Full disclosure: AO’s Editor in Chief was an insufferable Aldub fan at the height of Eat Bulaga’s Kalyeserye in 2015. He will immediately deny this, reasoning that he was only into it because he is an ardent student of Pinoy pop culture and Aldub was a perfect case study: How a relic of a noontime show hijacked the zeitgeist of social media-fame by developing a Romeo-and-Juliet story in real time, a sort of modern anachronism, if that even makes sense.
It’s all bullshit, of course. Excuse our chief for hiding behind his pseudo-intellectualism. He was into it because he was crazy for Maine Mendoza. That simple. He loved her. He was crazy about the idea of her falling in love with Alden Richards. He fell into the whole narrative of forbidden love. He cannot fire us for disclosing all these because we have evidence of his getting off his rocker for Aldub. Like when he stayed up all night glued on Twitter to get in on the conversation of Maine and Alden’s first meeting the following morning and he…oops, chief says stop it.
So we totally understand when he requested we write something about Maine Mendoza finally admitting that she was dating another actor, Arjo Atayde, effectively ending any perceived romance she may have with Alden Richards. He said fan reaction was a reflection, again, of Pinoy pop culture at work. Sure. (We knew what he really wanted was closure. Maybe his heart was broken, we don’t know…)
So we our doing our chief, and maybe you, as his fellow Aldub fan, a favor. We will put what’s happened to Maine and Alden in context by saying that you can take comfort in knowing that broken love teams are nothing new. You think they’re meant for each other, then end up with another. You die, you live again. It’s what makes show business, well, show business. As evidence, we present a couple of love teams spanning the decades, that fans really invested in, that really never were:
1970s
Nora Aunor-Tirso Cruz III
Okay, so love teams are as old as our movie industry itself, probably finding its first real push in the Gloria Romeo-Luis Gonzales, Nida Blanca-Nestor de Villa tandems of the '50s and who, by the way, did not end up together. But it was the pairing of Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III in the '70s that was really one for the books. The Aldub formula had Guy and Pip written all over it—forbidden love and different backgrounds. And the fans bought into it with their lives. The legend goes that Tirso’s fans bought a doll for Nora, named Maria Leonora Teresa, and when the two did not end up together the fans took it from Nora and gave it to Tirso. Kind of reminds us of the vitriol the fans of both Maine and Alden are spewing on social media now.
1980s
Maricel Soriano-William Martinez/Snooky Serna-Albert Martinez
Regal Films found a goldmine in these love teams because they had chemistry and looked really good together. Maricel and William were Nida and Nestor all over again; Snooky and Albert had the Gloria-Luis formula in them. Again, the fans bought into the love team and really thought they would end up together. They didn’t. One love team, though, did end up together: Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion, whose wedding was our own Princess Diana and Prince Charles nuptial. They broke up. See where this is heading?
1990s
Angelu De Leon-Bobby Andrews
Man, if you were a teenager in the ‘90s and followed TGIS, you know how powerful this love team was. Angelu was the cutest girl to ever happen in show business in a long time, with those dimples propping up a smile; Bobby was pure ‘90s poster boy material with his undercut hair, oversized shirts, and baggy pants. When the pairing was thought up, sparks flew, kilig levels were to the roof. Then some young action star guy named Joko Diaz killed the dream by knocking up Angelu. You bet fans tore themselves up.
2000s
Kim Chiu-Gerald Anderson
Kim and Gerald were products of Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition 1, and definitely its biggest stars. Maybe the pairing was the result of the publicity department (and we can argue that every love team is the product of publicity spin) but they nevertheless caught the imagination of a new generation of fans now more savvy with their “shipping” goals (if you’re too old, we should explain that the term has nothing to do with ships at sea, but with inventing relationships). Back then the rumor mill was rife with stories of Kim getting the band end of the deal. Well, it didn’t work out for them. Will Maine and Arjo end up the same way? Our Editor in Chief says he doesn’t care, because it’s not a Pinoy pop culture case study. Whatever you say, chief.