Pushing the envelope

ANNE Curtis, ASAP 18’s executive producers Marvi Gelito and Apple Salas, director Johnny Manahan and ABS-CBN may deny the mischief all they want, but loosing Anne Curtis on a national TV audience wearing nothing under her high-slit gown, and -- in my opinion, dangerously turning her body to the right to make sure the audience gets the message -- is simply pushing the envelope a bit too far.

It’s understandable for the networks to do everything they can to be always one step ahead of the competition. It’s even understandable for a thoroughly intoxicated and lost Filipino TV crowd to turn a blind eye on a healthy dose of greed on the part of the networks, but there’s just no justifying flashing before a nationwide audience of millions. It’s madness that has gone too far.

Anne Curtis was ready with her excuse: a two-part Boom Sason gown with the lower part put on a swimwear-like top guaranteed to preserve the wearer’s modesty. But the question remains: What would keep Anne Curtis from having two gowns made, one the naughty gown worn over nothing else, and a “safe” double in case all hell breaks loose?

In fact, I’d like to challenge her: Why not put on the “safe” gown, and let’s see if the result will be the same?

For, indeed, the ABS-CBN video replay of the whole Rihanna number is really clear enough -- there’s nothing beneath the dress as 3:19 clearly shows.

Then, we also have to ask: Is Anne Curtis capable of flashing herself before an audience of millions across all ages? I say yes, probably, I think she’s capable, judging from previous “wardrobe malfunction” brushes that she has had in the past.

We also have to ask: Will the show benefit from the brouhaha? I say it does, judging from the way the story has been trending since it broke out.

But the culprit here, IMO, is the unbridled competition among the networks. We have it from the horse’s mouth: “When we met about it, of course, we were rattled,” Anne Curtis said when asked to comment about the re-launch of a Willie Revillame show as a noontime show competing against ABS-CBN’s “It’s Showtime,” where Anne Curtis appears. They were rattled, suggesting that the struggle to be always ahead of gimmicks is something that can only escalate and never simmer down.

In the meantime, what happens to the fight against concupiscence, fornication and pornography, which is being fed by anything that titillates the senses, especially given the magnitude of the audience titillating agents have at their disposal.

It’s bad enough that young celebs raise the bar of titillation to ever higher levels; it’s simply tragic that giant networks posing as promoters of wholesome family entertainment allow themselves to be willing partners to this attack on national decency.

Before another show biz celeb abetted by giant networks blinded by greed try to push the envelope yet even further, let all TV viewers who have a shred of decency left ground their TV sets for a month, in a very unequivocal warning to the networks: You’ve gone far enough!