A Cute Story (and the not so Cute One)

I just read this from PDI today.

"Iconic Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino was the picture of an amused child after an unusual experience Wednesday -- he had to get off a flood-stuck limousine and ride a pedicab to reach Malacañang and get his lifetime achievement award for film.

The pedicab ride drenched Tarantino’s pants and he had to change into black jogging pants with white trimming for the meeting with Ms Arroyo. He also shed off his sandals -- not allowed, under the Malacañang dress code -- for a pair of ill-fitting shoes that apparently gave him discomfort as he walked.

Over the jogging pants, he wore a barong."

Talk about a 360 degrees turn-around, from a shiny limousine to a lowly but reliable pedicab. That is third world country living for you. Good thing Tarantino has a healthy sense of humor. Otherwise, he would go home to Hollywood with one more horror story to share about some backward country in Southeast Asia.

Remember the Claire Danes incident decades ago, clamors were made for her to be branded as "person non grata". I believe the story went like this, she shot a film in some derelict warehouse in Cavite, which unfortunately was roach-infested and happened to see an amputee bystander watching their shooting. So upon going back to her surreal movie-world, she was quoted by a first-class glossy women's magazine saying as, "I had been to this cockroach-swarmed country which has grotesque people with no limbs." Please take note, that is not the exact quote, just a paraphrasing of the story that I more or less remember. You may opt to Google to get the accurate lines but I guess the crux of the matter remains the same. I recall my college friend laughing her head off as she informed me about the incident. She revealed that one kagawad of theirs told her of a hush-hush Hollywood movie shooting in their area involving Ms. Danes and that this same official actually had one arm amputated. She couldn't contain herself from laughing as she figured that perhaps he was the grotesque person that B-list actress was referring to.