Kris Aquino Profile

Friday, July 25, 2008 |


Birth Date: February 14, 1971
Birth Place: Quezon City, Philippines, USA
Birth Name: Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino
Height: 5'3"

Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino-Yap, (born February 14, 1971 in Quezon City) is a prominent television and movie personality in the Philippines.

She is the fifth and youngest child of former president Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino, Jr., a popular opposition senator during the Ferdinand Marcos regime. She is the youngest of five siblings: Maria Elena, Aurora Corazon, Benigno the III (who currently represents Tarlac in the Philippine House of Representatives) and Victoria Eliza.

In recent years, Aquino has been labeled "The Philippines' Queen of Talk," due to her success in hosting talk shows. She was also crowned as the 2004 Box Office Queen for her hit movies such as Feng Shui and So... Happy Together.

In the infamous 1978 parliamentary elections where her father was a candidate, the seven-year-old Aquino wooed the crowds as a stand-in for her imprisoned father at campaign rallies. Aquino spent most of her elementary school days in the United States because the Aquino family was in exile. After the assassination of her father in 1983, Aquino returned to the Philippines and was a precocious presence in rallies against the Marcos regime.After the 1986 revolution that removed President Ferdinand Marcos from power, the teenaged Kris stepped into the limelight, starting with guest spots on television dramas and comedies, as well as talk shows. Finally, she made her film debut with actor Rene Requiestas in the comedy Pido Dida.

Aquino afterwards had a commercially steady, though critically panned career and managed to score an acting nomination for The Fatima Buen Story. She also starred in a film based on a true-life murder, The Vizconde Massacre. Its financial success and successive crime films of the same vein in which she starred in gained her the nickname "Massacre Queen" by newspaper critics.

Kris graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.

It was not until 1994, that she did a Nandito Ako with action star Philip Salvador that started one of Kris' very controversial love affairs. Aquino became pregnant and had a child, Joshua.

With her movie career slowing, Aquino shifted her sights on a television career as a talk show host launched through The Kris Aquino Show produced by VIVA on Channel 4. But it was in GMA Network showbiz oriented talk show Startalk where she co-hosted with Boy Abunda and Lolit Solis that her hosting capabilities were noticed.

Media conglomerate and GMA Network's rival ABS-CBN noticed her undeniable hosting wit, offered her a contract and launched Today with Kris Aquino, one of the most successful talk shows of the 1990s. In January 2003 to May 2004, she hosted yet another successful morning talk show that was supposed to last for 2 weeks but lasted for 16 months entitled Morning Girls with Kris and Korina alongside popular media personality Korina Sanchez. Not all of Aquino's television endeavors were hits; notable failures include Balitang Kris, which lasted for one season. As of 2005, she hosts The Buzz, a showbiz gossip/talk show with Boy Abunda and Cristy Fermin for the same network, as well as Pilipinas, Game KNB?, a game show which focuses on trivia. She had been also controversial for wearing plunging dresses which noted her as a fashion-talk show queen.

Aquino is also known for her troublesome relationships. However, she recently admitted that she and James Yap, who plays basketball for the Purefoods Chunkee Giants, had a civil marriage in July 2005. She also revealed in her show, The Buzz that she and husband James Yap are expecting a baby in May 2007. In the mid-1990s, Aquino was also involved with a Purefoods basketball player, Alvin Patrimonio, who was then married. In her relationship before Yap, she was involved with then Paranaque mayor Joey Marquez, who she later split in a tumultuous ending, allegeding that Marquez pointed a gun at her face, and also gave her venereal disease. She made her admission on an interview by former co-host Korina Sanchez on the ABS-CBN newscast TV Patrol. Such admission became the highest-rating news segment in the history of Philippine newscast.

Kris Aquino is the highest paid TV Host in the Philippines, thus, making her the 'Queen of Talk and Game Shows'. She is also one of the Filipino actresses who are sought after by companies for product endorsements. At present, she is an endorser for a popular corned beef brand as well as for San Miguel Corporation and Smart Communications. Incidentally, the same corned beef brand is the name of basketball team that James Yap plays for. Her commercial for San Miguel became the most remembered tv commercial and was said to have a 99 percent audience recall. She was paid a total of P20,000,000.00 for the said endorsement.

Aquino was also bestowed the title of "Commercial Princess of the Philippines". Such title was given to her for having numerous of TV and print apperances in Filipino media. and for being the 2nd-highest paid commercial endorser in the Philippines (next to the Sharon Cuneta).

She also currently hosts the Philippine franchise of Deal or No Deal, which is currently in ABS-CBN's primetime lineup.

Kris Aquino got her start in movies with the help of Regal Films, one of the oldest film outfits in the Philippines. Her first few movies were mostly wholesome stories, the most enduring of which was the Pido Dida series, where she was paired with the late comedian Rene Requiestas and earned her her first box-office queen award. She later on she shifted into more serious roles, notably with massacre films such as The Vizconde Massacre. Despite her being a big draw in the box office, her acting skills were considered stiff and mechanical.

She first drew praise for her acting when she bagged a nomination from the Gawad Urian award-giving body, composed of film critics, for the film The Fatima Buen Story. She eventually won a supporting actress award for the film Mano Po (Regal FIlms), where she portrayed a weak-willed and submissive scion of a wealthy Filipino-Chinese clan.

But Aquino's most commercially-successful movie in her career is Feng Shui, a Star Cinema production that featured Chinese influences and omen. Feng Shui, which was made during the wave of "Asian-style horror" flicks that spread throughout the continent since 2002's The Ring, made P180,218,395. It was the highest grossing Filipino movie of 2004, and the second most successful movie overall next to Spider-Man 2 which made over P225 million.

Like anyone else, Aquino had her share of box-office bombs. Her 2003 movie with actor Robin Padilla, You and Me Against The World, flopped at the box-office right from the start. Made for P25,000,000 and released immediately after Aquino won acting awards (for her performance in 2002's Mano Po), You and Me Against The World made only P4,389,005. The film's producers lost an estimated P23,000,000, even with home videos accounted. Because You and Me Against The World failed to attract an audience, several movie theaters pulled the film out and replaced it with another film. Some theaters were reported to have done this on the movie's 2nd day of play.

She is now married with PBA player James Yap. She is also expected to have her second child after she announced on The Buzz that she is pregnant.

0 comments: