
Recalling the day, she was discovered for modeling while sweeping the yard of their Cavite home, she admitted she couldn’t believe her good fortune “kasi ni hindi nga ako makuhang sagala sa mga Santacruzan dito sa amin.”
PART 2:
In time, we met in person and she proved to be a delight. She was then moonlighting as a public relations person for some product and as the host of Startalk I was invited to cover the launch.
Kris Aquino was at the same event and I thought it would be nice to interview her. Unfortunately, Kris wasn’t very nice then. I had just reviewed in my column a sitcom that featured a story wherein Joey Marquez and Phillip Salvador fight over a “kris” (the local sword). I said in my review that I thought the plot was hilarious. Apparently, Kris wasn’t amused and made sure I knew how disappointed she was with my review – even if I never said anything nasty about her.
Kris then gave me a look that was so sharp, it could have sliced into half the buffet table across from where she was seated. Sensing the tension, Wilma as the PR girl came over to dissipate with her wild humor the awkwardness of that entire scenario.
The next time we met was already under happy circumstances. She and Lucy by then had already been given their show in the news channel of GMA and I was invited one time to be their guest. Lucy was polite as always, but it was Wilma who put me at ease by making me feel that we were friends even if we rarely saw each other.
More than a decade later, the warmth between us is obviously still there. In a zoom interview Anna Pingol and I taped early this week for this site’s This is Showbiz, we yelped with joy upon seeing each other on screen. The fondness for each other clearly stayed on and has transcended even the pandemic.
This was the first time I was actually doing a full-length personality interview on Wilma Doesnt. And I was more than satisfied with the result. Not much had been written about Wilma’s parentage. If ever it was discussed, there was not much elaboration. This was what my co-host Anna Pingol shared with me.
We therefore tiptoed over the issue of her parents. But to our surprise, she willingly shared the story of how she came into this world. For sure, it wasn’t one of those sappy Star Cinema love stories. It was more of a dreary version of Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
The setting of her rather unconventional conception was in the area of Sangley Point – this once American naval station in Cavite. Dad was a merchant marine – a “marino.”
And mom? With no apologies, Wilma said that her mother was a bar girl who plied her tried in the red-light vicinity around the former US naval base.
Since her mom couldn’t care for her, she was given to a kind Cavite couple – actually distant relatives of her mother. Although poor, she was raised in a happy home.
And now that she has her own family, she is trying to raise her kids in the same manner she was brought up by her foster parents who showed her nothing but love and understanding.
We teased Wilma about being the happiest woman on earth these days since she is now engaged to be married to long-time partner Gerick Livelo Parin. He is “bebe love” to Wilma though.
To her two daughters, Gerick is Otits – tito in reverse. The two girls actually have different fathers – men from Wilma’s previous relationships. Gerick is the father of her third one. He also begot a son when he was 15. Although the boy is now with his biological mother in the US, Wilma took care of him like her own while he was growing up.
Wilma and Gerick easily adjusted to the “yours, mine and ours” setup of their children – all four of them. Oh, they love each other genuinely.
In the video interview, Wilma tells us about the arrangement in a most humorous fashion. And she was honest and candid about her thoughts – no holding back about how she felt, discussing even without much prodding her fiance’s previous dalliances.
Talking to Wilma made me realize once more how God truly works in wondrous ways. Wilma may have been conceived in an unorthodox manner, but the Lord lovingly sent her to a most wonderful home with the best adoptive parents one can ever have.
Given the circumstances of her birth, Wilma could have been bitter and resentful. But look at her now – happy, ebullient and with no hangup whatsoever. She is truly blessed.
For one who has never professed to be learned, there is a lot to learn from Wilma Doesnt.
MORE THIS IS SHOWBIZ EPISODES:
This is Showbiz #33: Kim Molina & Jerald Napoles, never inakalang magiging mga bidahin
This is Showbiz Episode No. 31: Rodjun and Rayver Cruz, magkapatid na, mag-best friends pa
This is Showbiz Episode No. 30: Mikee Quintos at Kelvin Miranda, miss na miss na ang isa’t isa
This is Showbiz #28: Getting to know the boy behind the actor Elijah Canlas
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