June 29 ------ Here's a fervent plea to those who keep shipping GMA Network's goldmine pairing of Barbie Forteza and David Licauco to be more than they are: Please stop forcing them to fall in love in real life! That "BarDa," as fans affectionately call this incredibly successful tandem, remains just great friends, and the compelling actors they are should only bode well for the future of honest-to-goodness quality productions in the local entertainment industry. How so? Their platonic and professional relationship is bound to keep them and the creatives on their toes all the time to deliver their best work with no dish on their personal lives to rely on to deliver a hit. Reel love is all they need, really, though they sincerely care for each other as friends, given all the time Barbie and David spent together and the career highs and challenges only they can share.
That's why audiences couldn't get enough of the brilliantly crafted love story of David and Barbie's Fidel and Clay (a.k.a. "FiLay") in GMA's critically acclaimed adaptation of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangre via 2022's "Maria Clara at Ibarra." That's why BarDa immediately had a series waiting for them as soon as the primetime period piece concluded with the TV adaptation of the Sharon Cuneta-Robin Padilla blockbuster, "Maging Sino Ka Man" in 2023, and why the network still has them together in the historical war drama, "Pulang Araw," that's just premiered on Netflix today and the free TV channel on July 29. Think of Barbie and David as the Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz of this generation, especially since they, too, are about to take their made-in-heaven screen chemistry a notch higher in their first big-screen project, "That Kind of Love," by Pocket Media Productions, which opens on July 10.
Bea and John Lloyd movies were wildly anticipated in the mid-2000's, every one of them a huge box office hit only because the actors were so good in delivering such well-thought-out scripts in artistically executed productions. The two never had a romantic relationship, but it was Bea and John Lloyd who made audiences a winner with films that were genuinely worthwhile to watch, like Barbie and David today.
Source: manilatimes.net