Most guys would love to be compared to this season’s internet boyfriend, Keanu Reeves. But one Filipino musician blew his top when he was compared to the Hollywood hunk.
Rock star Rico Blanco, most known as the former frontman of the band Rivermaya, took to Twitter yesterday and today to voice out his extreme displeasure at the Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP), a site owned by local publisher Summit Media. Blanco fumed at the title of an article written by PEP’s Jojo Gabinete which appeared on Sunday. The title? Rico Blanco does not want to be known as the Keanu Reeves of the Philippines.
According to Blanco, the headline took what he said out of context. He wrote: “[S]tupid headline will get me into trouble guys. My point was let’s stop making Filipinos local versions of global icons.”
Blanco also shared a screenshot of the article. In the quote, he said that he’s flattered to be compared to Reeves but that Filipino celebrities should not be called “Pinoy versions” of Western icons.
Blanco was so annoyed by the article that he has banned PEP from any of his future press conferences.
Tagging PEP’s Twitter account, he said: “By the way @PEPalerts that’s the last time you’ll ever be invited to a presscon of mine. I trusted you but you abused the trust like u always do [with] artists. Next time learn to respect the artists you interview. Understand they work hard and help put food on YOUR table.”
But Blanco’s rant did not end there.
Today, he complained that the article’s title remains unchanged despite calling PEP out yesterday. He called the website “garbage” and “clueless” and asked netizens if they knew who owned the “cancerous site.”
He also doxxed PEP’s Editor-in-Chief Jo-Ann Maglipon, a veteran journalist who started her career writing about the human rights abuses committed during late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law.
“And their editorial team can’t even put their photos up as if they’re trolls,” he fumed while posting a photo of Maglipon.
“But I fixed that. This is Jo-ann Maglipon. Editor in Chief. Wow madame. From fighting the martial law dictatorship to this??? What happened??”
As of writing, PEP’s “Keanu Reeves” title still stands.
A lot of netizens agreed with Blanco.
“Let the Pinoy icons be just Pinoy icons,” wrote @jmmxstrn27. “Don’t entitle them as spin-offs of original foreign icons.”
@KhazGabales said: “As well as labeling places like ‘Maldives of the Philippines etc..'” she wrote.
“It’s so hard for local artists to flourish if they’re always in the shadow of someone else,” wrote @_kahel.
“[T]his clickbait culture needs to stop,” wrote @MsChaCha05 wrote.
However, over on PEP’s Facebook account, Marco Santos said that Blanco overreacted. “That one tweet/reply was enough. Say your piece then walk away. But no. The way he handled the situation was cheap. Dragging the editors and reducing his words to insult was cheap. He acted like a spoiled child. And to what? A simple headline.”
Do you agree with Blanco or do you think he overreacted? Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
Read more articles from Coconuts Manila here.
Reader Interactions